Has anyone ever used Truecar to purchase a vehicle? I got a quote through Truecar that is ~$2,000 less than the quote from my local dealer (which was also a fair price based on Edmunds and KBB)? The only caveat is that the Truecar listed dealer is about a 45 minute drive from my house compared to a 20 minute drive to the local dealer. No big deal for a $2,000 difference. Is there a catch with Truecar? At a minimum, I'm thinking of using the Truecar listed price to negotiate with my local dealer.
I do this sort of thing all the time. I'll e-mail and chat with a dealer that's less convenient to see what I can get out of them without pissing them off. Once I find a price point, I basically go to the local place and start negotiations knowing my anchor point. I often end up at the same place, but sometimes you just do better then 2nd time.
The odd thing is that sometimes one dealer just CAN give a much better price. When we bought my wife's RDX, I sent a simple e-mail to a place up north...they e-mailed back a REALLY good price, with no haggling. We went to the local place, and liked them, and basically told the guy that if he can match that price, we'd buy. He had earlier said, "We won't be beat on price by another dealer." Well...he took the offer into his GM's office, came back and said, "We're going to have to pass. We'd lose money at that price." I laughed and said, "We both know that's not true, because if it was then you should buy your cars from XXX dealer instead of Acura, but if that's how you want to be, we'll go buy from them," and left. Walked into the place up north, put down the e-mail, and said, "I want this." Drove in a new car.
I don't know that I'd ever use an on-line place to flat out buy a car, but the numbers there are great guidelines. You just have to know what you want to pay and be willing to walk away to get a good price.
