Edmunds or Kelley Blue Book Value better indicator of car value?

I am frustrated in that I just went through the rigor of purchasing a used car. Edmunds and Kelley Blue Book values were far away from each other. I paid slightly above the Edmunds value but far below the Kelley Blue Book value. This was for a 2007 Honda Civic. Would you think that was reasonable?Edmunds or Kelley Blue Book Value better indicator of car value?
Edmunds is more reflective of the real world, KBB is what you want the insurance company to pay if the car gets wrecked.



You probably did OK there - but it's too late now to worry about it!Edmunds or Kelley Blue Book Value better indicator of car value?
Kelly blue book (kbb) "private party" value is usually pretty close to what you should pay for a used car even when purchasing from a dealer. Remember all the bogus fees, like doc fee, dealer prep fee etc are part of the price of the car. KBB's retail value is ridiculously high. If you read the fine print on KBB's site you'll see that it says something to this effect "retail value is representative of the average dealers asking price including fees, actual selling price will be lower."



The only people that use edmunds is dealers to tell you how much your trade in value is. It's always low.



I know you didn't ask but just to round it out. NADA "retail" is usually a little over what a savvy buyer will actually pay too.Edmunds or Kelley Blue Book Value better indicator of car value?
The only reasonable way to determine price is to look at every price guide you can find and calculate an average.



Here are a few of the best.

Edmund's

KBB

NADA

ConsumerGuideAuto

Autos.MSN



Then go to your local newspaper, Autotrader, Vehix, Cars.com and eBay and look to see what the cars are selling for in your area.



By the time you do all this research you should be able to determine a fair market price for any used vehicle. The problem so many people have is they rely on a single source for their information and that is just not an accurate picture of reality. There is no single authoritative source for used car pricing.
Often times I take the values from KBB, Edmunds and NADA and average them out to get more of a 'real' price.



These are just guidelines and are not hard and fast values for cars. It still depends on the overall condition of the car.