[HN Gopher] Carvana Stock, CarMax Sink as Amazon Enters Online C...
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Carvana Stock, CarMax Sink as Amazon Enters Online Car Sales
Author : my12parsecs
Score : 31 points
Date : 2023-11-17 12:06 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.investors.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.investors.com)
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| In my experience, trying to buy a car online actually _increases_
| the cost and time and frustration.
|
| 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.
| wwweston wrote:
| > and "documentation fees".
|
| 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.
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| About the only advice I can offer --- walk away from any used
| car deal that doesn't have a clear title. And insist on
| seeing the title before you sign anything.
|
| 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.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| I would recommend filing a complaint with the state
| regulatory agency responsible for issuing dealership business
| licenses ("Michigan Department of State" in your situation).
| xrd wrote:
| Only $3k? I took the kids back home after an exhausting three
| hour session. In that 45 minutes the dealership managed to
| convince my wife to agree to $9k on top of the base price of
| $45k.
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| I try to avoid a 3 hour session with a dealership con artist.
| Nothing good usually comes from it --- they are just trying
| to wear you down.
|
| 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.
| grogenaut wrote:
| My wife and daughter fell asleep as I explained time value
| tradeoffs of money to the add-ons guy who was trying to
| sell me everything. Rock chip cover, googled 5 local offers
| for 1/4 the price. Prepaid service contract, guy tried to
| tell me it would void my warranty if I did the oil myself.
| "Sir what you just said is illegal". He was flustered for
| the undercoat sales to stop salt rust "we live in Seattle
| which doesn't use salt". Took me about 30 minutes and I had
| a ton of fun.
| fatnoah wrote:
| > 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).
| userinanother wrote:
| Some states let you reverse the transaction in the first 24
| hrs.
| kwertyoowiyop wrote:
| Can't wait to buy a new JYFRIXRIFMEER sedan!
| richbell wrote:
| That was my first thought as well. :)
|
| Context, for anyone who hasn't used Amazon in recent years.
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32195987
| mikestew wrote:
| It's the commingled inventory I'm looking forward to. Looks a
| lot like a Hyundai, but there's something just a little off
| about this car...
| ctvo wrote:
| This happens every time Amazon announces something and is a great
| opportunity to buy on the cheap as Amazon fails a year later.
|
| See online pharmacies, health care, real estate (!), loans.
| sdfghswe wrote:
| Whole foods
| gamblor956 wrote:
| It's only a matter of time before Amazon's car sales section is
| filled with vehicles from BSTCARZ or GREENCARR or their Alibaba
| dropshipping ilk.
| bdcravens wrote:
| Looking forward to getting the $2000 EV truck delivered in 2
| days
|
| https://electrek.co/2023/11/14/two-years-after-buying-a-2000...
| cramjabsyn wrote:
| Good riddance. Carvana was a nightmare of vehicle issues, months
| late trade-in payoff and revolving door customer support. I truly
| hope they go out of business.
| treis wrote:
| Carvana's stock did not sink. It's up 10% over the last 5 days.
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(page generated 2023-11-17 23:02 UTC)