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Has anyone here tried doing that? Or know people who have done that?
I went to the carsdirect.com site to get a quote on a Toyota Corolla LE last week. It gave me a price a little just under $15,000 for the options I want. Today when I went to look again the price had gone up to $15,700+. I thought I had made a mistake previously. So I went back and double checked with the other sites I did my research on.
Carsmart.com, autobytel.com and kbb.com all had the invoice price as $13,374. Cars Direct now has the invoice price as $14,160. A differece of $786. That was about the difference between the price quoted last week and this week.
I think something stinks here. I'm wondering if the site software somehow registered my interest and raised the price accordingly.
Can someone else go to the cardirect.com site and see whats it gives as the invoice price of the LE sedan?
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My dad did. With all costs included, he got a van for $1000. We've had it for a year and no problems. I don't know all of the specs, though...
Posts: 2292 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
If I understand how those sites work, the quotes you are getting are coming from dealerships in your general area of the country. So, if you go one day, then go back another day, you might be getting a quote from a different dealer, or from a different person at the same dealership.
I suppose it's possible that the guy doing the quotes would check to see if you'd already asked once and maybe bump the price a little to get you anxious -- old car salesman trick??? But generally the way they work it is to have one person at each dealership who handles web inquiries.
Ultimately, you end up picking the car up at a dealership, or they deliver it to you direct, but you are still buying from A dealership, not the website owners or the car company directly.
I used one of those sites to find a car in my area with the options I wanted, then I just did the transaction with the salesman at the dealership that got back to me the fastest.
It was a pleasant experience in that they knew we were interested and we didn't have to mess around calling all over creation to find the options we wanted.
If you are just buying the vanilla version of a car though, I think you could do just as well going in to the dealership and haggling.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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They have a different price again today. It looks like the prices vary from day to day.
Bob, you are right that you have to go to a dealer eventually. Carsdirect.com was the only one that gives you a price before you contact the dealer so I thought I would try it first. All the other sites set you up with the dealer directly.
Posts: 176 | Registered: Aug 1999
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I suggest going to Car Buying Tips before you go into the dealer. They have a lot of good information.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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zgator - thanks for the link. That was really helpful. My credit union gave me a car buying guide when I got my loan but it didn't elaborate much about what to expect.
An update for anyone interested - I tried another site. This one set me up with a dealer. I was expecting to get a quote but the dealer has been intentionally vague about it. Instead, she wants me pay them a visit. So far, shopping on the internet hasn't done anything for me. It looks like I still have to go to a dealer and haggle.
Posts: 176 | Registered: Aug 1999
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