hoss10 said:
I was wondering just how accurate the NADA on-line retail guide is
.
It is and it isn't. It's values don't always reflect what a trailer will actually fetch on the market, but it is still the standard. Since most
lenders will use NADA exclusively to determine Loan-to-value calculations, it becomes a huge factor on what a dealer can sell a camper for(and still be able to offer financing), therefore determining what we can pay for them on trade. This in turn, determines marketable value across dealerships and private sales. So,
NADA does determine market values for used RVs.
The consumer version of NADA.com no longer offers wholesale prices, only retail.The "Average Retail" that they give you is the same "Used Retail" value that they give dealers.
We don't use that for anything - it's a worthless number. However, you can roughly determine the wholesale with the following formula:
Subtract the "Low Retail" value from the "Average Retail" value. Subtract the result from the "Low Retail" to get a ball park wholesale value. In other words, the Low Retail is around 1/2 way between the Wholesale value and the Average Retail value.
hoss10 said:
I've noticed that some Travel Tailers depreciate much more quickly then others. Is like with cars and trucks were some models just have a much higher resale value, based on reliability and design?
It's true that certain models have always had higher NADA values, but not necessarily that it's determined on reliability or design. As far as I can gather, it has mostly to do with MSRPs. Some manufacturers (such as Jayco) have always had their MSRPs listed much higher than comparable models, even though actual invoice prices may have been similar. Their values end up being higher on NADA.
Another major consideration is "options". It happens fairly often that a customer gets on NADA.com, clicks every option and determines that their trade-in is worth 30-40% more than we can actually pay for it. Generally, a dealership is going to consider Base NADA(no options) as a base trade in value since most of those were actually standard equipment. Some adjustments will be made from there for condition, actual options & additions, and local market conditions.
Here's the short:
NADA is not necessarily accurate, but it determines market pricing anyway.