Trade Me hits the road with Red Book

Car valuation service Red Book has entered into a partnership with Trade Me to deliver car valuations to Trade Me's 1.2 million members.

Called "Personalised Valuations", the service allows consumers to get an instant retail and trade-in valuation for any car that they are buying or selling.

Red Book's experience in other countries indicates that it will be used extensively in New Zealand.

"Car buyers always benefit from more information, particularly around price. What we've done for Trade Me members is give them the most up to date info of what virtually any car is selling for," said Vern Whitehead, general manager of Red Book New Zealand.

"Until now we've provided a more technical service for insurance companies, finance companies and banks. We're now using the same data to deliver consumers a plain English certificate of a car's value."

Trade Me's commercial manager, Mike O'Donnell, is enthusiastic about the deal.

"We're about giving consumers the most power and the most information possible. The new Red Book service on Trade Me removes any information imbalance and puts the consumer on a level footing with anyone in the industry."