If you have done so, will you mind sharing your experience? Thanks in advance.
I think it really depends on the particular service you are thinking about using. In general, the free services are basically just referral services. In exchange for a "no haggle" experience, you get an "OK" deal, nothing more. You can certainly bargain for a better deal yourself, if you are good at it. Then there are the pay services that actually negotiate with multiple dealers on your behalf. I've never used those, but if I would, I would expect better financial results than the free referral services.
It was a great experience. I bought a 2003 Honda Civic EX via the Internet service on Edmunds.com. The dealers responded quickly with their quotations. I "negotiated" the final price via e-mail with the 2 best quotations and then "polished" the price during the final meeting with the dealer that eventually sold me the car. Make a point of visiting the dealers of choice to demonstrate your sincerity on the car purchase. In the end, I got a great deal with minimum hassle.
Ugh, accidently posted this on wrong thread earlier, but here goes: Here's how I went about buying my Civic last week. First off I went and test drove the models I was interested in (corolla, protege/mazda3, civic, elantra) and each time they tried to sit me down I told them I had to go to competition and I'd be back. So once I had it down to the Civic I looked at carsdirect price, which seemed pretty good (about 500 under invoice). I then took that price and called a bunch of the local Honda dealerships (there's a crapload in Atlanta, GA area) and asked to speak to internet manager. A few refused to match, a few did, and two dealerships in the boondocks of metro Atlanta started beating the price. It got to about 800 under invoice + tax (no junk fees) and I took it. The only number I ever threw out was the carsdirect number, after that it was a matter of just asking these people over the phone to match or beat. From first call, I was done in about two hours with a bunch of phone conversations, only stop into dealership was to get my car. So, lessons learned: 1. Dealer hopping is a waste of your/there time... only do it to test the cars out. 2. Use lowest price you can find as starting point, email/call to get a match 3. Go pick up your car.
We just got a Civic Hybrid and did almost the entire thing over the Internet. I got quotes from Internet managers via several services (autobytel and Edmunds, I think). Let them negotiate via email, then called the Internet manager only when I'd agreed on the price. Went in, gave them a check, got the car. According to the net sites, we got the car for $300 below invoice (so with dealer holdback, they were still able to make a bit of money). My big piece of advice if you use the internet is not to put your correct phone number in when you register at autobytel, etc. Otherwise, even if you clearly say you don't want phone calls, everyone calls you immediately. Alex
I'm still getting phone calls from last week's car stuff. You need to give right number though if you are honest about trying to get them to do business with you. I'm sure the internet people at dealerships get a lotta junk and people just toying with them. I mean, I dealt with about 20 dealerships via/email phone and only 2-3 got my patronage.
You don't have to do anything. For too long, dealers and salesmen have been dishonest with buyers. I'm not worried that they won't want to do business with me, especially when I've got the money and give them the correct contact information -- when I say "no phone calls accepted" and give them the correct email address, anyone who tries calling is disregarding my instructions anyway! I made the mistake six months ago of putting in my real phone number and requesting only email responses and got no email responses and only phone calls. And one told me that they don't even get the email addresses forwarded and only get them by request if they try a phone number and it doesn't work! When you're ready to buy, you call them to set up a time to come in. Otherwise, there's no reason to have salesmen bugging you over the phone. For far too long, dealers and salesmen have had the power in car-buying transactions. With the Internet, we can make them earn our business. And if someone can't take a minute or two to respond to an email at their convenience, they aren't trying hard enough. Alex
Clicked on everyone available at edmunds.com. Got several emails within a day, and one or two phone calls. Emailed one back asking for lease rates, he phoned me, quoted me good numbers. I had to go down there to negotiate on my trade-in. But got only a fraction of the hassle a street walk-in would get, get an OK deal, maybe a little better than OK. I strongly recommend going this way. OTOH, I can't really understand *why* they hassle you less simply because you started via Internet, but that's the way it seems! J.
