Has anyone does this? If so, what are the pros and cons and would you do it again? Inquiring minds want to know. I just might go that route in a few months.
Tried it a few years ago (summer 2000). Didn’t like it.
I had a big fancy car (Volvo) and a small cheap car (Mazda 323). The Mazda wasn’t aging gracefully, and I wanted to replace it with a Toyota Corolla or Chevy Prizm (same car, different label).
Most sites are essentially referral engines. They take your information then pass it on to the biggest, slimiest dealer in town. I explicitly stated this in my “online quote requests” what I wanted - stripper car with manual transmission, defrost and side airbags. This isn’t a typical configuration, because I picked the most expensive option (side airbags) and basically nothing else, so it’s likely that whoever I buy from will have to do a factory order.
Within a day I received a number of calls. Typically conversation would go something like this:
Hi, this is Cathy from Sleazy Chevy. I’ve got just what you want. We have a Prizm LX on the lot, fully loaded, sunroof, CD changer, blah blah blah all for only $18,000.
After a few of these calls, I gave up. Went to a few big-city dealers with decent reputations. Was treated reasonably well, but they weren’t interested in making a factory order - all they want to do is sell stuff that is on the lot, or on somebody elses lot.
Went to a small-town chevy/dodge dealer, talked to the boss, told them what I wanted, and they ordered it. Deal was reasonable, no hassle, no “how about a corvette?” tactics, in and out in an hour. Got the car two months later, and they accepted my personal check as payment.
Are you looking for new or used?
I bought a kit car off of ebay (1960 VW converted to look like a 1929 mercedes). I had bid on about a dozen and lost before this one came up. It was clearly advertised as a fixer-upper, which was what I was looking for. I bid on the car expecting more to be broken with it than was advertised, and I was right. In the end I got exactly what I wanted at a much better price than I could find anywhere else, so I was very satisfied.
I would be very leery of buying something online that I didn’t expect to fix up. A co-worker of mine also has purchased a couple of cars from ebay, but they were the same sort of thing, older cars that you’re not likely to find just sitting on a lot (1960 and 1970 muscle cars, in their case). For a daily driver, I seriously doubt I would even consider online unless the car happened to be local and I could test drive it first. Most of the used cars I’ve seen online were horribly overpriced for what you got.
For a new car, I second the above recommendation. You’ll probably get much better service at a small town dealer than anything online.
I did it and it worked great. I didn’t actually BUY it on the internet, just got quotes emailed to me. But that cuts out a major part of the hassle. On the site, I put in exactly what I wanted. I had two local dealers competing for my business, while the actual car I wanted was at a third dealer (they trade cars all the time). I got my '02 VW Passat for about $100 over invoice. It was the last day of the month; perhaps that helped. I used CarsDirect . com IIRC.
engineer_comp_geek, a new car nothing too fancy. I was hoping going online would cut the hussle but perhaps An Arky’s method is best.
IAAOAISE (online automobile internet site employee)
There are many different sites, many different business models which should inform your deicsion. The above posters are correct in one key point, you should never buy any vehicle sight unseen no matter what. This applies to the internet as well as ordering cars over the phone, through the newspaper, etc.
There are huge differences between new and used car sales. The OP did not specify which they wanted. For used cars, there is one particular site … I’m not naming names but their ads may remind you of the Matrix… They are not a referral service, they are classified advertising online, and they happen to be the clear industry leader in that area. In other words, they connect a potential buyer and a potential seller. From that point, it is up to the two parties to decide if they want to do business and how, and there is nothing special about the transaction. That is certainly no worse than buying in the real world. I’ll say no more about that particular site in the interests of seeming objective.
And BTW, Scents, the sites that are referral services do not pass info onto the biggest slmiest dealer in town, two concepts which are not at all the same thing. They pass it on to the dealer who is some combination of paying them the most money, and has the best match to the specified critieria. That is how the few remaining ones that are in business have remained in business.
Generally speaking, arranging a car through the internet should be no more risky than “normal”, as long as you stay as cautious as “normal”. That means making sure there is a real-world component to your purchase plan. The internet is fantastic for research, but the actual vehicles are not like books. They are not fungible, each is unique and needs to be treated as such.
Before you buy a car, new or used, you should visit this site, and peruse the pages about buying cars online, avoiding scams, and so on. A goldmine of information. I used the techniques he describes to buy a new car, and saved many, many dollars!
I think the edmunds site has some information on doing this for new cars. Check clarkhoward.com too - he’s a fan of it.
I tried it and I think I had some reasonable offers emailed to me, but I was able to negotiate a better deal in person. However, my job requires negotiating on an almost daily basis, I enjoy it, and I’m probably a better negotiator than 90% of people who walk into a dealership.
I think its worth a try.
Understood, but that’s how it worked for me. I know I used autobytel (I remember, because I complained to them about the dealer tactics). I tried two others as well; the song-and-dance was the same.
You’d think that, given that I specified everything I want on the car right down to the tiniest detail, finding a car for me should be easy? I can accept that dealers prefer to move stuff off their lots, and its OK if you offer me something with a couple minor details different, but when I spec out a $14,000 car and somebody calls me up and tells me they have “just what you want” and it is an $18,000 car, well, it just pisses me off. That can’t be good for business, as they’ve just lost a sure-thing deal that wouldn’t haven taken much of their time, plus any opportunity to have me as a customer at any of their 20-odd local dealerships in the future.