Online Car Buying Companies

Online car buying sites utilize intelligent search engines to help you compare multiple cars or trucks in your price range. Read our guide to research and discover the best car buying site for you. Plus, learn about what questions to ask before you purchase a car online.

online car buying companies

Overall, Autotrader makes it easy to browse new and used cars that are available from dealerships and private sellers. Positive Autotrader reviews frequently mention finding a good price. Some customers have been using Autotrader to buy cars for decades, long before it launched as an online marketplace.

When buying a used car, always ask the buyer questions about the service history, previous owners and past repairs. Having this information upfront lets you get a better idea of how the car has been maintained and the likelihood of future problems.

Autotrader has millions of vehicles to choose from. The Car Research and Review section of the site helps car buyers calculate how much they can afford to spend on a car. The site is also full of helpful educational resources to inform users on every aspect of buying and selling a car, including finding the right insurance, tips for getting a car sold and comparison photos. In addition to buying vehicles, you can also sell or trade in your car on the site.

Bring-A-Trailer is an online car auction platform for buyers and sellers. Customers first submit their vehicles for approval and are paired with an auction specialist. Buyers are responsible for arranging and paying for shipping.

Autotempest is a third-part online aggregator that also provides tools to compare quotes and calculators to estimate trade-in values. It does not facilitate transactions but directs buyers to sites such as Carvana, TrueCar, Detroit Trading, eBay and craigslist.

Find new and used cars online. 2 million vehicles eligible for home delivery. Use the price comparison tool to see deals. Mobile app offers price alerts and shows recent searches. Online payment calculators and reviews.

Lets you shop new and used cars, trucks, classic and exotic automobiles and more. Offers parts, tools and other automotive supplies. Users can make bids or offers and buy online. Vehicle purchase protection guards against fraud.

Collects listings for new and used cars from major car buying websites. Provides cost comparisons, price alerts and CARFAX reports. Use its app to contact dealers and private sellers for quotes and test drives.

Shop for or sell new or used cars online. Free listings to sell to dealers. Assists buyers with no credit or bad credit to find local dealers who can provide financing. Listing stays active until the car sells.

We think it's important for you to understand how we make money. It's pretty simple, actually. The offers for financial products you see on our platform come from companies who pay us. The money we make helps us give you access to free credit scores and reports and helps us create our other great tools and educational materials.

Carvana is a car-buying site that lets you pick the car you want from its selection of used vehicles. You can also apply for prequalification for a car loan through the site and have the vehicle delivered, depending on where you live. In certain markets, you can pick up your purchase from a futuristic-looking car vending machine.

Looking for independent reviews of new and used cars? Consumer Reports is a nonprofit organization that reviews products across many categories, including autos. The site provides tips and tools to help you with every step in the car-selling and buying process.

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Consumers are growing more comfortable with buying a wide variety of things online, from fruits and vegetables to couches and cars. Partly by necessity and partly because we've realized how convenient and time-efficient it is, we've become quite comfortable with online buying.

Undoubtedly, there are pros and cons to buying a car online. While history favors the traditional in-person car-buying process, those who look to the future see a trend pointing toward an increase in online car-buying going forward.

The vast majority of American consumers now shop online for their next car. A summary of consumer behavior surveys in this area suggests that over two-thirds of car-buyers go online to research a car, find cars listed for sale, compare different models, determine what their current vehicle is worth, calculate car loan payments, and get dealer information. Car shoppers also use social media to learn about vehicles and dealerships. Shoppers enlist dealer website chat functionality to gain information and negotiate with car dealers as well.

If you asked these people if they are online car-buyers, they might tell you yes. But buying online is different than shopping online. By the strictest definition, a customer is buying a car online only if they complete the entire transaction from start to finish using the Internet.

New-car buyers are often thought of as different from used-car buyers, and in many ways, they are. However, one thing they share is the propensity to go online to perform vehicle and dealer research. Several consumer behavior studies indicate that nearly 75% of both new-car and used-car shoppers use websites and apps to conduct at least some of their research and shopping.

Their marketing messages often emphasize their clients' ability to avoid visiting a dealer and talking to a car salesperson. In actuality, though, they technically are car dealers because virtually all 50 states require any business that sells more than a handful of vehicles each year to hold a dealer's license. The online used-car retailers have changed how the buying public perceives them because of the online experiences they offer.

Now, some individual new-car dealers and dealer groups also offer end-to-end online car buying. Their goal is to deliver the same ease and transparency that the online sellers of other products offer their customers. At the same time, their traditional dealership activities for conducting test drives, getting service, and comparison shopping are also available to their customers.

One of the significant benefits of buying a car online is that it often saves time. Few of us want to spend an entire Tuesday night or Saturday morning in a car dealership trying to get a deal done. Using this traditional method, consumers and dealer personnel can spend hours on a single transaction, and neither side is pleased about that. Online car-buying can streamline the process by enabling time-consuming chores, like filling out paperwork, to be done at the customer's leisure.

Equally appealing to many car buyers is the no-negotiation/no-haggle nature of an online car deal. Typically, prices are clearly posted, and as consumers submit personal information regarding their credit history, trade-in vehicle, preferred down payment, and other details, the numbers automatically update. Sellers present each consumer with the same baseline pricing, and typically those prices are non-negotiable. For many modern car buyers, that's just the way they want it to be.

At the same time, there is no sales pressure. The deal is not shepherded along by a salesperson whose commission and livelihood depend on the deals she or he makes. Usually, there is someone on the dealer's staff who does care about those things, but they don't come into personal contact with the customer. While plenty of car salespeople are lovely, honest, nice-to-know people, a significant percentage of the American car-buying public is happy about never dealing with a car salesperson again.

Another benefit of online car-buying is that you can shop for and buy a car virtually any time it is convenient for you. And you can do it in your sweats on a workout bike at three in the morning if you want to. When you don't want to deal with the process for a while, you can stop and pick up the transaction thread again when you're ready to move on.

Similarly, with online car buying, you can take delivery at home or virtually anywhere you want. An expert will deliver the vehicle to you and give you all the information you need to operate your new car properly.

While there are many positives to buying a vehicle online, there are a few negatives. One of the most important is your inability to see, feel, and physically inspect the car you've selected before buying it. Of course, most online sellers give their shoppers extensive photos and video of each vehicle, but nothing really takes the place of seeing the car up close and personal.

Similarly, you often have no opportunity to test drive the vehicle before you buy it. This disadvantage represents another shortfall because, for many of us, "driving is believing." In the past, online sellers have tried to compensate for this by offering used-car warranties and even return policies to their customers. Now, online car sellers increasingly provide test drives at your convenience and at a time and place you choose.

Another downside to buying a car online is the relative inability to negotiate on price or terms. For many people, that is actually a positive, but some shrewd negotiators might miss the opportunity to score themselves a great deal, or at least to think they did.

Perhaps one of the more significant cons to buying a car online is that financing choices might be limited. You may find the online sales process restricts you to a single lender or one of just a handful with which the dealer has a relationship. Of course, you can secure financing before the online shopping process and then purchase the car as a "cash buyer." But that complicates what otherwise would be a straightforward and time-efficient exercise.

Deciding whether buying a car online is right for you depends upon what you look for in your transaction. If you want speed, convenience, and lack of hassle, buying online could be a great choice for you. On the other hand, if you're the kind of buyer who wants to see, touch, and smell the car before you buy it, or you want to grind the dealer down to the lowest possible price, online car-buying might not be your best choice. 041b061a72