Quick Facts About the Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer
- Instant Cash Offer is a no-fuss alternative to selling a car yourself.
- KBB’s Instant Cash Offer saves time and is good for seven days.
- You can take an Instant Cash Offer to any participating dealer.
There’s more than one way to sell your car. A couple of the more popular methods are to sell it yourself or take advantage of Kelley Blue Book® Instant Cash Offer (ICO). Both approaches will put cash in your pocket to spend, save, or put toward buying another car. Which is right for you has less to do with which is generally better and more to do with you specifically and your preferences.
So how do you pick? Here, we will take a closer look at the two options and lay out the factors to consider when choosing between them. We’ll even tell you what we would do. Feel free to use the jump links below to skip ahead.
- The Word on KBB
- What Is the KBB Instant Cash Offer?
- Selling the Car Yourself
- Which Is Better for You?
The Word on KBB
Autotrader’s sister publication Kelley Blue Book (KBB), is the gold standard in setting used car values. Since 1926, the organization has monitored used car transactions, publishing market-driven values on pre-owned cars. It’s the source for current transaction prices, whether a used car is a trade-in or sold through a private party or dealer. When people mention a car’s book value, they’re almost always referring to the price determined by Kelley Blue Book.
What Is the KBB Instant Cash Offer?
Because Kelley Blue Book is a trusted source in determining used car values and new car pricing, various dealerships around the country have partnered with the company to streamline the sale of used cars for private owners. Basically, it’s a quick, no-haggle way to get cash for your car. You simply provide some information, including your car’s make, model, year, and current condition. Based on a car’s features and your description of its condition, you get an instant cash offer redeemable at one or several participating dealers. The offer stays valid for seven days.
The ICO amount isn’t guaranteed. If, after inspecting the car, the dealer determines it isn’t in the condition described, the offer amount could be adjusted. Therefore, it pays to be honest about the condition of your car. The more accurate your description, the less likely your offer changes.
After the inspection, you hand the dealer the keys. At that point, you can use the ICO amount as a down payment on another car or pocket the money and walk away.
What Are the Benefits of KBB’s Instant Cash Offer?
Here are some key perks:
- Save time – Selling a car yourself can take time. Writing an ad, taking photos, talking to potential buyers, showing the vehicle, and so forth all rob time from your day. An ICO avoids all of that. Usually, you will receive your ICO within minutes of applying.
- Worry-free – Every sale-by-owner transaction comes with issues the seller must address, such as paying off any current financing and transferring the title. With an instant cash offer, the dealer handles all the details.
- Cash in hand – Once a dealer inspection is validated, you get the amount of your Instant Cash Offer minus any changes discussed. You can use it as a down payment on another car at that same dealer, take the check and use it at another dealer, or take the check, cash it, and pocket the money.
- You Pick – Once Kelley Blue Book has issued the ICO, it provides a list of dealers local to your address where you can cash in the offer.
Selling Your Car Yourself
If you’re considering a service such as the Kelley Blue Book ICO, you may have already considered what’s involved with selling a car yourself. Unless you have a family member or a next-door neighbor who you know wants your car, this option can be a bit involved and time-consuming. Nevertheless, people do it all the time. Autotrader has thousands of used car listings being sold by private sellers in its marketplace.
The internet has made the car-selling process easier, but here’s what you can expect. In addition to writing an effective ad and shooting a series of good photos, you must be available to answer inquiries about the car, meet potential buyers for inspections and test drives, and negotiate the sale. Plus, making the actual transaction and exchanging payment for the title can always be fraught with issues. However, Autotrader’s Private Seller Exchange (PSX) relieves both used car sellers and buyers from nearly every negative aspect of the used car selling/buying process.
What Are the Benefits of Selling Your Car Yourself?
The biggest potential benefit to selling a car yourself over the Instant Cash Offer is you will almost always end up with more money when you sell a car yourself. This is true whether comparing it to ICO or trading it in.
Which Is Better For You?
Which of these methods best suits you depends on your priorities and your situation. You’ll almost always get more money for a car by selling it yourself than by going through a dealer, whether or not the Instant Cash Offer is involved. How much more you’ll net with an independent sale depends on several variables, including your ability to negotiate.
On the other hand, there’s considerably more work involved in selling a car yourself. If you have the time and don’t mind putting in some extra effort, selling your car yourself makes sense. Choosing not to do the work means the dealer will have to, which is why you’ll get a little less money if you go that route. If time is an issue for you and you want to avoid the hassle of meeting strangers in public parking lots for inspections and test drives, getting less cash may be an acceptable trade-off.
PRO TIP: I’m a bit lazy when it comes to weighing my time and energy against the potential to pick up a few extra bucks. My advice to my brother-in-law would be to save himself from the aggravation and at least investigate the Instant Cash Offer.
No matter which way you decide to go, do a little research to determine what your car is worth. You can use our used car valuation tool to get your car’s Kelley Blue Book Value. With that, you can estimate the difference you could make when selling a car yourself versus the ICO. Using the Private Seller Exchange will considerably reduce the time and energy suck of selling the car yourself elsewhere. On the other hand, if you love the challenge of negotiating and can spare extra time, why not at least try to sell it yourself? Instant Cash Offer will always be around as a Plan B if selling it yourself fails.
Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book are sister companies of Cox Automotive. Editor’s Note: This article has been updated for accuracy since it was originally published.
Just got a KBB cash offer. After just reading these comments, I’m glad I only gave them my e-mail and my old phone number (didn’t know why they’ need both my e-mail & current phone number just to contact me). While I might eventually buy a new car, I wanted to sell my 2nd older one before it just got older (but in great shape) since I only use it a couple of times a week and trade-ins are a rip-off. Since retiring, we find we don’t need 2 cars. I normally just pass down my cars to family, but no one currently needs one.
I kind of thought this was just the same trick I found on just about every site to get my contact info.
I do miss local newspapers where it made selling a car so much easier. The private car selling Web sites attract so many scammers.
Thank you for reading Ed. I, too, tested the waters on the KBB Instant Cash Offer. What I found helpful about the offers coming into my email inbox and my phone as texts is that I could choose to engage with the ones that made sense. What I ended up doing was engaging with one or two dealerships. And when I received written offers from them, I discussed my trade-in vehicle (a family F-150 pickup) to see if they would budge any further. Once I had everything in my hands, I could see what was going to work best. After that, I used those as a negotiation tool at the dealership where I purchased my new vehicle. I hope you will find this useful.
Complete waste of time and worthless, except for using the amount from KBB as an idea of your car’s low end valuation. This is just a bait and switch tactic for local dealers and mainly for people wanting to trade in their car on a new vehicle. The 2 supposed participating dealers provided me by KBB on my instant cash offer stopped doing anything once they knew I was not using the car as a trade in. I wasted my time at the dealer closest to me to have my car inspected, and then was told it was going to HQ wholesale and I would be contacted the next day. That sure didn’t happen. PLUS, I called KBB support and basically the customer support person confirmed that they “probably weren’t interested since you were not trading in your vehicle.” The Instant Cash is a scam and lie.
Not necessarily. It really does depend on the year, make and model of the car you’re trying to sell. Yes, there are a lot of makes and models that KBB will only give you the low-end value for, but as I’ve found, there’s actually quite a few different makes and models that KBB is offering high end trade, and sometimes even fair retail value for. You just have to be somewhat savvy with what your car is ACTUALLY worth, and that all really comes down to how fast you want to sell your car. Having said that, I probably wouldn’t keep my own car listed for any more than 30 days if I’m trying to get the best value for it and if KBB is giving me the best offer, then that’s just a “no brainer” haha.
Got a ICO from KBB for $13,764 and immediately got 3 dealerships 30 miles away interested. Went to each of them and 2 others not through KBB. Was told they only could do $12,000 due to their research through Powers software of demand for the car. I pointed out that KBB does that research and that by participating in their program, they have to honor the ICO price. Each one said that they didn’t. I ended up pressuring one to up the offer by $500, which I took as it was the best that I felt I could get given the circumstances. When I filed a grievance with KBB, they said that they could do nothing since I accepted an offer, even if it was below the ICO price, and therefore, the case was closed. I pointed out that by paying for participation in KBBs program, the terms and conditions state that they have to honor the price. I feel that KBB as the program owner should cover the difference since their agents did not follow the terms and conditions of participation. They disagreed and basically told me to go away.
Realize that this is a sham program and the dealers just are paying for your contact info without a guarantee of the ICO price.
SCAM by KBB. Don’t be fooled. Just go into dealerships on your own. The price they give you is the same as if you go through this program.
(BTW, they all said my car was in much better condition than I had appraised it at, and 2 salesmen at 2 different dealerships said that they agreed that what I was accusing them of was right but they were under pressure to keep the acquisition costs as low as possible and their bosses would not be happy so there was nothing they could do.)
THANKS FOR THE TIP WE APPRECIATE IT. SCOOTERDOG
KBB certifcate was for $18.7k and the dealers offered me $16k! That was 15% less and nowhere close to the amount offered by KBB. KBB makes money of dealeships they sent you to, they don’t care about you or your money. I filed a complain with BBB regarding KBB’s behavior. Don’t use them.
The ICO was a load of BS. Heavily recruited by the dealerships to come in. Only agreed to the deal when the verbally told me they could offer more than the ICO upon onsite inspection. Drove an hour there to only be told that in no way would the onsite offer be as high as the online ICO; it would only be less… considerably less. Told me a fine scratch and a rock chip were worthy of $3k off and then confessed they really werent interested in the vehicle. Half day wasted and useless miles put on the car that I am trying to sell…
After being heavily pursued by a dealership, took the car in for the evaluation. The instant cash value offered was LESS than trade in value. What a waste of time!
KBB gave an instant cash offer based on an inspection, but the “partner dealer” still would not offer more than $2800 less than the ICO! it’s a load of bs meant to get you in the door.
I recently worked with a dealership that partnered with KBB to purchase trade-ins. I determined what I thought the trade-in value should be by using the online KBB site. KBB didn’t even want my car (BMW). So much for that dealership —- so I moved on and worked with another dealership that ended up giving me the NADA value.
We recently decided to sell an extra car- we talked to a few dealers and visited other sites but KBB provided the best off, almost immediatly. They worked out of a large car group in Atlanta and the entire process took less time than making coffee. Yes, you can sell privately for more money but if you don’t want to deal with the buyers, this site was amazing.