The result was that going through the broker resulted in a very slightly better deal over what I could have received through Costco's buying service. With Costco, though, there is no fee. That's huge, because once I pay money, I feel locked in. That's not a comforting feeling.
What the broker provided that the Costco service did not was searching for the exact vehicle, which 40 miles from my home, and delivering the purchased car to my door. No need to visit a car dealer. Overall, it was a positive experience, but I still prefer not locking myself to the broker by paying an up-front fee. Figure out a way to push the fee to the back-end (only with purchase) and I think you'd improve your chances.
My guess is that happy customers will tell their friends and use the service again when they buy another car. Those are both powerful incentives.
What incentive do they have to do a good job for you when they're just turning your contact information over for lead generation money?
You pay up front for websites/apps, because you get access/product right away.
But any interaction where the human is involved(plumbers, tree service, mechanics, body shops etc)...you pay only after the job is finished.
The reason is that when you pay someone they have no real incentive to give you their best service...since they already got paid. And yes word of mouth might work, but I'm not seeing awesome deals on there. The venture beat article shows they got someone an Accord for $32K. Carsdirect has that same top of the line trim for $28K.
And carsdirect has the same incentive, give good service to get word of mouth so they can get more leads....the only difference is that you get to save a bunch of money too.
Carsdirect is a broker of used cars. They solve the problem of letting sellers find buyers and vice versa, not the same as making the process of buying a new car painless and shorter.
Most importantly though, their offer to refund your money for any reason makes this entire argument pointless. If they didn't think they could make you happier by saving you at least more than their fee, do you think they would make that promise?
and carsidrect is for new cars, I think you are confusing them with cars.com
actually your point that they have a refund policy led me to go look at that page...and my opinion is now even worse. Apparently that money only gets you one car. So you can't cross shop the best deal on a Civic and a Corolla to see which is the best option, without paying even more money.
I happen to be at that specific point right now and if their service works as described on the many testimonials on the site and one on HN, I think paying $39 for it would be a great deal.
I do think you have a point in that, folks often come down to more than one choice on a model and make their final decision based on price. I think it would make sense for them to have a plan that supports this use case.
Carwoo for a Civic. Woops, wasn't happy, refund me.
Carwoo for a Carolla. Compare prices, get Carolla if you want, or get a refund and repeat step 1.
Charging buyers means we are 100% committed to the consumer and not beholden to dealers unlike every site on the internet.
We give people their money back for any reason if they aren't happy.
good job! I love the idea.
At the very least, I should get a list of all dealers currently in the program.
The problem I see, is that if you only sell 250 cars per month, then the dealers have no actual need to compete. 250 cars / 1 car per model(25 brands * ~10 cars), in the entire country. Most dealers won't compete for the privilege to sell the one Honda Civic in the entire country.
+ it seems like all they do is email the dealers saying "So and so is looking to buy this car...what's your best price?" And then follow it up with "So and so got the best offer of X...can you beat it?". With email, I can do the same thing....and I can email all 20 dealers in my area with the car, instead of having you limit my choice.
+ there is no indication of what kind of deal someone gets. You need to show your actual results "Linda R from X, bought a 2010 Honda Civic EX for $14,950". For all I know the best deal I get on the service is $100 less than MSRP.