Kelley Blue Book Reviews 253

On August 8th, I began helping a friend who needed to buy a new car and sell her old one (mechanic said he wouldn't advise fixing it anymore). We completed a request for Kelly Blue Book to value the current car so she could get an idea, for budgeting purposes, of what to expect in terms of sale price/trade in value. Just received the KBB response today -- September 10th -- after my friend's been driving her new car for over a week! If it takes 32 days for KBB to provide a valuation, why bother? In today's car market, you have to move quickly or new car options are snapped up and you must then wait weeks for another shipment to arrive, often from overseas. KBB was a major disappointment.

No good service

The book values are completely out of sync. Seems like it’s being manipulated to help banks and insurance companies from having to pay for actual daily market values. I’d like to go to this magical KBB car lot and buy cars at the prices they value them at.

Went to get an Offer for my Truck 2021 with less than 5K miles. Got an offer over 1500 less than what carmax offered and had multiple dealers trying to get it at that price. KBB is out to assist the dealers make the most profit, and the consumers get screwed. Never using KBB again.

Completely unusable to check the value of your car. So disappointed.

KBB is the ultimate "bate and switch". They give you your car value and lead you to believe you'll get that at participating dealers. You'll be lucky if you actually come within 80% of their value. Beware!

The "Cash Offer" is never what you end up with. A hook to get you into the dealership. Our car was all that we indicated and pristine as the evaluator told us many times but the final offer we received was $1000 less.

This site is a SCAM. They always undervalue my car by thousands of dollars. I was curious about the "instant cash value," so I clicked on it. That offer was even less than the trade-in value, and they immediately sent my information out to dealerships who blew up my phone with calls, texts, and emails, expecting me to jump at their low-ball offers and waste my time with appointments.

The dealerships actually have a KBB LIAISON on staff. The whole thing is a scam. Now that it's been about a week since I looked at the instant cash offer, and I haven't considered any of KBB's associated dealership offers, they have lowered the already LOW trade-in value of my car by $2,000 and won't even show me the private party amount. It says that the information isn't available at this time. I put another car in, and it shows the private party value.

The date of this review is July 18th, 2023, but I've been using this site on and off for about two years now. This is the worst it's ever been. It is not a friend to the consumer. This site is geared towards helping the car dealerships (Kelley Blue Book's business partners) cheat regular people out of their vehicles by under-valuating them.

This site is a SCAM, and I do not recommend it.

So when you look up a "fair" price from the dealer, they show you $63,000+, but when you put the same exact car details as "my car value," they show you $45,000... that's almost $20,000 less than the, supposed, fair price. How is that a fair price then? Seems like KBB is a scam, made for dealers to profit of the unsuspected public. I would not recommend using KBB to anyone trying to get the real market value, and I would not recommend working with a dealer that is trying to take your trade at or around KBB pricing.

Zip code not accepted page not found spent over an hour on this site and got nowhere

Absolutely underwhelmed by my KBB "guaranteed" cash offer experience. No dealer would come within $1,000 of what KBB claimed I would get.

Useless to consumers. Extremely valuable tool for banks and insurance agencies who exist only to make money!

The process and choice to use KBB came with expectations. Top of list -Professional Accurate Valuation of my vehicle. The calls came in 2x-3x daily, finally answered and went to dealership. Unprofessional people that want to steal your car. 100% abuse of a system. I tried to educate the people in that fact that I WAS NOT born yesterday. I would say it is as aggravating as placing your car for sale in marketplace.

I was fortunate enough to get a new 2023 car in January. My husband drove our old car a (Ford Focus-2011). When it needed repairs, I asked my husband if it was worth spending more money (approximately 4,500) on a 12 year old car. I went online to KBB to get the value for the Focus. In truth, I did not know that the KBB website connected you to dealers who are interested in purchasing vehicles. I thought it just gave quotes on car values. During the process of evaluation they asked me specific details about the car’s condition. I was as factual as I could be, and I was given a quote. We knew the quote was low, but when we factored in the point that who every purchased the Ford Focus, would have to spend approximately $4,500 to get it running properly… the amount they quoted seemed fair. Within minutes we received an offer for the vehicle from two dealerships. We chose the one closes to our home. My husband and I took the car to the dealership. They looked over the vehicle, checking the accuracy of the defects I gave or missed. As it turned out, I forgot to list a tear on the driver’s seat, so $100 was deducted from the original quote. The whole process of the paperwork and inspection of the car took about 20 minutes. The only issue we had with the dealership was that the person who signs the checks was at one of their other facilities and we had to wait on her. But the check was signed and we finished the deal. To anyone considering KBB to sell their car, remember you are not obligated to do so. Our offer was low, but the dealership had to repair your vehicle before they could sell it to the next driver. And last, remember it is a business that wants to make a profit. For my household we didn’t want to keep spending money repairing a 12 year old car or to keep paying the extra car insurance on a parked car. We are thankful to KBB for the service they provided, if done correctly… it works!

Crooks, they beat down your car and raise their vehicles value.
They said my car was worth $250.
While they list same cars with less options for 1000s.
1 of my wheels cost 500
Stay away from this so called fair offer site.
Oh and then they sell your contact ot give to the dealers who hive them a kick back to hound you to buy from them.

They are not honest like the cars salesman!! In fact they work hand-in-hand with them to benefit themselves. they always tell you less than what it’s worth actually like I said they’re involved with the car dealers so take it from there….

I wanted to get a quote for my totaled car and now I've received 1 phone call, 2 emails and 2 text messages (in 30 minutes) regarding dealerships that want to buy my car. This is the last time I use Kelly Blue Book. I fully regret giving you a valid email and phone number. I doubt this will ever end.

Go to get a value on a car and immediately start receiving emails and ridiculous spam trying to purchase the car from multiple sites

Horrible would never do business with them again