New Car Buying Shennanigans

[HCM]

Generally speaking, I don't need to deal with the salesdood to figure those things out. I have wandered on to lots after parking nextdoor and sat in enough trucks to figure out what I want. What would be great would be if they'd make that whole thing less painful too. If the salesdoods weren't such turds to deal with they could just let you walk around and see what you liked and didn't.

My deals have always been contingent on the final test-drive on arrival. Like I did with my GTO.

I've had exactly two times in my car-buying life where the salesdood knew more about the car than I did. once was the GTO, and the other was the F150 Lightning I nearly bought in ~2002. Every other time they've not only known less but either been wrong or lied.

ETA:
at some point there's going to be an in-person interaction. What I want out of the way first is the pricing aspect more than anything else.

And I'd also like not to be insulted by the dumbass in the "internet" sales department. If you have to ask for my phone number via email, you're not really the "internet" sales guy.

Walk around at night when they are closed. Just check in with the security guy if they have one. You cant get into the car but you can narrow your choices before your blood pressure spikes.

[Joe in PNG]

My parents lucked out- one of mum's former real estate bosses opened a Ford dealership on the other side of Florida. So, the last few years, when the new car bug has bitten, they'd just call him up, see what he has, and boom- they drive the new car to their house and pick up the old one.

[rob_s]

I bought my wife’s car from Carvana and it was honestly the most hassle-free thing.

I can't get any of these aggregators like that to work for me. I have a specific set of model-specific features that I want and if I can't get it spec'd the way I want it I'll drive my current truck.

Those sites are great if all you care about are "leather" and "nav" and other generic specs but when you want a combination of things that are specific to one make/model (like "rambox" and "multi-funtion tailgate" and "3.92" and so on) they're pretty useless for searching.

These are the "features" and "more filters" which are almost entirely useless.

[rob_s]

Walk around at night when they are closed. Just check in with the security guy if they have one. You cant get into the car but you can narrow your choices before your blood pressure spikes.

I miss the days when dealerships were closed on Sundays. Best time to "car shop" and I jumped many a chain with my dad as a kid.

[EricM]

Really it's the trade-in that makes it most difficult. Buying a new or lightly used car is pretty easy but disposing of your current vehicle cleanly/efficiently is the tough part.

CarMax has been my answer to that. They look your car over and tell you exactly what they'll give you for it and their offer is good for a week. If you decide to sell, leave your keys and walk away with a check. If your car isn't paid off, they call the financing company to get the payoff quote and they handle all the paperwork, couldn't be easier. 4 of the last 5 vehicles I've sold have gone to CarMax. With the first one, CarMax gave me a better offer to buy it outright than I could negotiate in trade at the dealer I was buying its replacement from. The others, the dealers I was buying from were across the country so trading in wasn't an option. The four I sold to them were 7 years old or newer, if I recall correctly, and in excellent condition. The one I didn't sell to them was 15 years old...it had super low miles and was in great shape, but since CarMax doesn't sell older vehicles themselves it would have gone to a wholesaler, so they couldn't offer much for it. I still might have taken their offer over hassling with selling on Craigslist, but I ended up getting a decent trade offer.

CarMax has an interesting buying experience too, though so far I've ended up finding what I want elsewhere. Their web site has better photos and search capabilities than most dealers, and when I started shopping for a new truck, it was nice to have a Tacoma, Ram, F-150, and Silverado all on the same lot to drive back to back. They didn't have an F-150 with the trim level and engine I was considering, so I looked on their web site and arranged a transfer. Just about any vehicle in their nationwide inventory can be transferred to your local store...in my case the stores were only a couple hundred miles apart so the transfer was free, though a cross-country transfer can get expensive. Although you have to pay the transfer fee, when the vehicle arrives you are not obligated to purchase it. The extended warranties they offer might be some of the only third-party options worth considering.

The three vehicles I purchased from non-local dealers were all hard-to-find configurations I located online. One was about 10 hours away so I bought a one way flight, did the paperwork in person, and drove home. The others were 20+ hours away, so I had them shipped to me. Initial financing stuff was handled through online forms and electronic signatures and then a final packet of paperwork had to be notarized and FedEx'ed. It's a little nerve-wracking buying a used vehicle sight unseen but both worked out, though not without a hitch. The first time, I met the delivery guy at a shopping mall parking lot at 4am in a snowstorm. There was a miscommunication and the driver of the semi expected to be paid his fee in cash, but I had already paid the dealer. Fortunately the salesman answered his cell in the middle of the night and got things straightened out. The second time, delivery was super smooth, a smaller car carrier dropped it off right in front of my house. However, the company the dealer used to handle the docs for title and registration completely screwed everything up, with a huge delay initially and then there were mistakes on their end that took even longer to correct. Twice the dealer had to overnight another 30-day temp tag, but all was well in the end.

[RoyGBiv]

^^^ Dealer trade in is its own separate scam. Don't be lazy. Sell it yourself.
Last car I sold, I took to a dealer and they offered me $3500 trade in. I laughed. Did the thing with the holding my key for a few minutes. I was unimpressed.
After I bought the replacement, I sold that car for $6900 (full asking, I should have listed it higher ) in 2 days on Craigslist. Met at the PD lot. Easy.

CarMax has made me some reasonable offers on my trades. Not a bad way to go if you're in a hurry. Still get better money out of selling yourself.

[tango-papa]

Carmax to sell. Unless you want to deal with potential buyers, who are actually scum bag dealers, that will try and lowball-fuck you when they show up to see the car.

Costco auto program to buy. It's basically the same as the fleet sales guy route without having to talk to more than one guy. 100% I would do it again. Two friends used the same guy I did earlier in the year - all three of us would do it again and all three of us have zero tolerance for fuckery of any sort.

I got a 4-Runner, configured exactly as I wanted, out-the-door price up front. Guy called me once he had it, went to dealer, he handed me the keys, drove it around a bit, signed paperwork and done.

USAA auto program is shit.

[randyho]

^^^ Dealer trade in is its own separate scam. Don't be lazy. Sell it yourself.

At the risk of @rob_s showing up? Hard pass

+another carmax fan.

[BehindBlueI's]

I've traded and I've sold. In my state you only pay sales tax on the difference in price if you trade, so that has to be factored in on more expensive trade-ins. Also the type of vehicle I was selling. Trucks I sold on my own. Sports cars I traded. I learned the hard way on my IROC-Z the people who show up to test drive a sports car usually just want to drive it or look at it and fantasize. Truck buyers were usually pretty serious and by the time I was done with a truck it was both too old and too high miles to be worth much. I can only think of one I sold that wasn't over 10 years old, and can't think of any that weren't 180k+ miles.

[Jim Watson]

What about buying a car out of town because you have no local dealer for the make?

Makes me nervous. I have contemplated a "family sedan" and see Mazda given as an alternative to Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai. But it is 50 or more miles to the Mazda dealer, which makes me reluctant to consider a new or still in warranty Mazda.

(I do have a middle aged BMW, way out of warranty and a conscientious local mechanic, but I still worry about it.)