Bob Kelley, long-time publisher of used car guide Kelley Blue Book, dies at 96
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If you're wondering how much your car is worth, or how much to pay for that car you're thinking of buying, there's a good chance you'll check KBB.com.
If you’re wondering how much your car is worth, or how much to pay for that car you’re thinking of buying, there’s a good chance you’ll check KBB.com.
That’s short for Kelley Blue Book, and it’s one of the longest-standing sources for used car values there is. A man who was instrumental in its rise to prominence, Bob Kelley, died on May 28 in Indian Wells, California, at the age of 96.
The Blue Book’s origins lie in the Kelley Kar Company of Los Angeles, a used car daelership founded by Bob’s uncle, Les Kelley, in 1918 with a few Model T Fords. Wanting to grow his inventory, Kelley Kar Company circulated a list of cars it wanted to buy and how much it would pay for them. By 1926, that list turned into the first Kelley Blue Book pricing guide for used cars.
Long ago, Bob Kelley was a “lot boy” at the dealership run by his uncle and his father, Sidney “Buster” Kelley. He did things like filling tires. Eventually, he took charge of fixing up used cars and estimating their resale value, the kind of figures that would go into the paper guide.
By the 1960s, that book became the whole business. The family sold the car dealership and sold the pricing guide, separately, to a private investor, said Bob Kelley’s son-in-law Charlie Vogelheim. Buster and Bob Kelley both signed 40-year management contracts to continue running operations, though, he said.
For most of the first 30 years as a stand-alone business, the Blue Book was largely an industry source, not something for the general public to use, according to KBB.com. Car dealers, finance companies and insurance companies relied on its values and the book helped shape how people thought about what cars are worth. Kelley Blue Book claims to be the first to show the effect of mileage on a used vehicle’s value, for example.
Other related products were added over the years, including a new car pricing guide in 1966, RV and motorcycle guides and even a “Manufactured Housing” price guide.
