Vehicle valuation & market intelligence
Written for dealers, wholesalers, fleet and remarketing staff and anyone who has to defend a number — the forces that actually set used vehicle prices, and how to read the reports that track them.
Indexed to 100 at the start of the year
Guided match
Four long explanations, written to be read in order — but you probably arrived with one specific question. Tell us which and the recommendation updates as you pick.
Recommended reading
Matched because you want to understand what actually sets the number.
Read what drives market valueWith no data in front of you yet, the natural follow-on is reading a market report.
The four forces
They compound. A well-optioned truck, in a truck region, in the strongest part of the calendar, with clean paint and records, is not a slightly better outcome than the same truck without those things — it is a different price band.
Age, mileage against expectation, drivetrain, trim and options, colour, service history, title status and physical condition. This is the part everyone thinks of, and it is where the largest single spread lives.
What drives market valueUsed vehicle demand is not flat across a year. Tax refund timing, weather, model-year changeover and end-of-year fleet decisions all pull buyers and supply into predictable windows — and the same car is worth measurably different amounts inside them.
Seasonality in pricingClimate, terrain, fuel prices, commuting distance, licensing and inspection rules and local industry all shape what a region wants. Value follows that demand, and the gap between two regions can exceed the gap between two condition grades.
Regional demandToday's three-year-old supply was decided three years ago by new vehicle production, fleet buying and lease origination. Supply shocks echo through the used market for years after the event that caused them.
How to read a market reportHow it works
There is no funnel here. The material is the product, and the only thing we ask for is a correction when we get something wrong.
Use the guided match above, or start at value drivers and read the four pieces in the order the forces actually stack.
Each piece explains why a variable moves a price, how large the effect tends to be relative to the others, and where it stops being reliable.
Take the methodology checklist to a published index or a valuation tool and interrogate it properly. That is the whole point of the site.
Worked example
The tiles and table below are a constructed example, not live data. They show the form a useful snapshot takes: a level, a direction, a time frame and a unit, every time.
| Segment | Index | Quarter | Days to turn | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compact car | 101.2 | +1.2 | 34 | Firm; fuel-price sensitivity supporting demand |
| Midsize sedan | 99.1 | -0.9 | 44 | Soft; supply arriving faster than it clears |
| Midsize SUV | 98.6 | -1.4 | 39 | Easing from a strong spring |
| Full-size pickup | 102.8 | +2.8 | 31 | Strongest band; regional demand concentrated |
| Luxury sedan | 94.7 | -3.1 | 57 | Weak; long turn and wide condition spread |
Every number above is invented for the purpose of demonstrating the format. Learn to read a real one in how to read a market report.
Illustrative estimator
This widget applies the relationships described across this site to four inputs. It has no access to transaction data, no vehicle history, and no knowledge of your market. It exists to show direction and magnitude. Treat the output as a teaching aid.
How we handle numbers
There is a lot of confident-sounding vehicle valuation content on the internet whose headline percentages have no source at all. We do not publish figures we cannot stand behind, and where a number depends on your segment, your region and the month you are reading in — which is most of them — we say so instead of picking one.
What we do publish is structure: which variables matter, which direction they push, roughly how large the effect tends to be relative to the others, and how to find the real number in a report you have access to.
Questions
No. We are not a licensed appraiser, a valuation service, a dealer, an auction operator, a broker or a lender, and nothing here is a valuation, appraisal, offer or financial advice. The estimator is a teaching aid that rounds hard on purpose. To price a specific vehicle, use a licensed valuation service together with a physical inspection.
Free, and there is no account. Nothing on this site is gated behind an email address, a sign-up or a download. The contact form is the only place we ask for personal information, and it exists so you can send us a correction.
They are constructed. Every chart, table and index level on this site is an illustrative example built to demonstrate a shape or a format, and each one says so in the caption directly beneath it. None of them is derived from vehicle transaction data, and none of them is a forecast.
Because we do not have a transaction dataset, and publishing a confident percentage we cannot source would be worse than useless. Where the honest answer is "it depends on your segment, your region and the month you are reading in", that is what we write. What we can teach is the structure: which variables matter, which direction they push, and how to find the real number in a report you have access to.
The estimator and the guided match run entirely in your browser. What you select is never transmitted to our server, never stored and never associated with you. Contact form submissions are not added to any marketing list and are not sold, rented or shared for marketing. The full detail is in the privacy policy.
No. There are no affiliate arrangements with valuation providers, marketplaces, dealers, auctions or lenders, and we receive no commission or referral fee in connection with any transaction a reader may enter into. Nothing here is placed.
Tell us through the contact page and we will fix it. Corrections get read first. That is a genuine offer, not a formality — if a mechanism described here has changed or a figure has gone stale, we would rather hear it from a reader than leave it up.
Start reading
From the variables sitting on the vehicle itself, through the calendar and the map, to the methodology note in the report that tracks all three. No sign-up, no gate, and every constructed figure labelled as one.