How to Determine the Fair Market Value of a Vehicle

Before you donate or sell your car, it’s important to calculate its fair market value (FMV). The FMV will tell you how much your car is worth on the private market or for tax purposes. While it’s not an exact science, entering your car’s details in an automobile industry website, such as Edmunds, will give you the most accurate valuation.

You can also browse the local car ads to see what similar cars are selling for in your area.

1 Go to Edmunds (www.edmunds.com) or Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com). On the main page of each site, look for a tab or icon that states “Price My Car” or something similar. After you click on this tab it will take you to a brief form to fill out. The website will then use the information that you supply to come up with a market value estimate for your car.^[1]
- These sites will give you an estimate free of charge in most cases. If you choose to list your vehicle for sale on their site, there may be additional fees.
2 Enter in the exact year and model for your vehicle. After you leave the main website and head into the used car category, one of the first pieces of information that you’ll need to supply will be the date of creation for the vehicle and the model (or type of body) for the vehicle. This information should be listed on your owner’s manual or may even appear on the inside of your driver’s door.^[2]
- If you are uncertain of the year, enter in a date range. If you are uncertain about the model, look up similar vehicles online until you find one that looks that same as yours.
3 Provide your car’s mileage.
Look at the odometer on your car and you’ll see a series of numbers that shows the car’s mileage. You may need to turn on your car to see this display on newer vehicles. Then, enter in this number where prompted on the FMV website. Put simply, cars with fewer miles are almost always worth more than those with many miles.^[3]
4 Plug in your zipcode or city name. This information allows the website to tailor your…