Kelley Blue Book Reviews 

Don't waste your time. I had a very clean car in very good condition using KBB's definition. I did get offers, but they were far below what I could ultimately get as a trade-in. KBB's cash offer service is free, thus the old adage "you get what you pay for" is proven true once again. I realize that KBB works on behalf of the auto industry, with the retail buyer being the afterthought, at least that was how it felt. Anyway, I won't be using KBB cash offer service again.

KBB gave me an instant cash off (obviously contingent upon inspection). I notated EVERY DETAIL down. Drove a 4 hour round trip to be told $1000 less than kelley blue book value because of lies. When I went to my email Once I got home, the inspector BOLD face lied about what he saw, and I guess hoped I wouldn’t see his lies? Lied about stains and scratches and VASTLY over rated the ONE scratch that is actually there. Not even a scratch, it Two places smaller than peas right next to each other from another car backing into me. That is a SCUFF in all honesty. No metal is shown. He put major damage to that area. The other parts of the review were completely made up. There’s a big difference in needs a shampoo and stains. There was ONE spot on my seat that was also smaller than a pea. Not a stain. It came out. And the fabric on the handle was slightly dingy from hands touching it. Not stained. I asked before I came if these ppl were intelligent enough to know the difference or if I needed to wash and shampoo the car. Clearly when I was told they were, they lied. Again. I called before I came and they told me (Jonathan at ford of dalton in Georgia) that they give OVER kelley blue book Offers. Anyways, the reason for the review is the fact that when using this system there is nothing holding anyone accountable for the deal that had been made or lies that had been told. For wasting my time. My husbands ONE off day. $30 in gas. Nothing. This site can say whatever to get you in a dealership because the dealers pay kelley blue book a fee. The dealership told me this. The goal is to get you in there and hopefully you trade and they win or they lie to you and you’re stupid and they win. This site offers zero protection and is NOT in our best interest. This is solely for KBB to make money off the fee, not be held liable, knowing the car places will stick it to you. And solely for the dealerships because they get the traffic from the unenforceable offers from KBB sends them. I won’t use this site EVER again and I encourage you all to assume and plan for shady lying thriving car salesmen. I’ll use NADA or black book from now on.

They told me what my truck was worth but when I contacted them they wouldn't give me a real offer for it?? How do you put prices on something and not be a check-writer for it?? All talk no action

Kelley Blue Book is perfect way to sell your car if you don`t want to deal with tire kickers, time wasters and no showers. Their process is fast, simple and easy to understand. Most of the reviews here are posted by people who tried to lie in their ICO statement about the condition of the vehicle and got mad because the damages that they tried to minimize or hide were discovered by the appraiser. I will give you a simple advice. Do not put false information and you will not get false numbers for your car! Be honest and your offer will be honest. If you hide something thinking that you can scam and lie the participating dealer be ready to realize that you lie yourself.

Shameless! I think that it is okay for a service to make a low offer to us as consumers. What I am offended by is when a shady dealer will lie to me to get me to come in and then waist my time when I have stated over the phone what I am looking to receive for my car (which is below the full retail value). This particular dealer has overstated any necessary defects and has tried to artificially lower the value. E-motors I think is the dealer. Be aware that they will do these things to get you to sell lower than you should accept

Submitted honest info on my Jeep Wrangler. Had emails from dealerships offering potentially MORE than Instant Cash Offer amount, even in BOLD and CAPS saying "I talked with my buyer and you can Consider your car SOLD" However, after I made the time to go to the dealership they came back and said they couldn't buy it because it HAD TOO MANY MILES!!!! I revealed the mileage in step 1 of the application on KBB's ICO website. The sales girl that had previously "gone over my car's details with the inventory manager," apologized and looked like she was going to cry, so I didn't say very much. The more I think about this, the angrier I get that they are pulling this stunt and getting away with it. I am blown away at the disregard for standing by their word and lack of concern for doing what is right by their customers. This is a TOTAL SCAM.

Wish I would have checked here first. The offer is crap and they feed your contact information to everyone.
Someone should be sending this to the BBB.

KBB doesn't just low ball, they are cheating, and , yes. Every dealership in the states will be contacting you.
I have a 2006 Passat with every bell and whistle, 4 motion luxury package, with a brand new body and brand new paint. The car is in excellent condition.
Their offer was 525 dollars.
The average resale of the car is over 5000 dollars, which is a little more than I expected for an offer.
To my dismay and surprise, their ridiculous offer left me wondering what happened to the company I've most trusted for the last 30 years of car pricing.
I'm done with kbb

Truly a scam! Waste of time! - KBB should be ashamed of being a party to this bait and switch. I would take this to my attorney general in Massachusetts if I didn't have better things to do!. Got an offer for a 2016 car RATED IN GOOD CONDITION FORM KBB - not a scratch, low mileage and a dealership report that the car needed no service. The dealer said the car was in poor condition and lowered the KBB range 40% then offered at the bottom of the range - they offered 30% below wholesale! Bait and switch!

Blue book instant offer is a total shake down. you take your car to a used car dealership and they make an offer that has nothing to do with KBB. Was a complete time waster, I don't think the dealer ever had any intention of coming close to the KBB offer and offered me $2000 less than expected, then tried to justify the lower offer because a driving light bulb wasn't illuminating. Which while it was out it isn't a $2000 bulb. LOL I can't imagine how many people a year they hose with this bait and switch tactic. Never again for me.

Turned in a honest KBB cash back evaluation on our 2009 Ford Escape. Went to the dealer not expecting positive results. A 20 minute evaluation was done by the manager who came back and asked if we are willing to accept the KBB Instant Cash Offer. We came back in the evening when we were both available to sign over the title. A different manager took care of us and we were in and out in a short time period. The check was mailed to us and arrived 3 days later. Cochran VW and Infiniti in Wexford, PA was up front, attentive and professional. The experience was beyond expectations.

So I had an offer from Carvana, which was higher than the insult I'd received from CarMax on my Mercedes. While waiting for my appointment with Carvana, I pulled up KBB because I had nothing to lose--if I didnt like what they offered, I could keep my Carvana appointment.
KBB offered 19% more and I immediately had 2 dealerships contacting me. In less than 2 hours from getting the KBB online offer, I had a check in hand and was on my way.

The people who have been saying negative things about dealerships low-balling them, well, if you had been honest in your assessment of your car's condition, then you would have gotten what KBB said the value of the car was.

Got a Kelly Blue Book instant cash offer on my son's Mazda 3( yes I was honest and even rated its condition as the lowest "fair" and over-stated the mileage). Took the car and the offer to a reputable participating dealership but it didn't matter. The acquisition rep inspected the car and said it looked in descent shape, he had the "buying guy" check it out and drive it around for 3 minutes (no mechanical problems) but they then said they would have to sell it at auction and we had to haggle to get $200 less then the KBB offer. Then after signing over everything, we get told that it will be 3-6 days to get the check because it had to be rubber stamped by multiple people. So much for the reliability of a KBB offer and the dealers that "participate" with them.

After the dealership low balls you and beats you up when all said and done THERE IS NO INSTANT CASH OFFER what happens is these VERY GOOD CON ARTISTS give you a photo copy of a potential check and tell you it comes in the mail in 7 business days. Let's see if it comes they have my car and my title you sign your valuable away BASED ON TRUST and KBB has none ZERO ZILCH NADA. total fraud alert.

I wanted to share my experience using the Kelly BB cash offer. I recently used the site and was very pleased. I had a 2007 Toyota Sienna XLE AWD with high mileage and non-working air conditioning. I submitted all the info that was asked via Kelly BB. I was very thorough, specific, and forthcoming regarding the condition of the van. I was the original owner. I immediately received 2 messages from dealerships. I took it to the closest dealership ( which was a very respectable Honda dealer) and received exactly what the "instant cash offer quote" had been. When I arrived at the dealership I had a check and was out the door in less than an hour. The person I dealt with at the Honda dealership was quite pleased with the accurate information I submitted. Using this method was perfect for me. I wasn't interested in the hassle of selling the car myself..the Kelly BB route saved me time and was super easy.

Don't waste your time. Got the offer and a dealer showed great interest over email and calls. Spent my lunch hour at the dealer and got low balled saying that my make and model had known issues, they had a surplus of inventory, etc. Well, you knew that when I submitted my info! Predictably they then low balled me and i told them that Car Max had already seen, evaluated and offered more. I went to Car Max, got what I wanted and the trade value they offered. The KBB offer experience left me with an even lower opinion of used car dealers. Why do the KBB offer when no one honors it?

For a company that has been around for a long time that everyone knows about, the ICO or I stand cash offers were ridiculous. I had 2 suvs to sell and the newer one had a decent offer but after taking it to the dealership we bought it from(KBB told us they would buy it) they reluctantly offered us close to the amount we we shown on the website after some negotiation. This vehicle had low mileage, was less than 2 years old, had lots of factory warranty left and was it amazing condition(my wife takes really good care of her vehicles). My second vehicle, which did need tires and had a decent scratch on one of the doors but was otherwise in great shape, still had about a year of factory warranty left with average mileage for the age was given a low all offer of $8000. Carmax offered $12000 just 30 minutes earlier. The dealership (we bought it from this dealership and had every service completed by them) said he could come up a little bit but was no where near the $12000 offered by Carmax. KBB is no longer reputable and the dealers they enlist are looking for a steal, literally, $4000 worth of a steal. Thank god for Carmax if you don’t have the time to sell to a private seller.

Total Scam! Daritza Alonso, with Quebedeaux Buick GMC In Tucson insisted they were interested in buying my car. After many texts, emails, photos and phone calls, she assured me “Mitch” the manager was very interested and would pay higher than kbb. When I arrived she was no where to be found, and “Mitch” knew anything about me or my vehicle. Red flag! He didn’t want it and wouldn’t give me an offer. No promised free Carfax either. Scam.

One of the worst instant offers ever. This company is a scam. The car that cost 7000$ at least they are trying to offer 2000$ car value. But if I go to autonation,even they offered 4500. Their prices is a joke. Don’t waist your time. This website is so misleading and I am tired of customers that keep showing me this website as example of car value. Oh,yeah, it is showing the unrealistic low price and everybody wants to buy that cheap.

I recently considered trading my car in for a new one. I got a great price on the new car, but the Dealer offered $2000 less than I was willing to accept for my trade. I purchased the car, but did NOT give them my trade.
Despite reading so many negative reviews, I reluctantly gave KBB cash offer a try. The KBB cash offer was $3,000 more than what the dealer had offered me for my trade. I received messages from 3-4 dealers, 1 of which seemed genuinely interested. I took the car in, reluctantly, fully expecting (and prepared) to be low-balled by at least $2,000 or more.

All I can say is that I was absolutely stunned when the dealer's offer was the same as the KBB instant cash offer. NOT AT ALL WHAT I WAS PREPARED FOR. The entire transaction took about an hour.

No one is more surprised than me at the outcome. My experience with KBB could not have been more positive.

I do not hesitate to post a negative review and call a company out when they've treated me badly. Likewise, it's only fair that I post a positive review and sing a company's praises when they treat me well.