Eric Ibara is the director of residual value consulting for Kelley Blue Book.  He brings nearly 25 years of automotive industry experience to this role, which includes overseeing the company’s residual value forecasts.  Additionally, Ibara regularly meets with vehicle manufacturers, finance companies and automotive fleet companies to provide consulting services. Prior to joining Kelley Blue Book in 2006, Ibara dedicated more than a decade to Mitsubishi Motors, where he directed the financial planning department.  In this position, he architected new ways of forecasting residual values for the lifecycle planning of vehicles and improved incentive cost forecasting, resulting in greater accuracy and better spending analysis for sales executives.  Ibara worked closely with the remarketing group to assist with the setting of floors that achieved budget targets.  He also provided analysis and support to the fleet business unit and assisted with contract negotiations.  Additionally, Ibara collaborated with the pricing, marketing, and product planning teams on new vehicle debuts and product redesigns to achieve vehicle profit targets.

Ibara manages the residual value information which is offered as a syndicated data product and is utilized on Kelley Blue Book’s KBB.com as a component of Kelley Blue Book’s 5-Year Cost-to-Own information.  Ibara analyzes historical auction data and works with in-house statisticians to build and refine forecast models that are used in developing residual values.  He also is active in test-driving vehicles as additional inputs into the forecasting process.