How To Buy A Car Online And Get It Delivered
This article is more than 2 years old
In the market for a new or used car but dread the thought of going to a car lot? Not in the mood to deal with pushy car salesmen? As a buyer, what other options, if any, are there? There is a solution: Buy your car online. It’s almost as easy as buy-ing paper towels on Amazon Prime.
Websites such as Autotrader, CarMax, Carfax and CarGurus have already made it easier to find cars online. You can search for any model, any type, or any budget. But they’ll only help you find them. You still have to go out and actually get it. Thankfully, there are alternatives.
Dream of a world where you never have to leave your house? Dread the idea of dealing with pesky salesmen trying to talk you into the car of their liking? Buckle up because your prayers have been answered. You can buy a car online and get it delivered using one of these options.
Car Buying Concierge
Websites such as CarBargains and AuthorityAuto provide a full car buying service. You start by filling out an online form stating your wants and needs. From there, they search car dealership inventory, haggle over prices, even negotiate extended warranties. Not enough? They will even have your vehicle delivered right to your doorstep.
Unfortunately, there is an up front fee if you want to buy a car online with a concierge. This fee varies greatly based on the car you want and the distance it is from your home location. Fees can be a flat fee or a percentage of the amount the concierge saves you on the vehicle purchase. But the bottom line here is that you won’t have to do anything to buy a car and get it delivered.
Car Buying Through Online Stores
If you want to buy a car by simply clicking on a website your options include Carvana and Vroom. Their process is simple enough. Log on to one of these car-buying store websites. From there, you input the make and model of the car you want and the search engine does the rest. Looking for a specific year? Color? Price range? These websites will narrow your selection down. You can search for cars in your local area or expand the search to as many miles away you wish to go.
Once you find the car which suits you best, your next step is financing. This process has also been made painless and fast. Carvana promises to pre-qualify buys for for a new car loan in two minutes. Vroom offers pre-qualification in five minutes but also has the added feature of easy registration after the sale. If you finance through Vroom, they register your new vehicle with the state for you, then mail the registration and plates to your home.
Now the best part: Delivery. Both of these online car-buying sites deliver your vehicle right to your house As you browse through the vehicles on their pages, you’ll see some cars have delivery prices and some cars can be delivered for free. Delivery fees usually run anywhere from $300-500. Worth it.
Peer To Peer Car Buying
A company called Shift specializes in peer-to-peer and while similar to sites such as Craigslist or eBay, Shift completes a thorough inspection of the vehicles it advertises before it will post on its website. Once a vehicle passes, high-resolution photos are provided along with experts who can answer any questions. Shift’s services include the ability to apply for financing as well as handling vehicle registrations and title transfers. Another huge plus for Shift is that it also offers test drives.
Car Buying With Tesla
Tesla only sells their cars online. Even their used ones. While Tesla does maintain dealerships in most major cities, these physical locations exist only to allow potential customers the chance to test drive one of the company’s innovative electric vehicles. If you actually want to own a Tesla, you have to log on to their website and buy one there.
Should you want to buy one of Elon Musk’s cars, they’ll take care of everything from financing to delivery right there on their website. You can customize your vehicle, get it set up exactly how you want, and then sit back and wait for it to show up at your doorstep. You’ll have to wait a long time for it though, a newly ordered Tesla can take months to be delivered. Still, that seems a small price to pay for the car consistently rated as one of the best vehicles of all time.
Why Not To Buy A Car Online
Buying online means you can’t see your car in person before paying, thus missing out on the test drive. Looking at pictures of a car is very different than sitting behind the wheel. Without a live body to talk to, you’ll also lose the ability to haggle over price. Your negotiating skills (if you have any) will never be called upon.
Why You Should Buy A Car Online
Eventually it all comes down to ease. How simple do you want your car buying experience to be? Some people need to go down to a lot and hash it out. They need to sit behind the wheel and feel it before they pull the trigger on a purchase. They prefer sitting in an office and negotiating their deal. And then there are those who want the hassle-free experience of purchasing online.
If you value your time, online car buying is the best way to save a lot of it. You skip spending hours on a car lot, hours in a financing office going through an inevitable back and forth. You avoid the the stress of trying to nail down a payment, only to have it increase as the dealership adds on additional items. Purchasing from the luxury of a laptop can truly be stress-free. The next time you want a car, do yourself a favor and buy it online.
