Kelley Blue Book Reviews 

Don't bother with the "instant cash value" it is worthless when trying to get a fair offer from a dealership. Surprisingly, my KBB "trade in value" was 20% higher ( in my case $4k) than the instant cash offer. Why would that be if the dealer is simply going to mark it up to resell in both cases? When I asked this of one dealership responding to my KBB cash value, he replied "we don't use KBB to value cars". Yet they responded to my instant cash offer from KBB? and on that dealers website they proudly show how much their used car prices are below KBB values? I guess they only use KBB to low ball paying sellers for cars. I called KBB with the same question, and they couldn't answer the question.
It seems that KBB conspires with dealerships with this "instant cash value" tool, so don't think KBB is a worthwhile resource to sell a car, they put dealerships first.
Don't use the ICV, it's not a fair representation of your cars value.
I guess the old "used car salesman" bs reputation has gone corporate.

The original offer was 14.9. They game me 9.5 because of scratches and dents that you couldn't see inless you was right up on it. They also took money off for a step up that was a add on i had installed. One had fallen off and was in the truck bed. It just needed a few nuts to put back on. It wasn't factory. They didn't know that or even that it was in the truck bed, that's how good they look at it. The boss took it for a ride. He wouldn't look at me or Acknowledge I was even there. Very rude. I had a car starter that worked with the Chevy app installed. The app shows diagnostics. They weren't interested in looking at the information on the app or the fact it cost 800 to put in. There going to charge extra for the step ups and car starter that wasn't factory but didn't want to give me anything for it. They did happily knock off over 5k for Scratches and small dents on a 2018 4 wheel drive truck that has no other problems. I was in situation that I had to sell and the took full advantage. DONT BELIEVE THE OFFER YOU GET. go somewhere that's honest. Worst experience at a dealership I have experienced. Nothing else comes close

Their fine print says: "the Offer amount may be decreased. Kelley Blue Book and its affiliates are not responsible for Offer adjustments or if a Participating Dealer won't accept your vehicle. Dealers pay a fee to participate in the Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer program." Fact: when I arrived at the dealer, without even seeing the car, the first thing he said was that his actual price would be substantially lower! And he was right! It was about 25% lower than the KBB promise!

All KBB does for a Insta Cash Offer is lower the value of the car to a price that is extremely attractive to dealers. It’s the “I am desperate” price. Adding insult to this, you have to go to the dealer where they find every reason to lower the price further. Stay far away from this scam. If you can find a family member, friend or just anyone you remotely know sell the vehicle to them at a great price (but higher than KBB Insta Cash Offer) you will feel good about it.

Service is reducing trade-in prices. It used to be that consumers trusted KBB to help them determine the fair trade or resale value of a car. Now, what KBB does is provide obscenely low cash offers AND broadcast those obscenely low offers to every dealership in your local area. As a result, you not only get spammed by every dealership, you also lose out on fair offers for your car because ALL of these dealers know that KBB sent you with an obscenely undervalued offer, so they can offer you one or two thousand above that - or even less than the KBB offer - and appear "generous" when, in fact the trade-in value of your car was much higher. Reported this to the FTC.

In my case, every other "Book Value" service valued my car at several thousand dollars more than KBB. I also checked around on the used car prices and private seller sales prices of the same model car - again several thousand higher than KBB.

KBB customers are the most uneducated people ever. Stop complaining about the calls that you are getting from dealers when YOU provided the phone number. Excuses like "I did not know that they will send my information to multiple dealers" are plain stupid especially when there are multiple places on the KBB offer that states that you WILL be contacted by dealers, including in the Terms and conditions at the end that KBB REQUIRES to click on to make sure that you read them! Also DO NOT mark your car as perfect when it is not! 99% of the complaining customers here misrepresented their cars drastically and love to complain when the dealers find out their lies and shenanigans. Play stupid games win stupid prices....

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.

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.

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

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.

I received an instant cash offer from kbb. Three days later the dealer wouldn't honor it. Kbb sent me a new email saying my vehicle wasn't eligible for an instant cash offer. What the hell happened to the offer I received. Now I don't have bargaining power. Thanks for nothing kbb. Not an honorable company

I just bought a car from a dealership yes car was used when I purchased it. That being said I paid 3k for this car kbb insists this car is only worth 260.00 wth I don't think so if I paid 3k 2 months ago for this car it did not decrease the value of the car in 2 months. Yall need to stop low balling people on the value of a car.

What a waste of time. I took the offer to one of the listed dealers and after waiting for 45 minutes while they inspected it, they came back and told me that they wouldn't honor the KBB offer because they didn't agree with it. They thought it was too high and offered me $5K less. The KBB instant cash offer is meaningless.

I wanted to sell my truck so I used KBB to get a cash value. I used a rating lower than I estimated and KBB said it was worth about $24,000 and that they had dealers willing to buy my truck. Most responses were only willing to trade, however a Ram dealer in Sanford, FL, about an hour away assured me they could give me the KBB value. I drove the hour, the dealership pulled the bait-and-switch by passing me off to one of the rudest people I have ever met and one of his cohorts. Even though the only thing they seemed to come up with was a couple rust spots on my running board (none anywhere else), which prompted them to say it was in "rough" condition. I have posted pictures online to show that is not the case. They offered almost $8,000 below KBB.
I had hoped this service would be legitimate but it's obviously a scam and merely an effort to bring in a customer. Beware!

Total scam. KBB gave me an "Instant Cash Offer" to be redeemed at a list of car dealerships. I made an appointment for the next morning. Without even seeing the car, within the first 30 seconds of arrival, the woman told me her manager said the offer is to high.

Instant cash value is a scam. Quoted my 17 Kia forte at $11,500, drove 3.5 hrs round trip to actually be offered less than half that from 2 dealerships they said I could go redeem this offer at.

They gave me an instant price quote online, and when I visited 2 local dealers both of them reduced the price by about 10% even though they both agreed with the condition and all criteria I entered online. The first one added a $1000 "certification fee" and the second one just said they adjusted it because of "the economy". I had gotten the price quote 3 hours earlier. This is a complete BAIT-AND-SWITCH - save your time and don't use it.

This was a bait and switch. KBB gave me a higher offer than CarMax and Carvana. But I went to the dealer, he decreased the offer below the other two unless I purchased a car from them.