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Good Experience With CarsDirect.comApr 14 '00 Write an essay on this topic.I recently decided to buy a Jeep Wrangler, using an online service if possible. I first attempted to buy thru CarOrder.com and it was a bust. See my epinion on that. Next I tried CarsDirect.com. I had a good although not perfect experience. I went thru their pricing pages on the web site and came up with a price. I used that printout to attempt to get a deal locally and could not find a dealer who would match it. So I decided to go ahead and place the order. I placed the order thru the web site. I got a phone call the next day from a representative. He was a nice guy and told me they would go out and look for a match for what I wanted. After two days I got a call back that they could not find a match, but had a couple of Wranglers and would I consider them. My answer was no, because they weren't even close to what I wanted. The rep at that point went into sales mode because I guess he thought they would lose the order. He pressured me to some extent to take what was available. That was unfortunate because I was using the web to avoid pressure and haggling. However, I told him I was willing to order the vehicle, and at that point all was well. As an aside, I want to say that buyers should have realistic expectations about any web based car buying service that lets you configure an exact set of options. After all, there is a finite inventory of cars that are already built, and if you pick a set of options that doesn't match an existing car, you will either have to take one that is available or order it. It would be the same at a dealer or anywhere else. I think because the online services make it much easier to configure an exact option set, it gives the impression that they will be able to spew out a matching vehicle in all cases. This just isn't so. Another issue with ordering is that how long it takes to get a car you order from the factory depends on the factory itself and when they will building that type of car. The factories don't work all year round building the same cars. They have production runs and if you come in at the right time, you will get it quicker than if you happen to come in at the wrong time. That's just how it seems to work. Anyway, once I confirmed the order with my rep, he gave me an expected delivery date (six weeks) and faxed me my order paperwork. I sat back and waited. After 5 weeks, I got a phone call from a different person at CarsDirect, I guess you would call him the 'closer' or delivery specialist. He told me the car was on the way, and now I had to get the financing paperwork in order. I was getting my own financing thru a credit union and it was already approved and ready. The rep fed-exed me some papers to sign, I went to the credit union, got them ready. I was supposed to hand over the paper and a cashier's check when I went to the dealer to pick up the vehicle. The fleet specialist at the dealer called me and told me the car was in and that it would take a couple of days to get the paperwork ready. It turned out that the car was ready for pickup on the EXACT day that had been specified 6 weeks earlier when I placed the order. It was a coincidence, but was kind of cool. The two day delay from when the car went in and when it was ready was apparently due to a flurry of faxing back and forth between CarsDirect, the dealer and my credit union. I went to the credit union, signed the loan papers, got the check and went to the dealer. I was expecting the dealer to perhaps not be too interested in this deal because I went thru a broker, but they treated me very well, and the fleet manager handled the paperwork expeditiously and gave me the rundown on the car and I handed over the check and drove off. Two days later I got a call from the dealer that there was a mistake in the final price (due to tax and registration fee calculations) and the dealer would refund me about $400. I went and got that check and was really happy. I would especially commend the dealer, Reno Chrysler-Jeep for their handling of the deal and how they treated me. They were great. I do see that there is a vulnerability in the process, one that caused a gotcha for another reviewer who used CarsDirect. Because the broker (CarsDirect),the dealer and in my case the financing are not the same folks, there is an issue with getting all the paperwork right (especially the financing and checks) and if there are glitches in the paperwork at the last minute, it could turn into a problem, as the other reviewer experienced. But I have had the same type of problem a few years ago when buying thru a dealer when I had credit union financing, where there were problems between the credit union and dealer that resulted in some strained phone calls before everything was ironed out. I think this problem is inherent in the process and the buyer needs to take control of the process and make sure it all works out. As a bottom line, I ended up saving $500 over what I could get the car for direct from a dealer. Even the dealer who I ended up getting the vehicle from wouldn't match the CarsDirect price when I brought in the pricing statement at first, although I assume they ended up taking even less to broker the car to me thru CarsDirect. I should mention that it seems that here in Reno the car business is not all that competitive and that dealers don't give prices that are as low as you can get in some larger markets. I think that might explain why I got a better deal thru CarsDirect whereas in a big city you can probably find a dealer who matches. I may or may not order thru the internet for my next car. But I definitely will use the web to generate a dealer pricing statement and use that to bargain with. It was great not to have to haggle from the list price down, but instead know the invoice price and what I had to pay above that.  |
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