WWTBAM Bored

Has anyone had any experience with on-line car buying? Like Carvana or others? With the lack of supply of both new and used cars, this is a crappy time to consider buying a vehicle but there seems to be a fair selection with the on-line / deliver directly to your home companies. I've just never done this kind of car buying and it feels rather strange to consider it.

Our kayak hauling Honda Odyssey ended it's long life outside of Hilton Head last week so we are starting the search for a replacement - probably a CR-Vish type SUV. Fortunately, this is our 'extra' vehicle so we can make do with our others if needed. But we will definitely be getting another vehicle if we can find what we want at a realistic price.

Check with Eugene Levy and his daughter. They seem to know a lot about buying cars online.

Our neighbors across the street did this - traded in a Jeep for a Chevy Traverse.

She said it was pretty much a flawless interaction. I can find more details from her.

Thanks. I've found one local friend who knows of several who have used these services. So far, all good reports. It seems like a good process, I've just never done this before and wanted to get some real input.. Do not have a trade from my end so that should make it easier.

My daughter and her husband bought online through Carmax. They purchased a Suburban that was located in Texas. It was 4-wheel drive. In Colorado where they live there is a premium on 4x4s, but not so much in Texas. They got a good deal. They were able to still drive it for a day or two once it was shipped to them before they were completely committed. Something was wrong with it when they got it, I don't remember what, but Carmax took it back, fixed it, and returned it to them.

They would do the process all over again. They are very happy with the deal and the service.

I ordered a new car in July. Last time I checked, it is scheduled for assembly on September 27, if I'm lucky.



Kay

kayrharris wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 20, 2021 6:41 pm

I ordered a new car in July. Last time I checked, it is scheduled for assembly on September 27, if I'm lucky.



Kay

What could go wrong with your Ikea car?

I sure hope IKEA stays away from my car, if the factory ever decides to make it!

An update for anyone who is interested:

We wound up buying a two year old Honda CR-V with 16K miles on it from Carvana. I would highly recommend this process - beats the crap out of sitting in a 10' x 10' showroom office while waiting for the sales person to run back and forth with their sales manager.

The process was simple. Find a car. Reserve the car. Buy the car. Do some on-line paperwork. They deliver the car to you. That's pretty much it. There were some mild paperwork snafu's due to Mrs. Jaybee creating the Carvana account in her name while we were searching yet we were buying a car jointly. But no big deal and fairly easily fixed with yet more paper work. We had the car for a week before we had to commit to the final sale. We did not do any kind of trade-in so can't comment on that process but they take trades too.

While we are very happy with the Carvana the on-line process may not always be good. We had actually found and reserved a different car through Carmax on line. It was a done deal but we had some simple questions about confirming the final price and any delivery fees. Despite their people being very friendly, they just didn't return our calls and could not answer these simple questions. After two days of tracking them down while waiting for their return calls, they still could not confirm if there would be a delivery fee. They did confirm however that Carmax charges an either $399 or $499 (they could not be sure of that either) 'dealer fee'. That was a deal breaker as far as I was concerned. One reason to buy on line was to avoid dealer fees.

In this car buying market where there are not many cars available and prices are at a premium it was a no brainer to buy via a fixed price, on line source. In a more normal market and if you know how to play the car bargaining game, then it may make sense to go to a dealer. But right now, dealers are adding surcharges to the few vehicles that they have on the lot so there are no deals to be made.