The Automobile Blue Book

After hours of test drives and discussions with sales people you have finally found the used car you want. Now the negotiation process begins and you want the results in your favor, meaning you want the car for a fair price.

This is where the dealer will direct your attention to a printed price guide, usually the Kelley Blue Book, the version of the book that Kelley sells to dealers. The salesperson will look up the car you are shopping for in this book and will give you the, "retail" price for that car. Be prepared that it will be quite a bit less than what the dealer is asking. At this point you are supposed to rest assured that you're getting a fair price and a great deal. So, why negotiate any further?

But what is the "Kelley Blue Book" value he showed you? It is only an estimate by Kelley of the "listing" prices dealers are asking - not what they are really getting for the car. In other words, they are "suggested retail values." The actual selling price generally varies substantially. And in most cases, they are "substantially" lower than the listed price in the blue book. You can expect to pay a lot less for the car.

So how do you figure what the car is really worth? You can research it yourself on Edmunds.com which will give you the true market value of a car. This price is the estimated average selling price for your car, meaning it's what the dealer is actually getting for the car. And it's what you need to know to negotiate a fair price.

Dealers may also use the NADA Guides and Edmund's Automobile Buyer's Guides to quote car prices however, these are not near as popular.

The swan: growing up in Ethiopia, she was considered a bit of an ugly duckling. So how did Liya Kebede become a runway sensation and the new face of Estee

WHEN IMAN--THE MODEL WHO SMASHED TRADITIONAL NOTIONS of beauty--started out, all sloe eyes and elongated neck, the notion of an African model was so ...(Continue Article)

What it feels like to … Get smashed in the chest with 479 pounds

Talk about a dead lift. Competing in a Rapid City, S.D., bench-press event, Tom Hines lost his grip while lifting nearly a quarter of a ton. How''d ...(Continue Article)

The varieties of Tyrannosaurs: knowledge about the most fearsome dinosaurs and their relatives is finally measuring up to the animals'' fame

A hundred years ago, Henry Fairfield Osborn, a vertebrate paleontologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History, reintroduced the world ...(Continue Article)

Smashed potatoes ole

SMASHED POTATOES OLE SHER BIRD GARFIELD, BELLEVUE, WASH IN THE GREAT POTATOES CATEGORY, OCTOBER 2004 2 to 3 fresh ears of corn or 1 cup frozen whole kernel corn 3 medium yellow potatoes (ab(Continue Article)

The crush of civilizations: the Afghan peasant has a faith that has tunnelled mountains and smashed cities. Can anyone really hope to convert him to western

You can sit in Kabul next to an Afghan woman in the lone, sporadically working, internet cafe. Her face, but not her head, is uncovered, and she bats ...(Continue Article)