What are your thoughts on 'Truecar' price quotes?

pbm

Joined
Apr 19, 2004
Messages
10,206
Location
New York
I put in a 'Truecar' request on a new Hyundai and was amazed at some of the prices that others were apparently able to get (well over 20% off MSRP). When I received the 'offer' I was impressed until I read the fine print which showed that I would have to qualify for every 'discount' to get that price. How many people are 'recent college graduates', and 'military', and 'first responder' etc.? The one that I would qualify for would be 'current owner's' but that's no longer listed. It does seem a bit disingenuous.
 
depends on car..
for jeep cherokee I beat their price by 5000$

for subaru which is 2% under invoice best case scenario it was decently close.
 
Any more if I see a price on a website on a new car, I automatically assume that price is with $2-5k in rebates, when searching through vehicles.
 
When I sold cars years back it was a good tool, but not perfect. Some markets value certain brands or vehicle types, thus skewing the theoretical value vs actual market value.
 
When I sold cars years back it was a good tool, but not perfect. Some markets value certain brands or vehicle types, thus skewing the theoretical
I did notice that 'Truecar' discounts vary by zip code. I guess Subaru's would be discounted more in the sunbelt than in the snow belt etc...
 
I put in a 'Truecar' request on a new Hyundai and was amazed at some of the prices that others were apparently able to get (well over 20% off MSRP). When I received the 'offer' I was impressed until I read the fine print which showed that I would have to qualify for every 'discount' to get that price. How many people are 'recent college graduates', and 'military', and 'first responder' etc.? The one that I would qualify for would be 'current owner's' but that's no longer listed. It does seem a bit disingenuous.
Well they would probably miss out on a sale. List rock bottom price and let the customer figure out what they qualify for.

It's not like no haggle pricing is accepted by the dealers OR customers.
 
It really depends. I picked up a new 2011 Chevy Silverado using Truecar at a price point that was well below my GM employee price at the time. A month later, my son bought a similar truck and the employee's price was cheaper. Two years later, the Truecar price wasn't close to being competitive at the same dealer.
More recently I've found the Truecar price is loaded with so many conditions ($500 doc fees, protection package, must finance at the dealer, etc. etc.) it's tough to get a meaningful comparison. Realize if you request a Truecar price quote from a dealer and end up buying there, they have to pay the Truecar fee, which does increase their cost of the vehicle.
 
Got my wife's Prius with a truecar referral. Used the only dealer that shot me a price, instead of saying, hey come on down and we'll talk.

"Felt" like it was a good price, $4100 off MSRP with $750 worth of floormats and junk thrown in for free but that's what they always want you to feel, right?

Truecar is an aggregator service that works for the dealers to bring suckers in. I checked my quoted price against priuschat's OTD pricing reports and it looked stellar. Apparently, the Northeast is the most competitive place in the nation to buy a Prius, maybe even any Toyota. (They have regional middlemen of varying blood thirst.)
 
"Apparently, the Northeast is the most competitive place in the nation to buy a Prius, maybe even any Toyota. (They have regional middlemen of varying blood thirst.)"
Are you saying the northeast's competitiveness is good for the buyer or the dealer? I assume you mean the buyer but I'm just checking.
 
I got in to a rather contentious fight with a dealer based on TrueCar a few years ago. Dealer internet sales quoted me MSRP less "no qualification rebates" and no additional discounts. TrueCar for same trim/color/options was a discounted price, less the same rebates, for a price that was $3,000 less than the dealer. I asked the dealer if they would match TrueCar. They claimed the price they gave me was less than TrueCar. I told them it wasn't, they basically said "Impossible! Prove it with screen shots!". I sent the screen shots. The dealer replied that they discussed the TrueCar pricing with the general manager, offered NO commitment to match it, and then proceeded to ask me when I would like to take delivery. Needless to say I had no interest in dealing with them after that.

TrueCar is just like any other lead generation service. They pretend to be acting in the best interest of the buyer, but are nothing more than a portal for sales generation. The car buying service my car insurance offers uses TrueCar as their platform. Before you can get a final price quote, you have to agree to transmit your contact info to at least one local affiliated dealer (who will call you within 20 minutes of hitting the OK button...and then call you every day thereafter until you tell them you are just shopping or no longer in the market.)
 
TrueCar used to be a source of ballpark market pricing - something to give you some idea what to expect in your area..... until they changed into a referral machine. At one time, you could actually get it to spit out a zip-code-based price, now you have to actually have it reach out to a dealer on your behalf, which takes away my whole reason of using it. I don't go to a dealership until I'm armed with every piece of market data available, so TrueCar no longer gets a visit from my IP address.
 
TrueCar is in bed with the dealers. I am told that they receive $300.00 from the dealer for every car they move to a sale.
Pretty much. I have asked sales people at my work and they won't deny it. Honestly for the lowest hassle car sales thing, use Costco unless you are super picky about options. It is of no use for me since dealer employee pricing, at least for Ford, is below invoice before rebates. When I bought my Mustang the MSRP was 44 and change since it was a Premium GT with the Track Pack. With D-Plan it got down to the 38K range before rebates.
 
I put in a 'Truecar' request on a new Hyundai and was amazed at some of the prices that others were apparently able to get (well over 20% off MSRP). When I received the 'offer' I was impressed until I read the fine print which showed that I would have to qualify for every 'discount' to get that price. How many people are 'recent college graduates', and 'military', and 'first responder' etc.? The one that I would qualify for would be 'current owner's' but that's no longer listed. It does seem a bit disingenuous.
Doesn't Hyundai's website list promotions for your region for a certain time period? I would check there also.
 
Before you can get a final price quote, you have to agree to transmit your contact info to at least one local affiliated dealer (who will call you within 20 minutes of hitting the OK button...and then call you every day thereafter until you tell them you are just shopping or no longer in the market.)
Throwaway email address and your phone number is 867-5309
 
Back
Top