The national publication of used car values adopted for use by the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) is the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).  The NADA guide provides a valuation of a vehicle for purposes of a loan, retail sale and 3 trade-in values (rough, average, and clean). This Administration uses the retail price when determining the fair market value of a vehicle for tax purposes.

The loan value is the projected amount of credit that may be obtained on a vehicle and the trade-in is the projected wholesale value. The loan and trade-in-values do not provide a true fair market value of a vehicle, as the figures are designed for a lending institution to determine the maximum risk they are willing to accept based on the default of a loan or a dealerships ability to re-sell the vehicle for profit.

Back to Bulletins home page