How's carsdirect.com?

July 1, 2009 2:35 PM

Anyone buy a car through carsdirect.com?

Please tell me your experiences with an internet car dealer like carsdirect.com (as opposed to a dealer that's on the internet).

I'm not clear how using carsdirect.com is different from going to a dealership. Also, was it a pleasant experience, i.e. no haggling and were you satisfied with the process over going into a dealership to buy a car? Would you do it again?

posted by Pocahontas to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

I used Carsdirect.com about 8 years ago to buy a new Mazda minivan. They got me the van I wanted at about $1000 less than I was able to negotiate myself. They did all the paperwork and had it completed and waiting for me at the dealer. I showed up, signed the paperwork, and drove away.
posted by COD at 4:02 PM on July 1, 2009

I haven't bought a new car since, I've only purchased used. If I was buying a new car again, I would definately check and see if they can do better on price than I can do myself. I suspect that with the ubiquity of new car info online these days that the spread isn't as dramatic as it was back in 2000.
posted by COD at 4:04 PM on July 1, 2009

I came *this* close to buying a car via carsdirect.com. It was either 1999 or 2000. They were super easy to deal with and found me an awesome deal on a honda accord. If I remember correctly, the dealer was about an hour away and they were going to bring the car to my office. Arranging financing through them was easy and pressure-free, too. It was a super experience and I would have suggested it to anyone. In the end, I decided to extend my lease for a third year, and buy something after that. I can't remember why I did that, but it didn't have anything to do with carsdirect.com.

I had been leasing a ford explorer, and next year, when my lease-extension was over, I decided to buy an explorer from the same dealership where I had leased two cars previously and already had an established relationship with their fleet manager and my price was always $400 over invoice. Had I decided to buy anything other than a ford, I would have gone back to carsdirect.com.

I believe carsdirect.com is no longer under the original ownership, so YMMV now.
posted by necessitas at 4:44 PM on July 1, 2009

I bought my car through carsdirect.com in 2000 and it was a great experience. They were super easy to work with. I got a better deal through them than I would have gotten otherwise and all I had to do was show up at the dealership, sign the registration forms and get my keys.
posted by Maisie at 5:28 PM on July 1, 2009

I did, eight or nine years ago.

Plus: no negotiating with the dealer over price. (This, honestly, is the only reason to use an online service rather than going directly to a dealership.)

Minus: I had to drive five hours to get to the dealership that actually had the vehicle, and there were a lot of delays and confusion over the paperwork (I got the impression that they hadn't worked much with carsdirect and didn't really have the process worked out.)

(It's interesting that everyone here did this in the same year or two; has nobody used them more recently than 2001?)
posted by ook at 7:07 PM on July 1, 2009