NADA vs edmund pricing

October 11, 2007 3:51 PM

NADA vs edmund pricing for used cars

For a 2001 Audi A6 Station wagon with 74k miles, I get widely differing prices:
Edmunds: $10,300
NADA: $12,700

I don't think its just for this car, but tends to be true in general.
What's the deal?
Which price do I target when negotiate with the dealer?

posted by allelopath to Shopping (6 answers total)

the cheaper one.
posted by thilmony at 5:40 PM on October 11, 2007

I had the same question when I recently bought a used car. The Kelly's, NADA, and Edmund figures were always different, basically always with Edmund's being the lowest. I was concerned that the Edmund's figure wouldn't be taken seriously when bargaining because it was so low. (You may have already read about the different ways in which these figures are calculated - a little info.) At any rate, I ended up buying a car for well below the Edmund's valuation without even having to bring it up as a bargaining point. (I had even brought all three prices with me to use as evidence).
posted by imposster at 7:41 PM on October 11, 2007

Actually, this is the article I was looking for that describes the differences in greater detail.
posted by imposster at 7:44 PM on October 11, 2007

Response by poster: imposster: thanks for the link to the article.
posted by allelopath at 5:54 AM on October 12, 2007

NADA typically gives both trade-in value and retail value. The lower number is usually trade-in value. I'm not sure if Edmund breaks the price down by both categories.
posted by JJ86 at 6:50 AM on October 12, 2007

Any news? I'm up against the same thing here. I'm either getting screwed, a fair price, or a great deal, depending on who you believe.
posted by Eideteker at 6:35 PM on November 19, 2007