Does this 2012 look decent for about $5500?

Actually, the free market decides the price and it is somewhat subjective as to what is a fair price, a steal, and a ripoff. Most of the time an estimation will be a very good starting point if the seller is a reasonable person. You can get a feel for a decent price just by the number of responses and showings you get at your estimated price.

But dealers are the true price setters at the auction. We set the prices....And it is dealer price + profit = private party value. This is true to a degree (dealers that finance tend to have prices way too high).

FYI this vehicle was originally bought through Manheim - which is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises - which happens to be the owner of both Auto Trader and Kelly Blue Book! The path it took to me (a small dealer) is your standard path for all used vehicles. It was a trade in by the 2nd owner to Della Toyota out of New York....who then sold it through Manheim to me.

Regarding KBB, I looked up the VIN on Toyota to find out what package I have and it says package 6 (highest). Blue book comes back at $5650 which is unrealistic. I did lower my price from 4995 to 4595 and only got a couple texts which were people lowballing to which I ignored. It's only been 1 day though. If I drop it to say $4300 middle of the week I would be willing to bet it'd be gone by weekend.

Most people would agree, if they were to look at my car, see the condition, high trim, and maintenance, it is worth somewhere between $3800 on a bad day to $5000 which would be bordering ripoff territory. I'm at $4600 or best and depending on who shows up I think I'll get somewhere between $4000 and $4500 which is a very fair price. This is clearly a more accurate system than posting it for blue book price ($5650).

I have a truck that blue books for $15,000 (trucks are usually way off). I have it up for $6995 and have not shown it once. Blue Book is pretty bad. Might be ok for far newer cars with under 50k miles, not sure.

Blue book is good if the seller has no idea on the value. For all they know it is worth $2000 or $8000, for some reason they don't have an idea, and they see what KBB says. Or for a buyer that just want to be reassured they aren't being ripped off.

 

Currently sitting at $5100 so, assuming no bids (which is highly unlikely), I click in @ $5200 tomorrow 5 minutes before end of auction, cost will be over $6000 by the time I plate it. Kinda weighing the pros and cons, and I'm thinking I could drive it for a year, rack up around 50k miles on it, and it will still be worth around $5000 by the time I am done with it (just a guesstimate if condition remains clean and accident free). It would have more like 180-190K after a quick year of my usage!

 

Well by the time it got around to minutes before close of auction it was bid up to $5300 by 4 different dealers....Me being the 5th I clicked in at $5400.

It only blue books for $7300...And remember dealers need to collect tax on resale....So maybe with luck I could see resale at $7000 + the taxes.

Brings us back to the point. These dumbo dealers are bidding it so high it doesn't leave that much room for error!

Long story short the moron dealers who have too much money so they apparently don't want to practice patience and only buy good deals where they are guaranteed to make more money and have lots of room for profit bid it up to $6100!

$6100 + $235 in fees = $6335....these are out of state buyers so it is before transportation costs.

The beauty is it really sucks to get outbid by $100...But when they bid it up way higher you don't feel so bad.

Buyer was United Motors LLC. Not sure location because it is a common name but probably will have $6500-$6600 into it.

Must think it is worth $8000 which it isn't.

 

I have no idea. My wild guess would be between 8k and 13k (which is a huge range lol) but I do not know the market for Prius Vs at all.