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Is buying a car online in India worth it? Buyers share their experience

16th October 2022, 09:16 by Rahul Nagaraj

An overwhelming majority of the conversations, visits, test drives & transactions still happen with physical car showrooms.

GTO recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

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).

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!

Here's what BHPian Mustang_Boss had to say on the matter:

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 of on-road price implicitly, without any haggling.
I don't 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, the dealer decides the price based on your appearance [How you flaunt your jewellery & 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 what's 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 a 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.

Here's what BHPian bidyut.b had to say on the matter:

I had a very good experience with online booking. When Ford introduced the facelift EcoSoport in the year 2017, they were taking bookings through Amazon. I booked my choice of variant and selected the preferred dealership through Amazon. Got a call from the dealership when it was ready to the shipped from the 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, and said no to a few accessories and yes to a few.
Once the car reached the 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/colour 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.

Here's what BHPian anuragsingh had to say on the matter:

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 for 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.

Here's what BHPian Mango had to say on the matter:

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 around.)
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 pyjamas 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 loathe in terms of doing the PDI 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 travel.
How could they improve?
The number 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 that made us question the ethics of the company as well.