I’m getting close to making the biggest purchase of my life so far: a brand-spankin’ new car. To be specific, a Mazda Protege5. After getting a quote or two from dealers, I’m pretty much convinced I want to go with CarsDirect.com. They gave me an excellent quote ($1,500 less than the dealership, and almost $3,000 under MSRP), and I liked the no-pressure, no BS attitude of the sales rep I just spoke to on the phone. I do next to nothing. He’ll look into my financing options. They say they’ll find the car with the options and color I want for me, let me know when and where I can pick it up, and I’ll be in and out of the dealership in 45 minutes.
Sounds so easy I’m still looking for the catch.
Is there one? Have any of you Dopers bought a car this way? Were you happy? Will you go back to your local dealer next time?
It’s a brand-new car, and will have specified options, color etc. I don’t think I’m FULLY committed to buying before I see the specific car, but don’t see a reason to back out unless it was not as specified. I will have to drive a few hundred miles to pick up the car, but that’s just a function of living in southern New Mexico, and there not being any manual-transmission models in the entire state. It seems this would be uber-convenient for someone living in a major metro area with affiliated dealerships.
I too am going to be in the market for a car soon myself: Infiniti FX35 specifically. I’ve looked at Carsdirect.com, tried the Navy Federal Credit Union site (www.navyfcu.com) though that one won’t work for you in New Mexico, and am still waiting on Costco’s car buying service.
Carsdirect is o.k., but definitely not the best deal I’ve found so far on my car. Believe it or not, Quickstar (Amway) people can also get you a pre-negotiated deal on a car, and I am reluctantly checking into that because supposedly they can get it for $200 over invoice which sounds highly skeptical to me. I’m still waiting to hear the catch that I’ll probably have to finance through them or some other B.S.-multiple-strings-attached screw job.
Please post how your Carsdirect experience ends up AFTER the sale as I’d like to see how honest they are after everything is said and done. I’m curious to see whether they will try to pull a bait-and-switch trick on you, especially considering how far you’ll be driving to get it.
“Oh gee Fizgig…you know my manager sold your car just yesterday and didn’t tell me so I’m sorry we had you drive all this way for nothing… Maybe I could sell you this other Mazda instead with all the bells and whistles and huge mark-up that I’ll hide within a strange financing scheme you won’t figure out until you leave and are screwed”
I didn’t actually purchase it online, but I bought a Toyota and the initial contact with the dealier was over the net. They had an “internet department.” It turns out the advantage of working with the internet department is that they give you the lowest price right off the bat, you don’t have to bargain. And it was truly a good price, because I checked against Consumer Reports. It was a very easy way to buy a car. I still got to test drive, etc. but the price was no haggle.
Hmm, I’ve also contacted a dealer over the 'net. Mazda Protege has a $1750 rebate through then end of the month. Base model MSRP on the car I want is $17155 or right in there. The dealer emailed me back and said after the rebate my price would be $15900. I’m not sure what color the sky is where 1755-1750=15900. I told him he needed to come down to $15430, and also throw in my recent college grad rebate of $500, which they promptly agreed to.
CarsDirect.com is having a little difficulty finding the car I want since I refuse to drive an automatic (I don’t like them, so there’s no way I’m going to pay $900 for the privelege of an option I don’t want). I’m still going to give them a chance to beat the dealer’s price, and see what can be done about my trade-in (I’m going to try to sell it this week - I know I’ll do better selling private than I will with a trade in).
Just for anyone waiting for an update… the logistics were getting really terrible on picking up the car due to needing to sell my car, then suckering someone else into driving me to Phoenix, at which point I’d have no choice but to get a car, so I decided to delay my purchase for a month or two, since I’m moving to Washington state and will be closer to one of CarsDirects’s affiliate dealers. The sales rep I was working with didn’t give me much grief for this or try to push me into getting the car he’d located for me, so I’m definitely going to contact him once logistics are more in my favor. So, though I haven’t completed a deal, I’m pleased with them so far.