Are Kelley Blue Book values and prices accurate and reliable?

Kelley Blue Book (KBB) is given much credit for its accuracy. But, it is not as accurate and is thus overrated. KBB relies on seller data to estimate values and pricing. Such seller data often doesn’t reflect current market demands for a truck, car, UTV, ATV, or motorcycle.

Generally, no motorcycle value guide is perfect. Compared to other online marketplaces, KBB offers a relatively accurate information on motorcycle resale values. It remains the most sought after resource for people who want to sell their motorcycle, UTV or ATV online. It is the most popular of its kind, with an average of 20 million visitors per month. 

Selling a motorcycle online requires that the seller lists the price. Estimating the value of your bike is not easy, that is why people rely on Kelly Blue Book and the likes. Yes, KBB is the most popular, but is it accurate and reliable? Read on to know more about KBB.

Also read: Kelley Blue Book Used Cars

How accurate and reliable are Kelley Blue Book Values?

There are a number of factors that KBB uses to determine your motorcycle value. They include:

• Private Party Value: The amount you will be required to pay for a specific used automobile in a private sale.
• Suggested Retail Value: The amount dealers are likely to accept for a specific used motorcycle.
• Trade-in Value: The amount you are likely to get for your used motorcycle if you trade it into a dealer.
• Certified Pre-Owned Value: The amount an automobile is worth under the certified pre-owned program.

These four components should give reasonable expectations. However, each one of them has its own set of flaws. The trade-in value, for example, may vary with every dealer depending on their location, number of customer traffic, popularity of the bike in an area and its ability to sell in a particular area as well as the available stock of the model in the dealer’s inventory. This means that KBB’s estimated value will often fluctuate.

In addition to the fact that the four components can’t be relied on for a spot-on value, there are other downsides to KBB. For instance, KBB gathers its information from the users of its site to craft its own database. This system isn’t entirely sound because of the following reasons:

• Customer bias
• Outdated information
• Dealerships and buyers don’t take  KBB seriously
• Kelley Blue Book does not accurately reflect demand.

1. People can be biased

To be sincere, people tend to overrate the value of their personal belongings. Many sellers over-value the motorcycles they are trying to sell.

However, such subjective information is usually biased and often distorts reality. The way you view you motorcycle can be very different from how the buyer or someone else views it. Most often, you will think highly of it, estimating a higher value in so doing. Those who are not emotionally attached to your bike will, on the other hand, will assess it fairly and objectively. It is therefore likely that a dealer won’t show bias in their assessment since they are able to check the bike physically.

As mentioned above, Kelley Blue Book relies on the price listing of users on their site. Most of the users are the real owners of the listed bikes, making their price listings biased. KBB’s system is thus unsuitable.

2. Outdated information

Although Kelley Blue Book tries to make sure that the information on their site is updated, you might sometimes receive unrealistic value estimate of your motorcycle. Data always moves slowly through KBB’s system, prices may thus fail to reflect the live demands of the marketplace.

3. Dealerships and buyers don’t take KBB seriously

Kelley Blue Book tends to offer a higher price than dealers offer for your motorcycle. This is why dealerships don’t refrain from using Kelley Blue Book; it gives them a chance to make more profit. The dealerships may offer the seller a price that is representative of the live market value and then use KBB, whose prices doesn’t reflect the live market value, to make profit.

Dealerships don’t use data from KBB when it comes to wholesale pricing. They prefer using guides that not accessible to the public, such as the Manheim Market Report and the National Auto Research Black Book. These resources use information on actual, comparable purchases and sales of all motorcycles, including associated details and costs. This is unlike Kelley Blue Book that relies on the users’ information which is potentially bias, enough reason why dealerships and buyers don’t take it seriously.

All this is to say that where and how you get the value estimate is just as important getting the estimate itself.

4. Kelley Blue Book does not accurately reflect demand

Kelley Blue Book doesn’t update its information every second changes occur. The marketplaces experience changes as time passes and KBB fails to effect changes on time. By the time KBB updates their information, the live market has already changed and the motorcycle values are likely to change too. Therefore, the KBB value fail to reflect the live market situation leading to inaccurate and unreliable value estimates.

If Kelley Blue Book’s system allowed real-time dealerships to visually assess your bike, their value estimates would likely be consistent with the live marketplace all the time. Their continued reliance on seller listings to gather information makes their system inevitably subject to error, thus misleading users.

Kelley Blue Book’s inability match the live market is what disappoints the sellers. This makes it hard for someone to sell their motorcycle. But, you don’t have to worry, there are other online marketplaces that are ready to help you sell your bike. Use KBB values as a guide and consult other pricing guides for reliable results.

Also read: Kelley Blue Book Used Cars

Kelley Blue Book can be a good resource for those looking to sell their motorcycle, ATV, UTV and any other automobile. However, it has quite a number of flaws that can really disappoint both sellers and buyers. The above information on how KBB gets its data leads to the conclusion that it is not as accurate and reliable as credited.