“What is my car worth?” is really three questions, and the honest answer starts with knowing exactly what you have. Decode your VIN free, see the three values every car sits between, then have a person price yours properly.
17 characters, on your dashboard where it meets the windscreen, on the driver's door jamb, or on your insurance card and registration.
Every other site does. That is precisely the problem.
An instant valuation is produced from the handful of things you typed into a form. It has not seen the curb rash, the cloudy headlight, the seat bolster that has given up, or the repaint on one panel. So the number is provisional — and you find out it was provisional on the day someone is standing in your driveway with a transporter, which is the worst possible moment to start renegotiating.
We decode your car for free because knowing your exact trim and specification is genuinely useful, and most people do not have it to hand. Then a person prices the actual car from the photos you send, and the figure that comes back in writing is the figure you are paid on collection.
The decode above is live from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's vPIC database — the US government's own vehicle identification service, populated from manufacturer filings. It is the same source the industry uses to establish what a vehicle actually is.
It tells us identity and specification: year, make, model, trim, engine, drivetrain, body style, assembly plant. It does not contain values, mileage, ownership or accident history, and nothing here is a credit or background check on you. For a full picture of what determines price, read the four different numbers a car is worth.
Yes, and there is nothing to accept at the end of it. The VIN decode is free, the written offer is free, and you are under no obligation to sell. We ask for contact details only because a real person prices your car and has to send the number somewhere.
Because the trim is where the money is. Two 2020 Accords can differ by thousands depending on whether one is a base LX and the other a Touring with the bigger engine. The VIN resolves that exactly, in one step, instead of asking you to guess at a drop-down you may not know the answer to.
Three easy places: the lower corner of the windscreen on the driver's side, visible from outside the car; the sticker in the driver's door jamb; and your insurance card or registration document. It is 17 characters and never contains the letters I, O or Q.
They are the three bands every car sits between. Gold is retail — what a dealer lists it for after reconditioning, which is not money you receive. Silver is the fair offer band, close to wholesale, which is where a sound and honestly described car should land. Bronze is the quick-sale band below wholesale, where instant buyers land when there are unknowns. Which band your car falls in depends on condition, history and the current market.
Because we would be guessing, and a guess that gets revised when the truck arrives is worse than no number at all. Instant-offer sites produce a figure from what you type in and then verify the car later, which is how sellers end up renegotiating in their own driveway. We look at the photos first and then commit to a number.
No. Your details are used to price your car and get back to you. If your vehicle is one we are not the best buyer for, we will say so and tell you who is — but that is a recommendation you choose to act on, not your information being passed on behind your back.
No. The NHTSA vPIC database holds manufacturer specifications for the vehicle only. It contains no ownership records, no mileage, no accident history and nothing at all about the person entering it.