I'm not going to argue price because it no longer concerns me, but here's my .02 as a buyer who just paid real cash for a car:

I saw deals at dealers, actual cash changing hands that I passed on, at $15,250 (for a 1-owner, 38,000 mile car, no less). I saw another at $16,000. That tells me that those auction prices are very accurate, as in, those are the trade-in prices dealers are willing to pay. They then add their mark-up, and get to the range of $15-16. I didn't see one sell, at a dealer or private party, anywhere close to NADA/KBB. But I also didn't talk to people asking those prices because I saw those deals as more trouble than they were worth.




I ended up with aero blue, not my first choice, but gray was becoming more trouble to find than it was worth. From my experience, older gentlemen preferred aero blue, so those cars were less likely to be modified and abused. Younger guys tend to like black and gray, and I only found one that was not modified. I preferred an unmodified car, and I found one.