Kelley Blue Book Shows Actual Sales Prices for New Cars on kbb.com

Kelley Blue Book ( www.kbb.com ) the trusted resource for automotive information for both consumers and the industry today launches new and useful consumer pricing research on kbb.com -- New Car Blue Book, values for new vehicles representing real sales data from recent consumer car purchases. New Car Blue Book, easily found on new car pricing reports, enables new car shoppers to know how much a specific make and model is actually selling for during any given week. New Car Blue Book pricing reports will also define the market conditions for that make and model, a feature unique to Kelley Blue Book.

New Car Blue Book is offered as a single value, a range and information on current market conditions. The New Car Blue Book price represents the typical selling price for a given vehicle, but not all cars sell for the exact same price, which is why the company also offers a price range. The range, another feature unique to Kelley Blue Book, represents prices that typically occur for each make and model. By showing both the low and high ends of the range the company can better reflect whether a given vehicle's selling price varies widely or hardly at all. Each new car pricing report also includes the current market conditions for that vehicle. These market conditions explain and help the consumer to better understand each New Car Blue Book value.

"This is the single most useful piece of information a consumer can have when researching and purchasing a new car," said Charlie Vogelheim, executive editor Kelley Blue Book. "Because Kelley Blue Book is trusted and used by both the consumer and the industry, we are often held to higher standards than other pricing entities. Because of that, we obtain tens of thousands of actual transactions from dealers nationwide each week to ensure we are providing values the industry can use and consumers can rely on."

Kelley Blue Book's New Car Blue Book value is not a proprietary mathematical equation, calculation or algorithm. The New Car Blue Book value is not a number influenced by dealers or manufacturers -- it is based on actual transaction data representing what people actually pay for a specific make and model.

   ** New Car Blue Book Definition: The New Car Blue Book value for a new
      vehicle reflects the actual selling price, based on tens of thousands
      of recent real sales transactions from across the United States. This
      price is updated at least weekly to ensure timeliness and accuracy.
      The specific New Car Blue Book value falls within a range of typical
      selling prices. **

According to the 2002 J.D. Power and Associates New AutoShopper.com Study, a transaction or sale price for a new vehicle is one of the most sought after pieces of information by automotive Internet shoppers researching new cars, but one of the hardest items to find.

"New Car Blue Book is not about just providing a number, but explaining this value to the car-buyer through our market conditions feature," said Stephen Henson, vice president of marketing and business development. "This tool is about helping the consumer become as knowledgeable as possible to help them to make more informed car-buying decisions."

Some examples of cars and market conditions a consumer can expect to see on kbb.com include:

   --  This model will be replaced by an all-new vehicle soon.  Anticipation
       of the new model has deflated the price of this vehicle.
        -- Jaguar XJ8 models
        -- Audi A8 models

   --  This is a limited production model.  It may be possible to purchase
       at MSRP; however, in many cases because of availability it is selling
       for considerably over the MSRP.
        -- Mazda Miata MX-5 SE
        -- Mazda Miata MX-5 Shinsen

   --  These 2003 models are discounted as the new 2004's begin to arrive.
       Because there is little or no price increase on the new models, it is
       possible to purchase these 2003 models for close to their original
       invoice price.
        -- BMW 325
        -- BMW 330
        -- Oldsmobile Silhouette
        -- Pontiac Montana

  About Kelley Blue Book ( kbb.com )

Kelley Blue Book is the most trusted vehicle information resource by both consumers and the auto industry, providing research tools and up-to-date pricing on thousands of used and new vehicles. Since 1926, car buyers and sellers have relied upon Kelley Blue Book for authoritative and unbiased information to make well-informed automotive decisions. The company offers objective vehicle pricing via products and services including the famous Blue Book Official Guide, software and Internet site, kbb.com . Kbb.com has been rated the No. 1 automotive information site by Nielsen//NetRatings as well as No. 1 and first visited automotive site according to J.D. Power and Associates five years running. No other medium reaches more in-market car-buyers than kbb.com ; one in every four American car-buyers complete their research on kbb.com .

SOURCE: Kelley Blue Book

CONTACT: Robyn Eckard of Kelley Blue Book, +1-949-770-7704, ext. 8349,
or mobile, +1-323-547-5102, reckard@kbb.com

Web site: http://www.kbb.com/