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by ghaff 1292 days ago
And going into a dealer with cash and buying a car at list price and taking the offer for a trade-in--all with minimal haggle--really isn't a terrible experience in general. I bought a new car over the summer which wasn't immediately available but otherwise was a pretty straightforward transaction.

The pain is that people get pulled into negotiations that mix in a bunch of different things (purchase price, trade-in, financing, add-ons) and it's all a bit more than they can comfortably afford.
1 comments
Karrot_Kream 1292 days ago
That's still a lot of work. If I have cash for MSRP why do I have to deal with "minimal haggle"? Can I not just buy the asset? There is definitely an audience of people who know what they want and how much they want to spend and Carvana is able to meet it. I think there's definitely more demand for effortless purchases than just CarMax.

I bought an electric car recently and only put up with the minimal haggle of an MSRP cash deal because I was on a sabbatical and had more time than usual. But my partner and I were ready to go for Carvana before my sabbatical or if we couldn't find a dealer willing to stay low-bullshit with us. I ended up calling 6 dealerships and asking my partner to clear her evening just for the one dealership that offered us a low-bullshit deal.

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listenallyall 1292 days ago
If you want to walk up to a dealer and announce that you have cash and want to pay full sticker, they will be happy to roll out a red carpet for you. But you still can't just "buy the asset." Local governments require all kinds of documentation and registration "bullshit" that it sounds like you are blaming the dealer for.
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ghaff 1292 days ago
In fairness, most car dealers are also setup for people who expect to be able to haggle, probably need financing, want to drive a car off the lot, etc. So the whole system just isn't set up for someone to basically go online, place an order, and wait to get told a delivery date.

There is a bit of a paperwork dance--also insurance--but, as you say, that's hard to eliminate totally.

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mardifoufs 1291 days ago
Not really. They will still try to upsell you tons and tons of features.
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ghaff 1292 days ago
>If I have cash for MSRP why do I have to deal with "minimal haggle"?

Because I want to save money? It literally took about 5 minutes to ask them to add the ~$1500 price of some factory-installed options to my trade-in price and they had a deal.

It wasn't completely frictionless but far and away the main hassle was just car availability. Had I been willing to take a similar vehicle they had on the lot it would have been quicker.

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Karrot_Kream 1291 days ago
Sure, I don't doubt that there's a market for people who want to save money. I'm saying there's probably enough demand for a low hassle car purchase at higher price points that CarMax won't be the only player in town. If my area can have 10 auto dealerships of a single manufacturer, I hesitate to think that only CarMax is able to absorb the demand of low-hassle purchase.
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