Is Kelly Blue Book (KBB) realistic?

[F30ed]

Hi all,
from your personal recent experience, how realistic are prices from KBB compared to the actual price you were able to buy a car for? I understand that there are tons of factors, both objective and subjective, but overall, what is you impression about accuracy of KBB as price information source?

note: since I am asking this on BMW forum in 2016, it would be more helpful if recent and BMW specific experience is reflected.

Thank you

[mbanks21]

Most dealers use NADA. In my 15+ years of buying cars I feel NADA or even Edmunds is more realistic than KBB. When I sold cars and people would say "Oh well KBB says it's worth $X,xxx" we'd say "Ok then go sell it to KBB"

[Buddy628]

Bought and sold three cars within the last 6 months and KBB has been spot on for tradein estimates as well as price to pay estimates.

[1and1]

I've always found KBB to be on the high side. It's great if you're selling to a person, way off if trading in to a dealer. Buying from a dealer will have many variables to consider so may be good, bad or ugly depending.

Mine was $15,400, the number you'd see listed in the advertisements
Original advertised price was $16,750
2009 135i, 57,800 miles
Final out the door price was $17,250 from BMW dealer, tax, tags, dealer fee crap, everything
Their are a bunch of supporting details, but short version is that I was very happy with the price. I looked at several in the 13-14.5 range and ran scared from all of them.

Using my car as an example in KBB, correct options selected, mileage same as when I bought from the dealer.
Note- use my $15,400 price as the comparison since KBB isn't including all the other stuff- tax, tags etc.

KBB Values:
Private Sale / excellent condition: $16,278
Trade In value: $14,784 (range 13,5 - 16,2)

[Red Bread]

KBB is great for 3ers and Accords, but falls apart with semi rare cars like 1M's and my old Z3 M Coupe. KBB was clearly based on a regular Z3 convertible plus a small premium for the M.

I think KBB was $6,500 for my 12 year old, 145k mile car. I posted it for $15k and sold it within hours.

[Ric in RVA]

My experience from the insurance end is that KBB is dealer tool to make you feel good about your trade and your "Deal" you just got.

That NADAguides.com is more inline with reality on daily drivers.

Nothing is accurate with weird little collector cars or niche markets except a real appraisal.