82Targa

When I went to buy my car, I researched it to death. 6+ months. When I started out, I would look at cars, check the NADA website and get excited thinking "wow! what a great deal!". Well after around the 5th 'great deal' you start to realized that the NADA values are a joke.

Its a scam. Its a scam because it ignores person to person sales.

Don't believe me? Go to their site and run the value for your car.

Link to the NADA classic car section

I hate to say it, but I think a nasty trend will develop. Those that bought their cars from dealers will find that it comes back accurate. Those that bought their cars in person to person sales will have paid MUCH less. Their site say my 82 Targa has an 'average' retail of $14,800....LOL. I paid $11350 and its in very good shape. My sister said it best when she got in the car, "Wow, you told me on the phone it was an old car. This thing is like new."

I am more than willing to be set straight on this, so if you disagree, I would love to hear it. But after months of research, it just seems like the values that they are putting on the NADA site are there strictly to inflate prices that dealers can charge the unsuspecting customers. The NADA guides and website give off a false air of independance that really stinks like greed.

hacker-pschorr

Dealer retail and private party sales have always been that extream. I've been watching car values since the mid 80's, nothing new there. There is no way to track private party sales, most wholesale values are gathered by dealer auctions.

If your only using NADA for a price guide, that is your first mistake. You should also be checking out Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds. There is no "scam" going on, there have always been 3 values to keep track of with vehicles. Dealer - Private Party - and Wholesale. Private party is just an estimate on kbb.com based on the wholesale & dealer number's.

You should also be checking the local paper, hemmings, auto trader, ebay etc.... to get a feel for what certain models are selling for.

Dealers prices have always and will always be higher than your "average" private party value. Collector cars such as your 911 are not the norm for car value's, and very hard to pin an "average" value on. I have a friend with an original Weissach 911 with 14,000 miles on it, you won't buy that car for a penny under $30k.

seb928s

Well atleast yours are over priced then under priced like the 944 types. KBB makes the 944 type cars so cheap I would be picking one up each month if I could find them at those prices. The best way to see how much they are selling for is to look around. In Cali you can find a super good deal every day and in other parts that price is paid once in a blue moon with good luck.

fixnprsh

all these guides are meant as a rough guide line. You add and subtract money accordingly for, mods, actual condition, mileage discrepancy, recent repairs, area, and the way the market is at the time.

Example:
By the time you have taken a 100K mile $12000 carrera, cleaned it up substaintialy, performance rebuild, rebuilt suspension and gear box, do some nice distinct mods, the "Books" say its worth the same $12000, maybe a little more, in reality you can find a buyer for $22-$25K for a Carrera that is a super nice car with many desireable parts/pieces

7sport

I use KBB, NADA, Edmunds, and Manheim when I can get the #'s. Looking at asking prices on autotrader.com and cars.com can be useful as well. For the best bargains, the message boards (like this one for porsches) are ideal if you can find the car you're looking for - unfortunately the volume isn't that great.

If you want some advice, read all three of the guides mentioned and then hit the marketplace and talk to a number of sellers to get a good feeling of where the real (rather than asking price) market is. I've found that depending on the car in question, one or another of the price guides is a better indicator. Also consider that you're looking for a porsche (a relatively rare car) so the market can vary widely.

jcnesq

Excellence magazine is a good source of data

Blue S2

Yeah ive found Excellence to be much more representative of whats going on in the market for our cars. NADA and such put cars like mine in the $7000 category. You wont find a perfect low-mileage S2 for $7,000, thats for sure! The cabs go for at least double.

SGOGT4

The values can also go the other way as often times the 'dirty cheap' 944 turbos listed for $9k in the NADA books can't be had for less than $16k or more through private party. In other words, it doesn't apply, what I like to call, an 'enthusiast factor' (I want credit for coining that term ). I ran into the same thing when I was buying and selling my NSX.

Flachbau

The market for all used Porsche's is getting very soft. These guides cannot keep up with actual real-time market trends. Even real world private party asking prices of a month ago are unrealistically high and cars are not selling.

Go to Pelican Parts calassified and see how many 911's aren't selling because the owners are not realistic about what their cars are really worth. It's 110% a buyers market!