I need to get my wife a new car and I would really like to skip the car dealership and the games they play. Has anyone bought a car through TrueCar? Carvana? etc...?
I never have, but about 18 years ago an acquaintance bought one from carsdirect and was happy. They delivered the car right to the office
Last car I bought was from a local "No haggle" dealer. They priced the car at $3,000 below blue book retail. Then they arranged for me to get 1.9% financing. I was very happy.
Something I discovered is all these buy on line, skip the dealer websites for buying a new car is you really don't skip the dealer. It probably stops some of the haggling over how much you can get off the sticker price. I looked at a couple of Ford and Dodge cars. My information of what I am looking for is sent out to three local car dealers. They then send you a list of cars and prices and how much it's discounted from sticker price. Each car listed tells me how much of my wish list is fulfilled, like 80% 60% etc... Now my email box is full of new car pricing and my phone is probably going to ring all day long.
This is definitely not how it worked back then with cars direct (or else my acquaintance did not buy a new car), perhaps the dealers pressured powers that be into controlling the process? I distinctly recall a huge flatbed labeled CarsDirect.com offloading the car in the office parking lot, but it was 1999 or maybe 2000 and a lot of time has passed since then…
All I see on Cars Direct for 2017 cars is one car that is listed as "sale pending". All the other cars are 2016 or older and they all say low miles. Maybe they are set up with like Hertz or Avis car sales. My phone has been ringing a lot. I just let it go to voicemail. I have replied to a couple of emails on pricing and it's the same old game, never take the first price offered and it's amazing how they can come back with a lower price. You really have to cold and callous if you want the best price.
LOL! I just found this: Why you can't buy a car online—for now http://www.chicagotribune.com/class...franchise-model-autocover-20170511-story.html
So I went to a dealer who gave me a price on a 2017 Ford Focus. They kept showing me all my other options available for a Ford Focus. I kept bringing up my quote of $14,800 and kept saying I want to see this one. I don't think they could find it. Now I am getting tired and I am getting ready to leave. Then they show me one with a $19,300 sticker with dealer installed options that brought the price to $20,XXX- something and i said is this one for $14,800? Then they started with are you going to buy today? Are you paying cash? Then they try to get me to sign some paper and I wouldn't sign anything until I got a firm price. They gave it to me for $14,800, so I am happy with the price, but it's not a no hassle deal. I spent 3.5 hours there to get what I wanted, so that was tiring.
Last time I bought a car was nearly 10 years ago, it was an Acura. I used the Acura web site to "build" the exact thing I wanted, then I got a quote from the nearby dealer. We went back and forth (over email) on a couple of dealer-installed options and since they wouldn't budge on the price I just dropped those. The only other thing we talked about in-person was the trade-in value of the car I gave them. I was prepared for a prolonged discussion surrounding the "paint warranty", "oil change booklet" and some other thing they typically try to force on you but that (surprisingly!) boiled down to about 45 seconds: three questions, three "No, thank you" answers and off we went straight into the loan. No negotiations there either, Acura was offering a 1.9% loan and that's exactly what they gave me. All in all it was definitely a no hassle process.
If your old car is 20 years old, in most states you can get antique plates for it and save some money.
10 years is barely broken in. My current daily driver is a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid 4wd. It was made in the summer of 07, so it is 10 years old now. It still runs, looks and drives well. I only have 120,000 miles on it currently, so I have no plans to replace it in the immediate future. Besides, I'm not yet happy with the 4wd hybrid SUV's available currently. Supposedly Ford is bringing the Escape Hybrid back for 2018, so deals on a nice off-lease model should be available by the time I'm looking to replace it.
