Carvana Stock, CarMax Sink as Amazon Enters Online Car Sales
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So does buying a car outright. They will actually pay you (additional rebates) to finance a new car in a lot of cases.
There is so much counter intuitative gamesmanship going on in this industry, I doubt Amazon or anyone else can really fix it.
Two of their favorite tricks are "dealer added equipment" and "documentation fees". If you pay either of these, you are getting screwed. They are few and far between but it is possible to find dealerships that don't play these games.
For example, "Nitro tires" for $400 --- is just air. Air is more than 70 percent nitrogen. They are actually charging you a good chunk of money to put air in the tires.
Other examples include "Diamond plating" for $400 --- it's just wax. Scotchgard on the seats for $400 --- is just a spray can that may or may not have been applied (how do you really know?).
I've seen vehicles on the lot with $2-3000 of this BS added to price of the vehicle. Of course, these last minute additions often aren't included in the price you find online.
My favorite part of this one on my recent used auto purchase is how clear it is the dealer didn't even do their job here. The vehicle had been traded in to the dealer. The title was made out to "The Estate of <Former Owner>", and person who signed the car over to them very clearly wasn't the name on the title (which you might expect, as estate indicates a death) and had not even so much as a common last name. The dealer sure seemed to know this was an issue at some point because someone had written "POA" next to the signature... but there was no power of attorney documentation that came with the title and other paperwork, and when I contacted the dealer about it they clearly had none of this paperwork in spite of the trade-in having been completed 6 weeks earlier. In fact, it took 4 emails just to get the paperwork guy to understand the actual problem (he thought I was complaining they hadn't signed the title over to me), and once we reached that point, it took them a few days to provide a POA document for an entirely different person than the person who signed the title over to them -- they literally did not understand the assignment.
It's almost two months from when I purchased the vehicle, and still trying to get documentation puzzle pieces put together, and it's just in the last week I got them to send me the temp tag for the car (they forgot to put it on before I had the vehicle delivered, and didn't notice when I'd mentioned the problem earlier).
This isn't some random guy with a half-developed lot where inventory is mostly consignment either -- this is a Toyota dealership (Suburban Toyota of Troy) that's part of a franchise of dozens of dealerships across several states (Suburban Collection / Lithia Motors). It's almost funny now that I thought that indicated an extra level of professionalism when this situation has turned out to have a lot in common with title jumping.
And when I told dealership I expected them to refund the doc fee (among other remedies), the response I got was a reality denying "we have provided everything you need to register the vehicle in a timely manner," which isn't true now let alone two weeks ago when they said it.
In theory I'd be willing to pay some documentation fee for the privilege of knowing that everything is clear and when I walk into state offices to register my car, it'll happen. But at this point, it's clear that's a theory and incentives are against dealerships actually caring and would remain that way without escrow.
I suppose there's always state regulators and small claims court.
There is a lot of room for error with used cars. "Abandonment title", "Salvage title", "Estate title", etc. are all things I routinely avoid like the plague. It's just not worth the trouble.
I make a fair, all inclusive offer (minus government fees which they have no control over). My standard is $1000 below MSRP. If they balk at that, I just walk away. They'll want your phone number so they can harass you later. I keep a spare phone with a minimal $3 a month plan (Ultra Mobile) just for these situations.
As I said above, they are few and far between but there are dealerships out there that will deal without these BS games. You may have to go out of state to find one.
I went to Clermont, FL. It is the auto mall of the southeast. Within a 5 mile stretch of Hwy 50 is every car dealership you have ever heard of, all loaded with inventory. The BS is minimized by the simple fact that you can easily and literally just walk to the competition next door.
I've only purchased two new cars in my life, but both times I managed to minimize the time involved by doing the test drives and chatting on one day, but showing up shortly before the dealership closed on a weeknight to actually do the deal. Yes, the did try to sell me on the all the extras, but they didn't push things either since it seemed like 3 people had to stick around for the whole process (dealer, business paper person, and manager).
It's expensive, yes. You may not consider that expense to be worth it. But there is still value there.
No --- and neither has any other buyer. But you're willing to trust a car dealer (???) who is desperately trying to take advantage of you and you're willing to overpay for something you can't even verify.
The NHTSA has looked at this BS oxidation claim and their conclusion is:
This is not a practical concern for most consumers, because they replace
the tires (due to tread wear) long before degradation is a problem.
Context, for anyone who hasn't used Amazon in recent years. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32195987
See online pharmacies, health care, real estate (!), loans.
https://electrek.co/2023/11/14/two-years-after-buying-a-2000...