Where do the CarGurus values come from?
Asked by Mike L Oct 10, 2018 at 10:50 PM about the 2000 Ford F-150 SVT Lightning 2 Dr Supercharged Standard Cab Stepside SB
Question type: Car Selling & Trading In
I noticed they always value privately owned cars lower, and don't seem to know what a collectible is. Really screws up sales when they value the truck $5k lower than actual market value and call it Overpriced.
4 Answers
Dealer prices are always higher than private sales because they are businesses. Modified cars and trucks do not fetch higher prices.
I saw that they say that, and it's a poor excuse. Acting like only dealers have overhead. What about the registration and insurance that the private owners need to pay? What about the $9k I put into it to make it right? It's not just dealers who recondition cars. Service needs to be taken into account, like CarFax does (who BTW have a $3500 higher value). Plus, a numbered Certificate of Authenticity from the manufacturer on a limited edition car adds hundreds of, if not a thousand, dollars to collectors. CarGurus doesn't care. Modifications happen to all of them. Ford stopped making parts. You either modify it, you put junk yard parts on, or you leave it broken. Thats what the previous owner told me, and thats exactly what I've experienced.
Go ahead and price it at dealer prices and see if it sells, maybe someone will buy it. You cannot recover insurance and registrations costs, no one does. If you could prices for used cars would be higher than new cars. People think that putting 10 grand in mods adds 10 grand in value when most of the time it reduces the value. Perhaps you should put your truck on Hemming's?
Actual market value is what it sells for. Not what you or I think it is worth. Good luck!