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Comments
Good luck ...
Terry.
Just do some more research and look for any hidden money. My limited experience with carsdirect is that they are not any better of a deal than you can make on your own. It may save some time or hassle if you like their price, but it is probably not the lowest you can get.
Also be aware that carsdirect.com lets you configure vehicles that are not available in the market, anywhere. You may be able to order it, but this was not the case with the Toyota I was looking at. I needed it in a month and the dealers said about 6 months to make it, if at all.
Car_man
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I was shopping for a new Toyota Sequoia. I went to their site, chose my car and options, and I said I would be purchasing within 7 days. They claimed on their site they could search for a vehicle in inventory and get it for me at $200 over invoice. It sounded like a good deal.
I immediately recieved an email from Carsdirect confirming my order. It was a day and a half later before they attempted to phone me. They weren't calling to tell me they found my vehicle, he called to confirm my selections. After we verified my selection, he told me that because I live in Alabama it would be tough to locate the vehicle that I want, but he would try. SEVEN days later I recieved an email saying they had no luck and my order was canceled.
Well, I went to one of the two Toyota dealerships in town. He did not have what I wanted in stock, but searched the list of already ordered Sequoias for the Southeastern dealerships. The search came up with several that were close to what I wanted. We selected one, and are having the dealer add the couple of options that weren't already ordered on the car.
Now the questions are: why didn't carsdirect do the exact thing I accomplished? Why was carsdirect so slow to respond to a buyer who was ready to purchase immediately?
Carsdirect waisted my time. I won't use them again.
BTW: 18 months ago I purchased another car using a different online service. With this service, I had an offer within an hour of my submission and drove home with the car the same day.
you know a couple years ago everyone on edmunds was telling us that these types of buying services would be the END of auto dealerships.
well, all the dealerships are still around what few services that are left are providing the type of service you experienced.
I don't much understand it myself, Carsdirct has got to have at least a $300 per unit markup. I'd rather take my chances haggling.
I stumbled onto carsdirect this time while researching the vehicle I just purchased. What I liked about the carsdirect approach is that they promised a $200 price over invoice with no haggling. I thought that I MIGHT be able to haggle a slightly lower price myself, but why bother when this seemed to be such a good deal.
I noticed that Cars Direct is padding the invoice price of the cars they sell by about $200. They then wanted $300 over their inflated invoice.
Check out their price (cars direct invoice) on any car and then compare it to the Edmunds invoice price.
So the real price that you pay through carsdirect is about $500 over actual invoice. This is a standard fleet deal that you can get anywhere. You don't need cars direct for this price. Also if you argue hard at the dealer, you probably can beat the $500 (actual) over invoice that cars direct charges.
I do think that they frequently do not have the lowest prices around, but on occaision they do. If nothing else it is entertaining, and it can give a buyer with a limited budget some ballpark idea of what a car will cost after rebates, factory to dealer cash etc. So I do think it serves it purpose.
It can also be a good negotiation tool. Earlier this year I was thinking about buying a toyota. I was haggling with the sales person who was offerring a price about $300 higher than the CD price. I pulled out the CD printout, and he wispered they were a CD dealer. Naturally the price dropped $300 in about 2 seconds
CD does add on ad fees (which they always disclose), however I believe they do it on some american cars where one usually doe not see this fee. So I do wonder about that.
New cars aren't doled out to dealerships by state law. Individuals and companies pay the new car manufacturers for the right to sell their cars through a franchise. Just like McDonalds won't let you sell their products from your back-yard barbeque, Honda won't just give their new cars to anyone to re-sell. They have to meet certain standards and processes that result in a business known as a 'gasp' dealership.
It would seem more accurate to say that Edmunds is an "incomplete invoice" and that CD was attempting to at least approximate the "real invoice."
CWJ
I agree that the ad fees should be prominently posted and considered, but a buyer may be able to negotiate them out on certain cars.
I agree with pete, CD is a good source for a maximum market price, and it can be used in negotiation. i ran into the same situation he did with toyota and a CD dealership. They agreed to meet the CD price. But another dealer had a $500 lower price that the first dealer would not match.
A board bud just bought an '03 Si at $16.1K CD quote: $18,460. "SAVE BIG MONEY", says the pop-up. ROFLMAO!
Are you saying that it's not on the invoice?
The fact remains, neither Edmunds, KBB, intellichoice, carsdirect, carprices.com, nor any other website actually invoices cars. Manufacturers do. Your willingness to grant greater authority to third party web sites over those who are actually party to the transaction totally mystifies me.
You've been a participant of town hall including repeated discussions of the regional advertising fee for years, after all that time and effort I find it extremely hard to believe that you could still harbor any serious doubt about its existence and whether it appears as part of the manufacturer's invoice.
CWJ
You answered your own question---"party to the transaction". That in and of itself makes it questionable. I try to do research from many varied resources. I would never outright trust what the manufacturer or dealer said without doing my own research. edmunds has nothing to gain by whatever car i buy, a dealer or manufacturer does.
; )
Mackabee
I used this because I simply do not care for the traditional haggling experience. The price for the vehicle I bought was close enough to keep me happy.
However, dealing with them has been less than perfect. There were several cases of saying one thing, then doing another.
The topper was I obtained the loan through them. I specifically spoke with the CD person about prepayment penalties as I always pay off vehicles within a year or so of buying.
When the final paperwork for the loan arrived, the form states there may be a penalty. I contacted them about this by phone, but have yet to hear back.
Next time, I will do what I did the time before this one. Figure out a price I am happy with, then just call dealers until one can supply what I want at that price. So much for that idea...
Dear CCCCC,
We now have our car (2004 Freestar, CarsDirect CT#: 999999999 and I had some issues including the trade-in. First, they gave me $400, not $800 as you said on the phone. xxxx xxxxxxx was the salesman that did the deal with me. Just a little background, I have been buying Fords for 20 years, Escorts, Windstars and Tauruses.
The other problem we had was with 2 other CARXXX salesmen. One named F R. and the other named D C. (Mr. C actually left me his cell number - 777-777-7777). On Thursday, Mr. R called me and said that "no cars can leave the lot before 3:00pm Saturday, when XXXXX came in. I called you at Cars Direct and you then referred me to xxxxx. On Saturday morning, at 8:00am, right before we left the house to buy the car, D C called and said the same thing - no car is leaving the lot until 3:00pm, when XXXXX came in. We went to CARXXXX anyway based on my wife's insistence (the whole family went). I called xxxxxx on the way and he explained that the two other salesman were maybe just "trying to steal the sale".
At this point, I am not sure how far to take this.
These are the issues as I see them:
1. Why is Cars Direct sending people (families) into this kind of environment?
2. I have issues with CARXXXX and will be seeking legal advice and complaining to Ford. It is stressful enough buying a car without it becoming a war between sales people.
3. You said that you had $800 for my trade-in and that was not true. It was a classic bait and switch situation.
4. Faxing copies of documents to my Auto insurer. I faxed the documents myself since CARXXXX did not. Even though CARXXXX said that they would.
It could have been worse if we were more gullible. I assume this is happening more times than you realize. I have discussed these issues with my friends and will discuss the experience on Edmunds.Com and my friends are now very aware of the issues of "buying a car on the internet".
YankeFan55
When I used the "Save with CarsDirect" link I was contacted by a CarsDirect salesman who admitted that he would be getting the car from Hennessy Honda too and that his price would be Hennessy's price PLUS a $500 markup for CarsDirect. That was a short conversation!
$500 is a lot to pay for the convenience of not having to E-mail the dealerships in your area to find the best price on your own. Buyer beware.
Car_man
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Smart Shopper Forum
Not everyone can or wants to deal with fighting with salespeople, sales managers, finance managers etc. to possibly save $300 to $500 on a $30,000 car.
People also trade in cars for thousands less than the private party value to avoid dealing with the hassle of selling themselves.
I just purchased a new 2005 Honda Civic VP via CarDirect.com.
It was my first time using CarsDirect. I decided to use CarsDirect because I didn't want to go through the haggle process from a dealer. Although, I did visit a local Honda dealer about a car just to feel them out. I will review my CarsDirect expierence with the Positives first:
Positives
-The 'Guranteed Low Price' for the vehicle I purchased never changed from what it had listed for a 2005 Civic VP in my area on their website. It is REALLY Guranteed.
-There are no extra dealer fees
-After I told the CarsDirect operator over the phone what car, color, features etc I wanted it literally took him 2 minutes to call me back to say he found the car that matched my description.
-I never spoke to car salesman, CarsDirect did all the work.
-They deliver the car to your driveway ($50) or you can pick it up (had mine delivered).
-After they find the car and you agree to the price, you can either have them deliver the car or you can go to the dealership where the car is at to check it out and test drive it (the price will never change).
-The only 'extra' fees I paid was the $50 delivery fee which was optional and a $50 office fee. In Sum: you pay the 'Guranteed Low Price' with tax, title Registration and the Documentation fee. That's it. And you never speak to a car salesman unless you request to.
-I calculate that it took me a total of 45 minutes to confirm my deal. I got the car delivered the next day.
-The people that delivered my car were very nice, I did all my paperwork in the comfort of my house.
-There is no commitment to buy until you agree to the terms of CarsDirect and the deal they offer. And even then you don't have to purchase the car. However they will charge $250 after you agree on the price of the car if you drop out later.
Negatives
-They may not find the car you want in your area. (they found mine 2 hours away from where I live) So you might have to drive a distance for a 1 on 1 dealer relationship in the future.
-Warranties are optional
-You may not be able to test drive the car if they deliver it unless you go to the dealership which may be far away. (I didn't test drive my Civic, however when it arrived at my house it was EXACTLY what I wanted.)
-You don't have the option of doing the 1 on 1 negotiating process. You pay the CarsDirect 'Guranteed Low Price' and that's that.
To sum up, I wouldn't recommend CarsDirect to someone who feels they can get a good deal by direct personal negotiation with a car salesman. Or dare I say, someone who actually enjoys the haggle process. CarsDirect is a extremely fast extremely easy no haggle way to buy a NEW car. I wouldn't recommend buying a used car through CarsDirect since there are many more variables with used cars.
i bought a camry through carsdirect two weeks ago and i was in and out of the dealership in 30 MINUTES - i couldn't believe it
considering the last toyota i bought i spent over 4 hours in the dealership before i drove off the lot - i was so frustrated with killing an entire day that i swore i'd never do it again -
in comparison this was a dream
Invoice is popularly known as the published amount that the dealer paid the manufacturer for the vehicle. This may or may not bear close relation to the dealer’s actual cost, but can be useful as a benchmark. This figure is available on many other web sites; however, only CarsDirect.com adds an estimate of local and regional fees from the manufacturer to the dealers to this price, which makes it very close to the actual sticker invoice amount for cars at your local dealer. No other source has this level of detail. Most other sources of Invoice are not accurate at a regional and local level.
An estimate of these manufacturer-to-dealers fees (such as an advertising fee) is provided for each car and is added to the Invoice to make this figure as accurate as possible. We make this estimate for most cars in most regions. There are some regions and vehicles for which we do not have estimates of these fees.
For this model, we have added $275.00 to the Invoice to represent these fees.
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Now the $275 was what I saw on the sticker at my local dealer. However, I didn't see this on the edmunds or Kelley Blue Book sites - -what gives here?
On the other hand, they had the invoice price on my other car when i bought from them two years ago.
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Share your vehicle reviews
Does anyone tried the Dealer Price Quote from Edmunds? I was hoping to receive quotes via e-mail, but instead I just got the usual dealer-speak, in e-mails and phone messages. I don't know if the experience is different for people in different areas (I'm in northern New Jersey).
Thanks!
Did you talk to them to see if they actually had the car you wanted with the options you wanted?
Just because you can configure the car online at carsdirect.com with certain options and colors, doesn't mean a car exactly like that is readily available.
tygar - if you use carsdirect, please be sure to come back and post how it worked out for you. I've often thought of using them, but I usually just take the quote to a local dealer and show it to them as a bargaining tool (that is, after they balk at my verbal offer - pulling out other quotes is usually a last resort for me).
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '08 Charger R/T Daytona; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '08 Maser QP; '11 Mini Cooper S