A price guide gives one number for a 2019 model. The market gives a spread, and the spread is not noise. It comes from a short list of facts about the individual car. Know them and you know where in the spread a car belongs.
The identity of the car
Start with what it is, exactly. Year, make, model and trim set the centre of the range, and trim does more work than most buyers expect. The same body can carry a base engine or the top one, two-wheel or four-wheel drive, cloth or leather, and the market treats those as different cars.
On a pickup the drivetrain alone moves the number. When Worth priced a 2009 Toyota Tacoma from one photo, it read the trim from the hood scoop and the wheels, and then named drivetrain as the open question: two-wheel against four-wheel drive shifts the price.
On an electric car the battery plays the part that engine and gearbox play elsewhere. Worth’s estimate for a Tesla Model 3 said as much: the price depends on battery trim, mileage and Autopilot.
Mileage
After identity, mileage is the largest single factor, because it stands in for wear on everything you cannot see. What matters is mileage against age. A ten-year-old car with very low miles is unusual and priced up; the same car with double the typical figure is priced down, and no amount of polish changes that.
Condition
Condition splits in two.
- Cosmetic: paint, dents, wheels, glass, seats, smells. A buyer sees these in the first minute and prices them in the second.
- Mechanical: engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, tyres, and on an electric car the health of the battery. These need a test drive and, ideally, an inspection by a mechanic who does not work for the seller.
History
A car’s paper trail can outweigh its shine.
- Title. A clean title is the baseline. A salvage, rebuilt or otherwise branded title means an insurer once wrote the car off, and it narrows the pool of buyers and lenders sharply.
- Accidents. Repaired damage is not disqualifying, but undisclosed damage is. Look for paint that does not quite match and panel gaps that are not even.
- Service records. A folder of receipts is evidence that the expensive maintenance was done on time.
- Owners. Fewer is better, all else equal.
The VIN is the key to most of this. It is a seventeen-character number, standard on cars built since the 1981 model year, found on a plate at the base of the windshield on the driver’s side and on a sticker in the driver’s door jamb. It encodes the maker, the model year and the plant, and it is what history reports and recall checks are run against. Make sure the VIN on the car matches the one on the title.
Where and when
The same car is worth more where it is wanted. Four-wheel drive commands more in snow country, convertibles sell better in spring, and a truck is priced differently in a city than in farm country. Colour matters at the margin, and heavy modification usually subtracts, however much it cost.
Three prices, not one
Every used car has three prices at once: what a dealer will pay you for it, what a private buyer will pay, and what a dealer will ask once it is on the lot. They sit in that order from low to high. When someone quotes “the value”, ask which of the three they mean.
What a photo can tell you
From the outside, a photo shows the make, the model, the generation, a good guess at trim and whatever damage is in view. It cannot show mileage, mechanical condition or history, which is most of the list above.
So use a photo for what it is good at. Point the Worth app at a car on a lot or in a listing and you get a used-market range and the assumptions behind it, typically average mileage for the age. Then type the real mileage and the trim, and the range moves to where that particular car belongs.