CarsDirect

Full review
I've purchased (& helped purchase) five cars in my life, and it was always at a dealer.

1. My first purchase (Isuzu) was pretty horrible: bald-faced lies, pressure, the works. That particular dealer closed its doors three months after my purchase. I like to think it was karmic retribution.

2. My second purchase (Toyota) was not much better: once again, I was lied to: I wanted to take advantage of their special financing rates, but was told it was no longer available. I took their word for it, because I thought, "Would they dare tell such a bald-faced lie?" I'm so naive! Anyway, I got gypped, but I was able to rescind and renegotiate my contract three days later, and got their advertised rate after all. This remedy is very rare, but in the face of such blatant fraud, I guess the higher-ups felt compelled to fix things. (I do, however, kick myself for taking their word for it in the first place. Lesson learned yet again: car salespeople lie, shamelessly and often.)

3. I next bought a BMW. Surprisingly, it was a relatively pain-free experience. It might be because I was so on guard, after having been burned by my two previous purchases.

4. I then helped my mother buy Mercedes-Benz, and it was a fine experience. No lies, no shady tricks, no pressure. The guy we worked with was great. I wanted to buy my next car from him, but he was promoted and no longer worked in sales.

5. My mom bought another Benz the next year. (Her first one was totaled in an accident.) Once again, a relatively pain-free experience, since we bought the exact same car and knew the ropes.

So in my experience, car-shopping is generally a royal pain, for me and everyone else I know, and the dealer experience is kind of a crapshoot. But after having done it a few times, I'm a little more savvy and on guard. But even after a relatively good experience, it's still pretty stressful.

A few months ago, I decided to buy a 2006 Lexus IS 350. After consulting a few dealers, I decided to try CarsDirect.com, because a guy I know had bought a Toyota from CarsDirect and said it was a good, hassle-free experience.

I went to www.CarsDirect.com, and I knew that I was limited to existing stock on the car I wanted. So after selecting my car model, I only put down my color preference and added the sports package.

The Lexus representative in my area, a guy named Alex Karapetyan, called me back and told me how wonderful my buying experience would be. That once I complete the paperwork, I just go to the dealer to pickup the car, or I can even have it delivered to my door! Now that sounded fast & convenient, which is just what I wanted. So I had Alex search for a car, and he told me that within a 380 mile radius, there are only two of these cars available, one in Silver/Black, and another in Black/Tan. I decided to get the Black/Tan.

He then told me what options were included (which I jotted down in a notebook). He gave me the MSRP price, the invoice price, and the price I would be paying. This price was slightly above the best dealer quote I had gotten so far, but I was willing to pay extra for the added convenience Alex promised.

When I logged onto CarsDirect.com, I clicked on the tab: My Orders, and the specs of the car we talked about was already listed there. And one of the options listed was a rear lip spoiler ($246) which Alex mentioned, and I wrote down in my notebook. And I did want a spoiler. Great! The price listed also reflected the numbers Alex gave me. I printed this page out. (A good thing I did, too. Read on.)

So once we made the decision to buy this car based on these specs, we went through a process of figuring out the financing, and the insurance.

Insurance Issue:

According to Alex, because my mother was co-signing my loan, both my mother and I needed to be on the same insurance policy. (Huh?) I'd never encountered that requirement before: I've had people co-sign my car loan before, and I've co-signed for others - they do ask if both signers are insured, but they do not require that we be on the same policy. Alex said there's a new California law that now requires this. (I haven't been able to verify this.)

But people can usually be added to a car insurance policy only if they live in the same household. When I told Alex that, he told me that co-applicants for a car loan do need in fact need to live in the same house! This sounds unlikely.

I'd never heard of this before, and it sounded fishy. But whatever, it wasn't a big deal to me either way. I called my insurance co. and added my mom. We do not live together, but we do share a mailing address. Alex then told me after a month, we can just remove the co-signer off the policy, which kind makes the whole thing pointless.

The Optional Wheels

I was happy with the specs of this car, but I wanted to add ISP wheels. Alex told me that was fine, and quoted me $1495. I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to it, so Alex told me we could always add it later.

When it came time to purchase the car, I told Alex I wanted the wheels after all, and he told me the wheels are now $1895!!!

I was understandably upset by this price change, to which Alex responded:
- He claimed that he originally told me 1895. (Lie!) I replied that that's not what I wrote in my notebook. (Unfortunately, I had no other concrete proof.)
- *Then* he told me that I had originally said I wanted Spider wheels (another kind), and that he said THOSE were 1495. Another lie!) I told him that I never wanted Spider wheels, and would have not been interested in what they cost.
- And then finally, he told me that this is the price that the dealer quoted him, and there was nothing he could do. At this point, he basically taunted and bullied me, "Do you want these wheels or not? If you argue with me you won't get them." I ended up just accepting the wheels at $1895. But I wasn't happy about it.
- I spoke to Alex's sales manager, Chad Cravens, about this problem. Chad told me that $1895 was the "CarsDirect listed price" of these wheels. I don't find this credible, because Alex quoted me a different number first, and then changed it, and then told me it was the "dealer's price." So is $1895 the dealer's price or CarsDirect's price? They should keep their lies straight.

Financing Issue:

Over two days of working on this transaction, Alex also *never* asked me how much I wanted to put down. I wanted to put down $5000, but Alex simply never asked, and so I had no chance to tell him. Instead, I sent Alex the necessary credit info. for financing, and he drew up the papers - which he did without ever specifying what I wanted to pay as down payment, or how long I wanted to finance. So without asking me anything, he just drew up the papers for $0 down and 60-months. In fact, the down payment wasn't even mentioned until almost everything was finalized, and Alex finally told me that I need to pay $1895 for the ISP wheels upfront, and that *that* will be my down payment.

When I gently protested that I had wanted to put more down, he told me it would be "a hassle for him to re-do the paperwork." Okay ... what? As ridiculous as he was being, I decided to just let it go, despite the fact that I would pay more interest than I had planned.

(See how easygoing I am? I am telling you, I was really trying to work with this guy and not be a difficult customer.)

The Rear Spoiler Issue:

When the papers were being finalized, I realized that the final price was slightly lower than the original figure - and that the specs he e-mailed me for final approval indicated that this car did *not* have a spoiler! I called Alex and told him that he originally told me that this specific car *did* have a spoiler *and* we had priced it that way. We argued, and these were the excuses he offered:

- He once again claimed to have told me this car didn't have a spoiler. (Another lie!) He accused *me* of lying about this AND about the wheel price. (!!!)

- When I told him about the specs listed in my CarsDirect.com account, he told me that that must have been the car that *I* had "built" on the CarsDirect.com site. (This is also a lie! First of all, that would be under my MY SAVED CARS, not MY ORDERS. And Black/Tan wasn't even my first choice colors, so I wouldn't have "built" my car with those specs!)

- Blah blah, bicker bicker ... things got pretty unpleasant, and Alex became whiny and rude. I was shocked into silence by his stunning rudeness. So I finally faxed him a hard copy of the specs I had printed with a date stamp from the web browser (thank goodness I had this) proving that these were specs HE entered into my account. After receiving this fax, he finally offered to fix things.

"Dude, That's NOT My Problem"

Oh yeah, Alex ranted at me ... a lot. For dealing with a self-proclaimed "expert" car salesman, I was subjected to a stunning amount of whinging on his part:

- it's hard to get the dealer to change the wheels on the tires (except that you promised to do it)
- it's hard to get the dealer to deliver the car to my door (again, you promised to have my car delivered to me)
- it's hard to get the dealer to attach the spoiler (yet again, you promised to do this)
- it's a lot of work to put together the documents (What?!?)
- he's only making $100 from this transaction (What?!?!?)

He explained that it's not easy to get the dealer to add these extras because the dealer would rather sell this car themselves and make more money. While I understand that situation, I don't see why this is my concern. I am simply asking CarsDirect.com to deliver the car that I agreed to buy. So why do I need to feel sorry for Alex because he's having a hard time making it happen? And why is he complaining to me about how hard the paperwork is??? It's not my fault that he's the one who failed to ask me basic questions about financing. Just shut up and do your job, please.

Inherent Problems with CarsDirect.com

I think it's an inherent problem with internet brokers such as this, because they are the middleman between you and the dealer. This is an advantage in some ways, because they have access to more than one dealer's inventory, and you can agree on a number without haggling. However, in my case, CarsDirect.com's conflict of interest with the dealer he was working with became my problem.

The process for this car purchase took several days. After the first day, I received a call from the dealer directly (Mission Viejo Lexus), telling me that my car was ready, and to go pick it up. When I told Alex that I am going to pick up my car, unaware that Mission Viejo Lexus was trying to poach me as a customer, he shouted at me, "DO NOT go pick it up under any circumstances!"

This conflict continued: when I went to the dealer to sign the papers, Alex called me every 20 minutes telling me, "They will try to get you to take delivery of the car before the options are installed. Don't do it. These guys are sneaky." I just signed with my original CarsDirect paperwork, not out of any allegiance to Carsdirect, but simply because it was *such* a hassle putting that transaction together, and I was so tired of the whole thing. In retrospect, I should have just taken Mission Viejo Lexus up on their counter offer, because after all, getting screwed over at the dealer takes just one day, not four. It's stressful for the customer to be placed in the middle of this lame situation, and I shouldn't have to be bothered with it.

In fact, there was bickering and fighting between Alex and the dealer all the way up to the end: the dealer told me they will call me when the car is ready, but then Alex told me not to go pick up the car unless he gave me the "okay" because the dealer would contact him first when the car was ready ... whatever. I was really sick of these idiots by the end.

Summary

So my CarsDirect.com rep lied to me. And he handled my complaints very badly - despite the fact that they were very legitimate complaints:
- option price changing without notice (!) followed by ridiculous CYA lies
- option said to be included being left out without notice (!!) followed by more lies
- financing papers drawn up without consulting buyer on basic stuff such as down payment amount and preferred loan term (!!!!)

I guess Alex was your average huckster salesman, willing to say anything push the sale through, and didn't even meet the minimum requirement of courtesy and decency. His behavior was unprofessional; his testiness was uncalled for; his dishonesty, while not unusual in his profession, was unwelcome.

I'm not even sure why he did the things he did. Not asking me about down payment and loan term? The rear spoiler mix-up? I don't even know how he benefits from these lies. And what's up with whining about how he's only making $100 from this sale? I've found this is a typical dealer trick - telling you how little they are making, i.e., what a great deal you're getting. Oh shut up, please. I don't like being hustled, especially when buying a $40K car. Normally, I would just ignore someone like this and walk away from the sale, but after a while, I got this perverse feeling that I needed a payoff for all this aggravation.

At the end of the day, I ended up with a car that I liked, and paid an okay price for it. The CarsDirect rep's manners could certainly use improvement - Alex, on top of the convenient lying and other unpleasantness, also kept acting like he was doing me a favor at every step of the way, when these are things he should just do in the first place. (I mean, seriously. Complaining about the paperwork? The hell?)

And I also didn't appreciate the CarsDirect rep bad-mouthing the dealer, or the dealer's efforts to poach me as a customer. Not my problem, guys! Just give me the car that you promised to sell me, and spare me the behind-the-scenes drama.

Conclusion:

The advantage of CarsDirect.com is that the pricing is more or less upfront. And it always helps to be flexible about your car re: color/options. I do think the inherent disadvantage of CarsDirect.com is that they are at the mercy of the dealer, and lack direct authority on customizing decisions. So it's fundamentally dishonest for the CarsDirect.com rep to promise what you can have on your car, when they're in fact limited by what the dealer may or may not be willing to do.

So, how was this car-buying experience for me? Somewhere in the middle. It was hardly the best, but actually better than my worst experiences (which isn't saying much). While there was no haggling over the base car price, there was plenty of bickering about all the other stuff, and new problems.

Would I recommend CarsDirect.com? I would certainly recommend it as one of your tools in car shopping price-comparison. I think the CarsDirect.com experience can be a good one depending on your circumstance - if your sales rep. is more competent and easy to work with than mine was, and if you're not too particular about options, and you find that the CarsDirect.com price is a fair one after comparison, the transaction can go well.

So basically it's a crapshoot, just like with going to the dealer. But with a dealer, it's always possible to work with another rep. or switch to another dealer. With CarsDirect, you're stuck with your local rep, unless you decide to buy a different car.

And the biggest drawback of CarsDirect.com is that they are at the mercy of other dealers. Having been burned by dealer-shopping in the past, I think this is another way to go if you really want to avoid dealers. But it's hardly the aggravation-free shopping experience that you hope for - instead of price-haggling, there's a whole new set of problems. I guess car-shopping is just meant to be a pain in the butt no matter what.

Will I use CarsDirect.com again? I won't totally rule it out as an option in the future, but based on this experience, I am much less inclined to.