The technology of the modern day has transformed how we live our lives. If you’re so inclined, you can get your groceries, prescriptions, tools, and pretty much most other things by making a few taps on your phone screen and waiting for a delivery. The digital era is even transforming car sales. Instead of going to a dealership, you can buy and finance a car entirely online without ever talking to a human. Have you ever bought a car from an online car dealership? How did it go?
In years past, shopping for a used car might have taken multiple days. You’d drive around to different dealerships, look at some cars, get the runaround from a salesman, and then do it all over again. Eventually, often right near the point where you’re exhausted, you pick a car, sign on the dotted line, and drive home.
In my experience, few people seem to actually enjoy the process of buying a car through the traditional method of visiting a dealership. You might have to negotiate with someone who spends each and every day negotiating. You then have to fend off dealer add-ons, market adjustments, and extended warranties. Of course, some used car dealers might not be as honest as they should be, too.
Part of what made Saturn great was that it got rid of some of the major pain points of buying from a dealership. The price you saw was the price you paid, and Saturn dealers at least tried to treat you like a person and not a walking bag of money. General Motors even strongly discouraged Saturn dealers from marking up popular models. It’s no surprise that Saturn dealers consistently rated high in dealership satisfaction surveys.
CarMax would adopt the Saturn model for its own business model, and it works. The Internet has supercharged this business model. What if there wasn’t a physical dealership at all? Companies like Carvana, CarBravo, and Vroom allow you to search for and purchase cars at home. You can even sign the paperwork in your underwear and then have your vehicle delivered right to your door. No haggling, no TruCoat, and not even human interaction, if you don’t want it.
Now, these companies are far from perfect. Carvana has been sued by several states for allegedly not following the law when selling cars. The car that you get from Carvana might also have some bizarre issues that should have been caught by the inspection that Carvana proudly advertises. Carvana also makes it shockingly easy to lock yourself into a loan with horrifyingly bad terms. At its worst, Carvana was allegedly selling stolen cars to people, and even cars that were kosher couldn’t be legally driven because Carvana allegedly didn’t send the vehicle owners their documentation.
Yet, for how terrible Carvana has been, I’m actually a two-time Carvana customer. My wife bought a 2010 Toyota Prius from Carvana in 2021, and I got my 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata from Carvana this year. In both cases, the cars came largely as described, and Carvana’s process was painless from start to finish. Maybe we lucked out, or maybe Carvana has started to clean up its act. I plan on writing about my Carvana experience a bit later, but the short version was that buying from Carvana was one of the easiest car-buying experiences I’ve ever had.
This is not to say that Carvana is perfect today. In my experience, Carvana’s extended warranty is only slightly better than worthless, and Carvana still misses some issues concerning a vehicle’s condition. However, that’s not any worse than buying at a normal used car dealership.
Of course, buying a car online also tends to mean that you sign on the dotted line before you even see the car in person, which might raise some hairs on your body. Yet, people keep doing it. So, that makes me wonder, Autopians. How many of you have purchased from an online car dealership? How did it go?
Topshot image graphic: Mercedes Streeter
Bought my 2018 BMW i3s from Carmax in January, and I can’t say enough good things. After an exasperating experience with Carvana, where I found a great deal on one, got approved for the financing, and was scheduled to pick it up when two days later, the Carvana finance department called and said they just had a few questions. 4 to be exact. SSN, phone, etc. But the last question: give us another address you’ve lived at besides the one you’re at now. I gave them every address I’ve lived at for the past 35 years. “Nope – not that one” after every answer. This went on for 20 minutes, along with a “I can give you a little time to think about it” – no, I know where I’ve lived, thanks. And they wouldn’t complete the transaction. Ponderous.
So I ditched Carvana, and found a way nicer i3s at a comparable price, with lower miles to boot, and picked it up from Carmax without a hitch 4 days later.
I needed one repair to the charging port, that would have set me back close to 1k at a BMW dealership, in my first 90 days of ownership. I found a reputable non-dealer shop who did the repair, and Carmax covered the bill. Two giant thumbs up across the board for Carmax. Your mileage may vary.
I sort of bought a car online. I was in Denver for a week, doing some work, and in the hotel room in the evening, I was rummaging around on eBay for Toyota Tundras, just to see what was out there and what the prices were like. But I happened to find a low-mileage 2005 Tundra in Colorado Springs (about an hour south) for an extremely good price at a Subaru dealership…lots of good photos, everything looked really nice.
Before I left Denver, I got a bank check for the asking price (it was so good, I didn’t feel like haggling) and drove down to look at it. It was practically perfect, so I bought it after a test drive. The reason they were selling it so cheap was that it was 2WD, and nobody wanted 2WD trucks, and they were having a very hard time moving it.
I still have the truck as my daily driver. I’ve beaten the crap out of it, and it just keeps ticking.
My only regret is that I traded in my ratty old ’90 Dodge Caravan on it. Looked like hell, but it was pretty low mileage for its age…the 3-speed auto and the Mitsu V6 were just about nicely broken-in by that point. I wish I’d have traded in my Neon instead, but the Caravan was what I’d driven to Denver. I really miss that van.
That said, I’d be pretty skittish about buying anything from Carvana.
I’m so paranoid and gun shy about buying a car I don’t think I would be comfortable with it unless I go hi-res undercarriage shots of the car, and then then, I’m not sure.
I do think that other than a test drive, it should be as easy as buying a TV from bestbuy to purchase a car. Financing should be on a screen in front of you, and a couple digital clicks and get your plates and leave. The “dealer experience” is why I haven’t bought a car from a dealer since 2016, the last one was such a bad experience for me.
Yeah we just bought a car from Carvana about a month ago. So far so good.
No, but I got two PhDs from the Correspondence College of Tampa Online, parapsychology and homeopathy, best 3 hours I’ve ever spent
I really wanted to use Carvana when I first heard of them in 2017?ish. Their pitch sounded like exactly what I’d want in a car buying experience. But I read about all the law-not-following and all the title-not-having and the title-not-handing-over and that spooked me waaaaaay the hell off. I want what they purport to provide, but I don’t in any way trust them to actually do what they say. Their premium price (like CarMax) is only worth if it they deliver all their promises.
We bought our Stelvio through Vroom back in 2021 in the height of COVID and traded in our Tucson as part of the deal. The transactions were easy, the cars were delivered/picked up in a reasonable time frame, and the Stelvio was exactly as described and had no issues.
It took 8 months for them to send me the title. Pulling teeth doesn’t even begin to describe what that process was like. Eventually they ran out of temp tags to send me and had to put me in a rental car for a few months because I couldn’t legally register the Stelvio in my name and get plates until they processed the title transfer.
Good riddance to them.
The last two cars have been purchased from FB Marketplace and on the side of the road. In both cases I got the title the same day the money was exchanged. Much better.
I tried with Carvana twice, but both cars had issues not reported and I sent them back and gave up. One was clearly in an accident that was repaired outside insurance and not documented in any way. The other had the sunroof get stuck open during delivery prep. Apparently the roof had not been tested at all prior to being put up for sale.