[GTO]

Link to related thread on used car websites (Which online classifieds / website did you successfully sell your car on?)

Car buying hasn't moved online in the way that it was predicted a decade ago. An overwhelming majority of the conversations, visits, test-drives & transactions still happen with physical car showrooms (I'd wager about 99% of them). Still, there are many websites that help you buy a new car (Carwale & Cardekho are the largest), while manufacturers themselves are trying to move some transactions to their own websites (check out how this BHPian bought a Hyundai Creta online (ClickToBuy : My experience of buying a Hyundai Creta online)).

- Have you successfully bought a car online? How was the experience?

- Did you just attempt to, but were unsuccessful? How was the experience?

- Which websites did you use? An aggregator like Carwale / Cardekho / AckoDrive, or directly from the OEM website?

- Pros & Cons?

- Did you get a price benefit?

- Was it convenient?

- How could they improve?

Thanks!

[Sahil]

I have not directly bought a car online but the dealer made me go online to make the booking. This was for Jaguar as well as Mercedes more recently.
I did however book a Scorpio N online without contacting any dealer just this month.

I would be glad if more car makers move bookings, pricing, etc online. Perhaps even have bumper sale days online! Dealers should be only the last mile or test drive facilitators. A more centralised approach with transparent as well as aggressive pricing would be a welcome change.

[Mustang_Boss]

I have booked an I20 and a Venue through Acko. I would be taking only one of them.

Benefits:
The traditional haggling with the dealer for offers is not needed.
As the insurance provider will be Acko, i got the benefit in on road price implicitly, without any haggling.
I dont like bargaining with the dealer, so i chose this route.

I have noticed a serious change in the attitude of the sellers in traditional showrooms. Nexa & Kia were an exception. Hyundai was in the same boat of bad experience. I felt like, there is no point in talking. Forget haggling.

Pros & Cons:
Few minutes to make a booking. Best price.

Transparency is zero. The dealer says, he will get back to you once he has stock. you have to rely on his words.

Traditionally, dealer decides the price based on your appearance [How you flaunt your jewllery & your current ride] and your financial strength. All this nonsense is gone.

Price benefit:
I got the final quote at
Ex showroom + Life Tax + Insurance, if i bought it from outside + ~5000. Probably they are going to adjust in accessories.
Nothing more.

How could they improve?
I have been waiting since aug last week. Till now, nothing was allocated. Regular Updates stopped a week ago.
I was told that there is a huge waiting list for diesel vehicles, hence nothing was allocated. But few others are getting the vehicle much earlier. I am not sure whats running in the back end.

You can go to a dealer, talk and get a similar deal and vehicle much faster. In my case, i have few things running in the back end, and i wasn't very eager to buy immediately. So, i have chosen this route. If they can deliver, i will take it. If they delay it, i am fine.

[Vijayraj1890]

I remember going through the official Mahindra website this year when I really wanted to buy the Bolero. Went through the IVR, and the call centre was cooperative and even messaged me with updates about which dealer and a sales executive will be taking charge of this matter.

The honeymoon ended there. No one called, and after a week, I called up the number mentioned in their automatic message. They seemed to be dismissive because it wasn't one of their nicer cars. No one even bothered to send me the details on pricing and brochure on WhatsApp after they themselves suggested it.

A week later, I received a call from the Mahindra Call Centre asking for feedback on the test drive. I told them neither was there any test drive nor was there any contact from the dealer. They promised prompt action and it ended there. I wasn't expecting anything to happen to either.

This was January 2022, and covid was still a thing which was the reason I went through the website rather than going to a dealership. I finally went to a dealership a month later in Noida, and they didn't have the Bolero on display. This was when in a casual conversation, the salesman there told me your query was ignored because there was a new Bolero with 2 airbags about to launch. All the salesmen were told only to focus on the XUV700, and unless your query was related to that vehicle, no salesman would entertain you unless you were a walk-in customer and they had the car you wanted in stock.

I understood that Mahindra probably had enough sales and bookings in their kitty not to give a damn, so I moved on and bought another vehicle.

[Sonali Singh]

I had booked the new Thar online on 29 October 2020 after receiving somewhat disinterested responses from dealers (partly likely they were overwhelmed with the number of test drive requests, partly they might have assumed a woman walking in alone wasn’t a buyer; once when I had walked in at a dealer with a male friend, I had received attention and a test-drive).

I had chosen the closest dealer when making the online booking. But because no salesperson had been allocated, I couldn’t reach anyone the couple of times I remembered I had a booking (it was ultimately an 8-month wait). I wasn’t stressed though, for I was following related news online.

Closer to delivery, I received a call from the allocated salesperson and it was as expected after it.

At the time of invoicing, the dealer tried to use the revised prices. When I said the company had promised the promotional price to all who had booked early, the salesperson said he would find out. Peeved that I didn’t hear back from him immediately, I dropped a note to the Mahindra online customer service, who promptly responded with assurances and copied all and sundry from the dealership. All went well after that.

I hope they invest in making the online-booking experience better, which I preferred despite the minor hitches.

[bidyut.b]

I had a very good experience with online booking. When Ford introduced the facelift EcoSoport in the year 2017, they were taking booking through Amazon. I booked my choice of variant and selected the preferred dealership through Amazon. Got a call from dealership when it was ready to the shipped from factory for me to arrange the balance amount. They explained all the charges - insurance, registration, smart card, accessories etc. Negotiated the insurance amount a bit, said no to few accessories and yes to few.

Once the car reached dealership, did PDI, paid the balance amount and got the car delivered.

What I got to know was that Amazon orders were fulfilled separately and not added with the dealer orders, hence the variant/color choice was shipped accordingly and tagged to the Amazon order, so there was no way that my order will be delivered to anyone else unless I cancel the order.

[anuragsingh]

I was looking to buy a car this year and after all the research, decided to buy Renault Kiger. I went to Renault's website and booked a call for an enquiry. The next day itself I got a call from Renault customer care. They took my details and shared them with the nearest dealer who brought the test drive vehicle to my place on the same day.

After a week I requested another test drive at my home, this time for family and the dealership gladly accepted. I had made my decision by then and asked the Renault guy the take my booking. Payment for booking was done online and I got the documents of it. All this was done at my home itself. I had a pre-approved car loan from HDFC and Renault also has a partnership with the bank. So they sent the bank guy to my place to get the documentation done.

After this, in a week I got the delivery of my car. So basically I went to the dealership just once on the day of delivery. Everything else was done online or at my home. The entire car buying experience was very convenient.

But I guess this was possible because I got the car from Renault, not from Tata or Mahindra. Renault doesn't have a huge order backlog. So they are able to take the requests from individual customers like us.

[Mango]

After the 2020 lockdown we desperately needed a car and wanted to get an automatic. We asked for a Tata Tiago but that deal didn't go through so we turned to get a Hyundai Grand i10 NIOS. We called the dealership and they directed us to the new online booking portal made by Hyundai.

- Have you successfully bought a car online? How was the experience?
Yes, after a few tries and going back and forth with the SA we were able to book the car online. The first day we tried, the payment getaway was not working but the second day we tried it worked and the SA was on call the whole time to help us through the process.

- Did you just attempt to, but were unsuccessful? How was the experience?
The experience was good, just like ordering an order from any other e-commerce website but it did take a few attempts.

- Which websites did you use? An aggregator like Carwale / Cardekho / AckoDrive, or directly from the OEM website?
OEM Website

- Pros & Cons?
Pros: Didn't have to go to the dealership in the middle of a pandemic and risk getting sick/getting others infected (since my Father works in the Health Industry, it was more towards us not getting others sick than the other way round.)

Cons: The amount of time things fail, even with the Scorpio N, Mahindra couldn't create a proper portal to accept the high demand and that was a nightmare and a whole lot of bitter emotions towards the brand.

Could not experience the same feeling as getting ready and eagerly waiting to go to a dealership and do the whole process. It was very mundane, we forgot the car was coming and they just turned up with it at home and we went downstairs in pajamas and shorts.

- Did you get a price benefit?
Yes we did. We got a 20,000 rupee discount and it was done through the website only where you could choose a set of benefits (The same were offered directly through the dealership as well).

- Was it convenient?
Yes, it was fairly convenient, we did not go to the dealership once, Hyundai delivered the car home and all the formalities were done online. This included getting a loan and verifying all the documents. Now this is something a car enthusiast will loath in terms of doing the PDI and and going to collect the car which all in all is a better feeling altogether but we were not bothered by all that nor the car we bought stirred any emotions either way. For once we bought a car to ease our commute and city travels.

- How could they improve?
The amount of times it fails to go through, while Hyundai was in its very early stages in 2020 to introduce the online portal, we were not mad because the SA called and ensured that we have a pleasant experience anyway. He kindly asked us to try again and if it fails he will do the booking from his side. The Mahindra Scorpio N booking experience was a nightmare and even in 2022 if they fail to make a proper website or set up a proper system for just the booking of the car then it's useless. We had a bitter experience and made us question the ethics of the company as well.

[inwester]

Originally Posted by GTO

- Have you successfully bought a car online? How was the experience?

Not yet in India, but I bought a Tesla couple of years ago in the US, and you can only buy them online I guess. I bought it during late 2020 and the main reason I bought it was, during the pandemic, the traditional dealers were not super helpful nor engaging because of low supply and they just wanted to haggle without really giving any discounts. I tried BMW, Audi Mercedes, and even Genesis. I got fed up one day and just bought the Tesla without even test driving it. Everything was online, the initial payment, the lease application, setting up auto payments, even the delivery where you just go to their lot and drive out your car.

I would prefer all manufactures did this going forward. Currently I'm actually looking to buy an XC90 Recharge as my lease is ending soon, but I can't find the Care by Volvo selling any cars in the US. That's their subscription program, which includes insurance and maintenance for 1 monthly payment. Ford is testing it with their electric cars, and so are other manufacturers.

There are also aggregators like Turecar, Edmunds, KBB etc. but essentially all they do is show a price, list inventory and send your info to a 1000 dealers and then get inundated with calls, texts and email. However, you can use them to get a rough idea of pricing. There is a new app called Rodo through which you can buy/lease cars but I haven't used them apart from benchmarking prices.

Companies like Carvana and Vroom has made the used car market here a mostly online affair. They deliver your car to your home in a truck.

Eventually, perhaps, in 5-10 years, I can see the manufacturers controlling A-to-Z of car ownership. I can't say I will miss these sleazy car dealers or salesmen when they're gone. No wonder they are often cast as an example of a shyster.

[Msar]

Yes I did buy a car completely online and never had the need to go physically to the dealership! (Well could term it as virtual with few human interactions over phone)

Want to know more, then read on-

My story starts when XUV700 was launched, I got a local dealers number close to my locality(Bangalore City) through a google search and called him.

Gave him my vehicle specification on whatsapp.

Post which he asked me to transfer the booking amount of 21k.

This was done and next day the dealership punched in my order and duly sent me the confirmation form on my email.

Post which, once a month the salesman used to keep me updated on the status of the vehicle.

Come July, I get a email and call that vehicle has been allotted to my booking.

The dealership sends me the breakup of the total cost via email.

I initiated the loan process and in the meanwhile the relationship manager sends me a full 360 degree video and pictures of my car from the yard along with current odometer reading.

Once I was content, the loan amount was disbursed- got the insurance online and I was all set for delivery.

Delivery also was seamless, I went on the time communicated to me and drove out the car without any hassle/delays.

So yes, all the way from booking until the day I took delivery- never felt the need to physically go to the dealership.

Touch wood, its been more than 2k Km’s on my Xuv700 AWD and not a single niggle to report.

Times certainly have changed- this could have been unthinkable few years back.

[V.Narayan]

I suspect in today's world people like me are in a rapidly shrinking minority. I only buy aircraft scale models on line and I would be terrified to buy a car on line. I find buying on line complicated and suspect - suspect due to my own ignorance and lack of familiarity - I'm always concerned of clicking the wrong button and getting stuck which I stupidly often have. I guess I will need to learn a few more tricks. I wonder what are the advantages to the customer of buying a car on line. I hope they will allow us to visit dealers to physically check the car out and test drive it.

[gururajrv]

For a country like India, where the law isn't strong enough to keep the dealer practice in check, it is always safer to buy the cars in person from the dealer. We've seen enough stories on / off this forum with horrendous experiences customers have experienced. Imagine going online where there's there's minimal ownership from the dealership side in terms of keeping the constant updates feeding to the customer will be worst at minimum.

While this limits the headache of going through all the marketing talks, it takes away that small edge you'll have over the dealership. If the online method immediately assigns a sales supervisor or representative, then it would prove to be a little beneficial because talking online doesn't have much impact as against offline as and when there's an issue faced during the buying process.

[HummerH]

Acko Drive experience

I came across Acko drive when I started my new car hunt early this year but was not confident about their practices or how it would work out with PDI, issue resolution setup etc. So, I just ignored it. Later in July I zeroed in on Brezza and made a booking at a dealership near my residence.

Dealership experience - After my booking, I could feel the difference in my Sales guy's behaviour with the very vague response to any query from me. Tried escalating two levels up and it was the same experience. After waiting for a month more than they promised me, I got frustrated, and I wanted to cancel my booking as I think the line of trust was broken with that dealer - that was my heart, and my brain said, Dude, you don't have a booking anywhere else if you cancel! So, started looking for plan B and remembered Ackodrive.

Acko drive

- To my pleasant surprise, they were showing a red LXi in stock for immediate delivery on their website. Called them up and they confirmed the stock, and I paid the booking amount of 11k the same day on a Monday. They also sent me an email that entitled me to an additional 6k discount on the final price. They were supposed to connect me to the dealer in 24-48 hours. Nothing happened the next day.

So, I tried contacting them on WhatsApp channel by afternoon. I was told my RM would call back in an hour. No one called until evening. Now I called their Customer Care, and they told me that after booking RM will change and they said the new RM will call me back soon.

Lesson learnt - It's the only one-way communication - request a callback and wait. Never we can connect to RM directly. Also, they call from spam numbers and never from the official acko#. Since I had a spam filter on my phone was blocking all their calls initially. Their working hours are 10 am - 7 pm.

RM called me on Wednesday and asks me why I requested a callback, come on am I really hearing that!! I told him I was waiting for dealer information from him. He is asking me whether the dealer called me. I said No, that's why we are talking. He said it was Dealer X and he will arrange for a conference call with the dealer in the afternoon. Nothing happened the rest of the day. Again I requested a call and waited on Thursday. RM called around the afternoon and asked the same question again why the call? patiently answered the need for dealer info. Now he says it's dealer Y and he will connect me to the dealer later. RM mentioned that he couldn't call on time because he has to contact many customers in a day. It looks like they have an overloaded RM team to cut costs. Again Nothing happened for the rest of the day.

Frustrated, I called them on Saturday and asked to cancel the booking. They asked to send an email. I did the same.
RM calls me on Sunday and asked the same question. I am like you tell me why you called now. This time he connected me to a dealer rep from Y. That guy gave me his number and asked me to call on Monday as I was out of town. Monday morning I called the dealer, and he confirmed there was no stock!! Disappointment again.

Oh God, I am back to square one. Not sure where my destiny is for this car purchase. What do I do, I decided to keep my booking with Acko if any new stock comes before my dealer. Meanwhile had asked for a stock check on Tata Punch with them. RM was ready to connect me to a Tata dealer. But, my heart did not agree with the punch. So, I said I will wait for the Brezza. And the wait is still on.

cons

- Acko's communication channel is one way for the customer. Very difficult if one wants any immediate support from RM. I also think if their insurance arm also works in the same fashion and if there are issues, it will be frustrating for sure.

Pros

- you can see the stock availability in your city for Maruti, Hyundai, Honda, Tata, Mahindra, etc. and Acko'S onroad pricing(So called discounted)

And myself waiting, fingers crossed at the mercy of Maruti Dealer( which I wish to avoid by all means) and Acko.

Mod Note - Please proofread before posting.

[lemedico]

I recently bought a pre-owned Tiago. This was off Facebook marketplace.
I ended up on fa ebook after being batter and bruised on the traditional websites like spinny, olx and cars 24. Heavily photoshopped images, no room for bargain, bombarded with spam calls and generally overpriced.
On Facebook, the spam quota is actually much higher, with 90% listings by funny "dealers" and the use of excessive emojis in their listings. But i was lucky to spot a direct seller, who was happy to speak on the phone.
Long story short, from messenger to signature, it was a five day process. The seller was a friendly man and luckily not too far from my in law's home. We could go and physically inspect, drive and also negotiate the price.
We made a great deal for a great car, something that was looking like a distant dream after many weeks on the traditional (useless) websites.

Perhaps there is the convenience of the transfer process on other websites, but in my case, when we did it on our own, it wasn't too bad after involving an RTO agent to get things done. Albeit, with a pink Mahatma Gandhi in his palm!

[vigvr]

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