Online Car Buying Site

SHOULD I PURCHASE A VEHICLE ONLINE?

Feature Article [Purchasing and Selling a Vehicle Online]

Should I purchase a vehicle online? The answer is not exactly clear. It depends on a number of factors. However, before we answer the question please read the 'story of Cleo and Smart Chevrolet in Madison North Carolina'. Cleo purchased a car at the end of December of 2021 online from Smart Chevrolet located in North Carolina.

Cleo owned a 2007 Toyota Tundra and wanted to upgrade to a later model vehicle, perhaps to a 2010 to or later. He noticed that the price of a used Toyota Tundra Limited in good condition between 2010 and 2018 was priced at around 25,000 to 40,000 dollars listed in good to excellent condition. He planned to sell his 2007 Tundra in order to offset the price for his new truck.

Even though it had been in an accident. His 2007 Tundra was in excellent condition because the car was repaired by the Toyota dealership and all the parts were replaced with genuine Toyota parts. He then got an online estimate that showed an appraisal value of around 18,000 dollars for his 2007 Tundra Limited.

Next he took his vehicle to a local car rental sales company and they made him an offer of 14,000 dollars on the spot. Of course he declined that offer. He then took the Tundra to his local Toyota dealership and they offered him 12,000 dollars for his Tundra. The next step was for him to secure financing from his credit union to purchase his new used truck. He was able to secure financing for 28,000 to 31,000 dollars.

Cleo was now ready to sell his truck and to buy a later model used truck. He put his truck up for sell on cargurus.com. Because he wanted to sell his truck fast and get a reasonable amount of money. He used the cargurus appraisal value of 18,000 dollars as his first offering.

Over the next several days he lowered it into the 'great deal' category. He sold his truck within a week for 15,500 dollars.

Then he searched various online ads for a used truck. He found a 2014 Toyota Tundra 1794 edition advertised for 30,789.00 dollars by Smart Chevrolet of North Carolina. This was a high price for the vehicle but it was listed as being in excellent condition with no accidents. The pictures of the interior of the vehicle showed little to no signs of wear and the pictures of the exterior of vehicle showed no damage.

Cleo dials the number of the advertisement and a salesman named Ike answers from Smart Chevrolet in Madison North Carolina. He ask Ike about the vehicle and Ike says that it is in excellent condition. Ike adds that the vehicle should really cost more but we are giving it to you at a reduced price. Cleo asks for them to send the carfax over so that he can see if the car had been in any accidents. The carfax that Ike sends states that the vehicle had not been in any accidents. Cleo agrees to purchase the vehicle.

Ike transfers Cleo over to Moe, Moe is the one that handles the documents. Moe completes all the documents and send Cleo a copy of the bill of sale. Cleo and his family is shocked! The doc fee is 798.00 dollars. This is the cost for Moe to fill out the bill of sale. Something that Cleo had done for free when he sold his car. Cleo ask Moe to itemize the the bill of sale so that he can see what had been done for them to deserve 798.oo dollars of his money. Moe refuses to itemize the fee and he says that, that is just the amount of the fee. The fee is the one item and it is 798.00 dollars.

Although he does not like the fee Cleo still would like to buy the truck because it is in excellent condition. So he pays the 798.00 fee. The paperwork is processed by the credit union for free. A few days later after Cleo's check clears the bank the truck is delivered to Cleo. The truck driver drops off the truck and quickly take some pictures of it begins to leave.

Now that the vehicle is off of the truck Cleo can finally inspect the truck, he first notices that the arm-rest has been damaged and stained (perhaps the last owner had put something extremely hot on it and burned the leather coating of it). He ask the truck driver to include that damage in his pictures. The truck driver says that he can no longer add any more pictures because the app is closed.

The truck driver leaves and the truck is in the driveway. Cleo then notices that the clearance between the right front wheel and the tire is abnormal. A closer look reveals that the truck had been in an accident and pushed the bumper into the front left wheel. Cleo then takes the truck to get an estimate on how much it would cost to repair so that the truck would drive properly. That is to say with the proper wheel clearance. The cost of the repair would be around 800.00 dollars.

Thus, after only few hours after the vehicle had been dropped off Cleo finds out that in order to drive the vehicle it will cost 800.00 dollars for the bumper and wheel repair and another 154.00 dollars to repair the interior damage. That is 954.00 dollars. He also discovers that because the damaged bumper the safety sensors do not work causing the truck to not sound a warning when it is too close to another vehicle. That will be an additional cost.

Cleo calls Smart Chevrolet to report these problems to Ike and ask what can be done to cover these costs. Ike's first response is "that is why we gave you such a good deal on the vehicle". He ask Ike if he had checked the vehicle, Ike says that he never saw it for himself. He then states he would speak with his manager to see what can be done. After repeated calls to Ike, Ike responds by saying that his manager said that, he can not resolve the matter because he had already reduced the price of the truck by 4,000 dollars because it had been in an accident.

This could not be true since the blue book value of the truck in [good condition no repairs needed] is 25,639.00 and 30,420.00. Cleo paid 30,789.00 for a truck that needs at least 1,200.00 in repairs. The truck was sold under the pretense of having no accidents and not needing any repairs. This behavior puts the honesty of the Smart Chevrolet of Madison in question. They could have easily resolved the matter by reimbursing Cleo with 1,300.00 for the error of sending him a damaged truck that was not advertised as such. Instead they choose to falsely tell him that he had already received a 4000.00 dollar discount because of the damage that the salesman claims he did not even know about because he had never seen the truck. Even though Cleo is not from North Carolina but Alabama, he believes that all Alabamians need to beware of online car sales. We have advised for Cleo Miller to reach out the the BBB for help. The BBB never responded to Cleo's complaint.

The above account is a true story, it is not made up! What are the lessons that can be learned? My opinion is the following:

1. 'Stay Away from Smart Chevrolet in Madison North Carolina' go to cargurus.com and choose your preference to 'private owner'.

2. Ask about any fees before you talk about anything else! Use the money that you would use to pay the administration fee to upgrade to a better vehicle negotiate to buy at a lower price according to the administration fee.

3. Do not buy a car online from North Carolina unless you want to pay 798.00 administrative fee. Some states have a set fee but you do not have to buy a car from that state.

4. Sell your car on cargurs.com 'Its a great experience'! No nonsense.

5. Ask about return policy or what will be done if the car arrives different from what was advertised.

6. Buy a car from Enterprise Car Sales if at all possible. No nonsense.

7. Do not pay what is being asked for online, it is not the final price nor are you getting a deal unless it is under great deal on cargurus.com under private owner. (Their site is fare)

8. On the last page of the bill of sale do not put that you are buying the car as is, but put as advertised.

9. If you have a choice 'buy online local only', meaning to only buy online within the distance that you can travel so as to do a visual inspection. As you can see what is honest to the customer is not honest to a car salesman. Ask the salesman if he has access to vehicle to check it against the carfax. If he can not take picture or see the vehicle for himself it might be better to find another car.

10. If you can not follow the above suggestions then it might be better to take your chances by going to your nearest used car dealership.