BrockPorsche

How close to blue book should 993s tend to sit in the used market? I'm noticing that some in the C2/C4/C4S range sit at/near blue book...and some are VASTLY over it (ie. 50% over).

Maybe it's my misunderstanding of what blue book is. Does it represent market valuation of a car in the real world or is it a purely mechanical calculation based on set depreciation costs?

I know the 993s have kept their value very well (compared to say the 996) for a number of reasons...is this reflected in the blue book?

Bit of a bias in this forum, but figured I'd ask

ceboyd

I don't think blue book applies to the 993 unless you are trading into a dealer IMHO

Howdy993

Brock -

No expert here but from what I can gather blue / black books are used by car dealers and insurance companies for purposes of valueing all types of cars. Generally there are defined depreciation curves and not a whole lot of consideration given to a cars special interest appeal. Call me a cynic but my guess is they are tools for assuring profits for those industries that created / use them.

As much as I'd like it to be true, cars unfortunately don't really qualify as investments unless you take into account the fun you have owning and driving them.

Best wishes

InTheAir

That about sums it up.

I'll add that not only do 993s not track blue book/NADA/etc., you should also be sure that when you insure it your insurance company will pay out based on the market value/replacement value rather than the blue book valve.

ceboyd

blue book is what buyers have tried to use when lowballing me offers on my car (notice I haven't sold my car yet because of those lowballs)

InTheAir

I got that too. I also got the "Excellence" pricing offers, which weren't enough either.

Pete

I've always understood that book values, be they Kelly Blue Book or NADA or something else, are based on sales results including mainly wholesale auction results. Thus they are pretty darn accurate when applied to "mass produced" vehicles that sell at auction in the tens of thousands every day, but not so accurate when the numbers are much less as they are for any Porsche. The problem is, the book values are what the insurance companies generally use unless you pay extra for something special, what banks use ("loan value"), and what dealers use to determine trade-in value.

There was a major thread here a month or so ago about Excellence's market reports and I was one of the few who defended Excellence, nearly everyone else thinking they were way low and they may be for special models like 2S and 4S but I'm not completely convinced. I have followed their reader sales reports pretty closely and have found them to be pretty close to their market surveys.

Bottom line is on Porsches and similar vehicles there isn't a big enough data base to give any accurate market values and their are too many variables, like location, model, condition, etc. Keep in mind too that many of us have an emotional attachment to our cars unlike a typical Taurus owner so that tends to give us an inflated notion of their worth. Sort of like selling your kid...no wait a minute, I didn't mean that...

Pete

S4-on-your-back-door

so what is the blue book value for a 95 with 100,000 miles?

Bull

Most specialty car dealers, particularly in my Region, have moved to using the Galves book for cars like ours, finding it much more timely and accurate: http://www.galves.com/gal_dealerinfo.asp. Interesting comments by Don Galves about East Coast/West Coast differences.

The Kelly, NADA, etc. are used mostly by domestic dealers and insurance companies.

Bull

Kelly and NADA have online sites where you can look yourself.

ceboyd

www.kbb.com

Slow Guy

Some good answers here but one thing I would like to add, the Kelly Blue Book was created for dealers, it was only available to dealers and they used those figures to justify their prices. It is heavily biased towrds the dealer. All you have to do is pick a common car and look at the trade-in vs. retail for the same car. It is not uncommon to see a $5,000 - 7,000+ diff. on this vehicle. There is no way a dealer provides a value add service in that kind of $$ range.

KBB has evolved over the years to being available to the general public but the values are still skewed towards the dealer. I suggest when you look at KBB (and you should) that you pull BOTH the trade-in AND the retail figures no matter which side of the transaction you're going to be on. It will be an eye opener.

As for NADA, that is used primarily by lenders, and unless you're a very good customer a lender is not going to take the chance of loaning you more than the car is worth.

I would suggest you take inputs from Edmunds, KBB, NADA and current listings, evaluate the bias of those sources and make your best guess. There is no 100% accurate answer.

Svaha

When I was looking at "S" model 993's late in 2005, the only cars I saw remotely approaching Edmunds or KBB values would have required thousands of dollars in repairs to bring them into shape. These were only the immediately visible repairs that were necessary, and cars in this shape would have been sure to have more hidden costs associated with them.

BrockPorsche

I'm seeing a fair number of 993 C2/C4s on various public places (autotrader/cars.com/etc) that fairly closely match blue book for dealer sales. It's the C2S/C4S that seem to be the most out of wack.

DC from Cape Cod

Everyone loves a widebody and a 1998 version in mint condition/low mileage will still go for over $60K and that value has held solid for many years now.