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Car Insurance direct site vs. comparison sites : CarTalkUK
Main Post: Car Insurance direct site vs. comparison sites : CarTalkUK
Car tax direct debit set up.. gov website says car still untaxed... can I drive before first payment? : LegalAdviceUK
Main Post: Car tax direct debit set up.. gov website says car still untaxed... can I drive before first payment? : LegalAdviceUK
Car insurance quote done direct through providers website £900....
Main Post: Car insurance quote done direct through providers website £900....
Has anyone here bought a car through Zag.com or CarsDirect.com? I'm thinking of buying my first car through them.
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I recently found out about www.zag.com through a co-worker. Apparently, they have arrangements with car dealerships that guarantee very low pricing on many models of cars. From their "How It Works" page: http://i.imgur.com/CvWz7.jpg . I also heard about carsdirect.com, and they both seem to operate under the same "We give you business, you provide cheaper prices" arrangement with the dealerships.
I'm looking to buy a 2012 Dodge Avenger R/T, and zag has it for $20,550 in the NY area, which is significantly (thousands) cheaper than I have seen it listed, MSRP+Destination is $26,745 (Dodge website source). It's even cheaper than carsdirect.com ($23,508).
Has anyone had experience with either of these companies? Do the dealerships honor these prices? Are there add-ons like freight, "processing", etc?
Top Comment: A former coworker purchased a car through carsdirect.com. He could not say enough good things about it. They worked directly with a dealer on his behalf, and delivered the car to his front door. Got the price he wanted, and knew was fair. Didn't need to talk to a dealer once, haggle, or play financing games.
Question about purchasing a car direct from manufacturer ...
Main Post: Question about purchasing a car direct from manufacturer ...
Looking for info on Ship A Car Direct
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I need to ship my car- a 2012 Mazda 3- around mid-August from Boston to Portland (OR), and I'm thinking of using either Montaway or Ship a Car Direct. I know 2 people who had an ok time with Montaway, but I know they don't have the best reputation from reading other reddit threads. I've seen some good reviews of Ship A Car Direct, and they seem to have much fewer complaints with the BBB although they still have a high number of ratings, which seems like a good sign. It also offered a quote that was $300 cheaper than Montaway, which was nice.
However, I noticed that the Move.org review from this July says that the company doesn't have online quotes, which was not true when I visited the website. Additionally, their phone number listed in the Move.org review is different from the one of the website, so it has me a little suspicious. I wanted to check out if anyone on here has info about them, and if they are a good broker to use.
Top Comment: Montway and ship a car are decent companies. Their issue is that they have so many vehicle go through their company because of the cheaper prices. That causes the issue of overwhelmed brokers which forget to either communicate with you and not provide a quality service. They use the same app to find drivers just like any other broker. Their issue is that when drivers and carriers like my company are looking for loads to ship they underprice so that they can get a bigger commission and in tern your vehicle won’t get shipped for a while. I’ve had so many issues with montway with their accounting dep and their dispatch dep. they have been doing a lot better recently so I’ll give them that.
Real world Car buying Experience
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I just wanted to share my real world experience. Often on here people post stuff like this with no specific detail. Its good advice sometimes, but it is generic and hard to understand how to apply. I have been in the market for a car. I was going to buy a slightly used one, but when I got to the dealer to shop I liked one of the new ones and thought I could get the price to work. I drove the various trim levels and picked out a fairly high end trim. I walked out the first day and got his "Best price". The next weekend I went back to drive a couple of more trim options he did not have the previous weekend. He was firm on that "best price". This price by the way was inline with the KBB fair market price.
I went home and e-mailed him that I wanted to make a deal, but I was going to contact the 5 dealers within an hour and 1/2 to see what they could offer before I purchased. He came back with a song and dance of how hard it was, and reduced the offer $500.
4 of the 5 dealers came back with offers in the ball park of his offer off their first contact. One of the dealers came back with an offer $1000 less than the second offer. I called that dealership and made sure there were no hidden things to be aware of, and indeed what price I would be paying out the door with taxes and fees. Then we drive over and bought the car.
Benefits to buying in the big town. They deal in more volume, so they can offer discounts because they get more kickbacks from the manufacturer. They also have more cars, so instead of settling for that color, you can choose almost any color/options.
These are some things to consider.
- Best if that big town is in state. I was warned if you go out of state you will pay taxes there, and then again when you get your tag in state.
- Deal in out the door prices for negotiations. These guys will withhold fees ($600 documentation fee) until you get at the table. Then you will find yourself trying to negotiate as numbers fly.
- In my city the tax rate is +0.5% on car purchases. That is an extra $100. That $100 will look like nothing in a payment, but it is $100 that is coming out of your pocket.
There is a line that car dealers have pulled out onto me several times over the years. This fee is how I pay my family. I am sure it is in the handbook of emotional cues to car buyers. While I respect they have to feed their family, I do also. With very little negotiation, I paid $1,600 less than the original offer. Its why car buying sucks, who knows what I should be paying that is fair for all involved. They have all the data. This was all unemotional for me. I was never confrontational, its just business for all parties.
Remember that kbb and other fair market values are tools. They are likely tools crafted/manipulated by the car manufacturers. Use those numbers to understand boundaries. At the end of the day determine how much you can spend on a car, and find the one you like at the value you want. I would have likely paid what the guy was asking for this car originally if no one came back with any better offers.
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Even better than KBB are the online forums at Edmonds. Posters there tell exactly what they paid and it is often lower than other tools. The one time we bought new, I gave a nice low number to my wife and she went to the dealer and said "I can buy today if you give this price, it is all I can spend." Worked well. All said and done the dealer probably made $400 off it depending on his sales that month.
Direct Sales: A Perfect Storm May Have Come For Auto Dealers - CleanTechnica
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It can't came soon enough
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The sooner the better, please 🙏 put an end the the misery... NO ONE, wants to deal with car dealers..
We’ve got to go to non-negotiated price. We’ve got to go to 100 percent online,” Farley said. “There’s no inventory (at dealerships), it goes directly to the customer. And 100% remote pickup and delivery.”
I'm glad Ford had the balls to start the movement towards direct...
Who's next?
What are your thoughts about Car makers selling direct?
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What are your objective arguments against allowing the consumer to have the option to buy direct from the manufacturer. Of course, I know that the business is your livelihood, but aside from those arguments, why should the consumer not have the choice to buy direct?
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Despite all the stuff you may read or whatever you hear, or how much sense it may make to you for the consumer to be able to buy direct, it won't happen. The MANUFACTURER doesn't want it to happen.
Think about this from the eyes of the manufacturer for a minute - would you rather have 2,000 customers that pay you in full for every single car you make, you tell them what they are going to get, you tell them how their building must look, and they take all the heat from the end user when something goes wrong.
OR
Would you rather buyout all these dealerships, hire the thousands and thousands and thousands of people needed to oversee millions of sales, have to figure out where to put the cars that aren't selling, have to deal with 50 different state tax codes and DMV's, have to deal with customer trade ins, have to deal with people and their 500 credit scores, all while tying up billions of dollars because you aren't getting paid by the truckload anymore?
The dealership model benefits the manufacturer the most by far.