Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
emerging companies has nothing to do with
sales revenue. Take a look at the scores of
dot com companies who haven't made a nickel
in profit, yet are wildly successful.
Would a better approach for carsdirect have been
to sell cars at the same price, or higher, than
what traditional dealers charge? I don't think so.
Customers would not have embraced this new
approach to buying, and carsdirect would have
faded off.
The single most important factor, and one that is
common to all internet-based companies is volume.
A company like carsdirect attracts arguably
hundreds of thousands of consumers buying, or
interested in buying, cars. That consumer base and
the marketing potential of that information is
worth far much more than the couple thousand they
are technically losing on the sales. Besides, as
they start pricing a bit more realistically, or
find a better way to source the vehicles they
sell, even sales figures might start to look good.
But the primary success factor is not making money
off cars sales, just as amazon.com was and is not
in the business of making money selling books.
John
and carsdirect.com (they hope) would like to be
in the business of selling shares to middle class
Americans. This business has been very profitable the past
few years. Shares ARE the perfect product--the
cost to produce them is negligible.
The cost of subsidizing car sales or book sales
are really just marketing costs--not bad considering what the average IPO returns nowadays.
Enjoy the IPO show while it lasts,
Jon
When they drop off the car, if you don't like it, don't pay.
When CarsDirect delivered my truck (it had about 20 miles on it) the driver spent about two hours going over the truck with me. If something is wrong (and 350 miles is a big thing to be wrong) don't take delivery.
Pressure w/ carsdirect.
The carsalesperson (yes they are hiring carsalespeople) from CArsdirect charged a $5000 unauthorized deposit on the customers credit card, requested the wrong color from us, lied to the customer about the options and then carsdirect cried to US that they sold the car to the customer for less than we would agree to sell the car for...of course I explained to carsdirect that is their problem not mine.
This is typical of some of the problems we have expereinced with cars direct, this week.
But I hope they keep calling, Customers are paying more than the customers who walk into the dealership!!
Rich
Car_man
Smart Shoppers / FWI Host
Car_man
Smart Shoppers / FWI Host
les
Now I'm going to try again with CD. I only have a week before my lease runs out so if they can turn around my order quickly, great, othewise, its back to the dealer.
The bad news: They said they ordered my car from the factory, but they never did. Even gave me a ship date. The rep that was responsible left the company but they never turned off his voice mail. They didn't listen to it either. Messages just sat there. The delivery date came, and when I figured out what was going on, they did a big Oh Oh.
The good news: They got right on it and found a close match near my home, delivered it at the right price and in about the same time as the one that was to be ordered. I got a better deal than I could have done at a dealer, even after lots of negotiating.
My advice: If the price is good, fine, but make sure your rep sounds responsible, and bug the heck out of him/her.
I probably could have gotten a better deal if I bargained myself. If I weren't so pressed for a new car, and so busy, I'd probably have done that. But overall I think it worked out just great. I think the big problem for CarsDirect in the long run will be customers using the CarsDirect price to bargain with the dealer directly, cutting CarsDirect out of the loop.
of buying a 2000 Avalon XL with the following
features:
Leather Seats
No Moon Roof
This is the detailed quote I received back from a
dealer:
XL Trim Package $22,058 (invoice)
Leather Seats $2,072 (invoice)
Destination Charge $455
Dealer Profit $500
Dealer Prep $160
TDA $371
Taxes (5% in GA) $1,280
Tags $39
Acquisition fee $199
Final Walkout Price $27,134
It seems as though all the line items seem legit
with the exception of the $160 dealer prep and the
$199 acquisition fee. Does anyone have a
perspective as to whether these are legit?
Removing these two line items would result in a
walkaway price of $26,774. Is this a good deal in
light of what others have seen in the marketplace?
Do you think I can go any lower?
I appreciate anyone's help.
FYI - the quote from cardirect.com was $27,300
said they found a car as a dealer trade.
I faxed back the signed agreement and now
waiting for the car. I have a question here,
how do I pay the car? Do I pay after I am
delivered the car or before I get my delivery?
Do I pay to the CD or the local dealer? Any
comments are welcome. I haven't found any
descriptions of how the process goes on CD's
website. Thanks
Jay
Pete
process was smooth with CarsDirect.com. I put
in the order on 1/24, Rep Christine called me
back on 1/25. then later that day she told me
they found a match as a dealer trade. I accepted
the car. She faxed me the contract and I signed
it and faxed it back to her. Nothing on 1/26.
Late on 1/27 I called Rep to get the status and she called me back very quickly to say that the car should be there at the dealer and I needed
to fax a copy of a cashier's check or certified
check to them to arrange the delivery. I went
to my bank on 1/28 and got a certified check made
to CarsDirect.com. After she got the fax,
she sent out their check to the dealer by overnight delivery. CD offered me free home delivery but I declined cause I didn't want to wait at home and wanted to see the car at the dealership before I took it. On 1/29 I went
to the dealer but they didn't have the car there
yet, though CD's overnight mail was there.
The dealer had some problems with their swap
trade or bad weather east coast or whatever reason. Finally I got my car on 2/3. I was asked to send the check directly to CD. I sent
out the check after I got the car. Overall,
the experience was good, and I got the car
with about 600 below the invoice.
jay
Carsdirect.com and carorder.com. For the Corolla LE,there was a $1200 difference.
Anyway I ordered a Corolla Le from Carsdirect.com.
The following is the price breakdown:
Corolla Le with the following options:
1. Auto Transmission
2. All weather guard package
3. Carpet floor mats.
MSRP - 16,478 per edmunds and Kelly bluebook
Dealer Cost - 14,623
CarsDirect.Com - 14,663
Total cost was $40 above dealer cost.
I placed an order with Carsdirect.com last Sunday
for a Corolla LE with Auto shift, Cold Weather
Package and carpet mats. I was quoted $40 over
dealer cost. They had the car delivered to a dealer about 15 mins from where I live. I sent a cashiers check to Carsdirect for the purchase. They in turn sent a check to the dealer. I picked up the Car Saturday...one week from ordering. When I picked up the car there were no surprises. They washed the car, filled it up with gas and put on the License plates. The salesmanager told me that even though I purchased the car thru Carsdirect they considered me their customer, and I would get all the benefits they give to all their customers.
In summary....I have never purchased a car so
easily and at such a good price before. Thanks to
the Edmunds Forum as they gave me enough confidence to purchase a car thru the WWW.
Good Luck on your car purchases !
Pete
Thanks!
Pete
Pete
Seems like cardirect.com gets mixed reviews. I'm thinking of just paying a local car buyer ($300) to do it for me if he thinks the price he can get will compare favorably.
Jay
Pete
cars from carsdirect.com and I would like to
know of anyone's experiences when it comes
to leasing through carsdirect.com please.
Thanks,
eric88
Second, I've been sending pricing requests over the internet to dealers in the Chicago area (pretty simple from most dealers web pages) and have found their quoted prices to be better than those on CarsDirect or CarOrder, although some certainly respond better than others (I'd suggest trying all dealers around, as I did). No guarantee that those are the prices that I'll end up paying I suppose, but something for people to think about when considering online car buying. It may be that the dealers are pretty hip to the online buying/info/research stuff.
I would appreciate anyone's experience with CD here. Thanks.
Art Spinella, an auto retail analyst with CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., said while many consumers might prefer to buy a new car from someone besides a franchise dealer, automakers have to rely on dealers to provide repairs, take trade-ins and do all the work required to sell new cars. Brokers can just do a sale, and not worry about the rest.
"Without having a dealership that's financially rooted to the community somehow, it's impossible to sell somebody a $25,000 car that has 35,000 parts, of which a few are going to fail," he said.
Spinella also said the CarsDirect deal with Penske showed the future direction for a lot of Internet auto brokers - teaming with dealers to survive.
"Penske is now saying CarsDirect is now our online advertising arm," he said. "Selling through the Internet is a great idea. The only people who will do it are the existing franchise dealers".
Get 'em while you can!