Learn About Our History

J.D. Power Valuation Services, formerly NADA Used Car Guide, has been a leading force in the automotive industry since the early 1900s. We’ve seen the industry through waves of growth, innovation, legislation, war and recession. After nearly a century spent collecting and analyzing vehicle values, we have built the largest database of automotive transactions and gained the most far-reaching marketplace knowledge. This legacy of information and expertise forms the foundation on which we publish every value. Our rich history is also part of the reason why NADA Values are so accurate and trusted.

We’ve always made efforts to keep our values unbiased, but NADA Used Car Guide did have to heavily rely on dealership data in the early years. At our start in the 1930's, vehicle manufacturers began encouraging dealers to provide us with sales figures. We also began making supplemental checks of data authenticity, and solicited statisticians and economists to confirm the soundness of our analysis methods. As data input methods advanced with the advent of computers and the internet, we continued to focus on accuracy, as we still do today.