Okay, so this is my experience with purchasing a car from Vroom. You are able to call and do the ordering process with a representative over the phone. Do not, I repeat, do not buy the extended warranty/maintenance plan from Vroom. It is through a company called Safeguard, which is a scam.
Try to ask for the bank approval in writing from Vroom to make sure they are not raising the interest rate. Make sure if you're trading in a vehicle to see if they can raise the appraisal value; they did for me.
Make sure after you submit your documents to call the title department and ask all the questions about the title. What they told me is the vehicle could show up with no tags, or the vehicle could show up with new buyer tags that are temp. After 2 months of having new buyers temp tags, you have to call and ask for new temp tags and provide your insurance with the coverages that they allow in Texas to get the new temp tags. The title department said that the vehicle could take up to four months to get your actual plates which they should state on their website, I think that that is not cool.
With the 7-day 250-mile return policy/warranty, usually they will only refund your deposit of $500 when you buy the car if there's a mechanical failure. Even though they say that you have a 7-day 250-mile warranty in my research this is sort of not true. Something else to look out for is your vehicle could be late upon delivery, they are using third-party HotShots to deliver the vehicles so delivery is kind of unreliable based on the schedule that they set for delivery.
When I was approved from Santander Bank I did some research into the bank and they've had some shady situations and class actions that they had to pay back so I went ahead and called Santander Bank to confirm that I was approved for financing. Because upon research I found that Vroom has approved auto loans on behalf of Santander Bank only to come to find out that the person was never really approved. So in my situation, I wanted to make sure that they did approve my loan before I sign the contract.
You will have to pay $500 as a deposit to hold the vehicle until 10 days after you received the vehicle which I think is very unfair. Also, you have to pay $599 to transport a vehicle to you which can be in the finance.
Upon doing further research into them actually doing a deep check into the vehicle and also cleaning the vehicles, I think this is where they're lacking. They don't actually service the vehicles or look at them and they don't really clean them so this is your responsibility, when you receive your vehicle the first day you need to take it to the dealer that manufactured the vehicle and have a thorough inspection done.
In my situation, I bought a new truck, 1 year old that has 7000 miles, I'm still waiting for the vehicle to arrive. I finished the contract, sent all the information in and provided all the information for my trade-in. I believe it's best to also contact the original manufacturer, give them the VIN and see what information you can get.
Do not for a second think that you can trust Vroom. You need to do all your own research, check on your own vehicle, and make sure that if there are any issues, I repeat, make sure that if there are any issues with your vehicle you let them know within the first seven days because if you don't after the 7 days they will tell you that's all your fault. And they will not help you.
The issue that I see here is that when you receive your vehicle they are Texas plates and so you're buying a vehicle that's out-of-state, one that saves them costs, you are dealing with a company that has multiple different locations for operation so that saves the money there. They also own a dealership in Texas called Texas Direct; I would do research into that. They have not had a long-running history of doing the right thing so you have to be on top of all the information and knowledge about your vehicle.
The most important thing that I think you should know is that this company is not trying to provide as much transparency as possible. Because most of the people that work at this company are new, and have worked there for less than three months or they have no idea what they're talking about.
You MUST call the titles department and make sure everything's okay. Call the delivery department and make sure everything's okay there and as well. Check in with the sales department to make sure that the contract was made correctly. I think it's important for Vroom to let people know that it could take up to four months to get your tags, that you would be left with Texas plates for 4 months until you get your originating state's plates, that you have to do a smog check, and also take your vehicle in for a VIN check through the police department. These are things that the website does not tell you. Sometimes Carfax reports are not up to date so you really do need to have a mechanic look at the vehicle, as well as the original manufacturer look at the vehicle and do a computer diagnostic multi-point inspection.
If you can finance your vehicle somewhere else, I would. Do not try to go through Vroom because they did not want to show me my actual offer letter from the bank, meaning that Vroom has some room to raise the interest rate to make a little capital.
The real reason they can save you money is because they don't have overhead due to outsourcing and spreading out all the offices all over the place and having many different moving pieces to the whole situation. I believe that I will like my truck and that everything will be okay but I'm the kind of person that does deep research into the company, and if you look at the reviews from the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Reports they are not good from Vroom and so if you don't do your own research it leads to a bad situation past the seven-day warranty which there's no point of return.
Lastly, I would say do not buy their gap coverage. Go with AAA or State Farm because they have reputable companies that will actually protect you vs. the Safeguard plan that this company offers. If you do research into that company it will take 3 months to pay off your vehicle if it is totaled which leaves you ultimately with no car.
So once again, do not buy their maintenance plan, do not buy their gap insurance, and make sure to ask for the offer from the bank showing your interest rate so that you know that they're not making extra money there, and also raise your appraisal value on your vehicle. Get all of the information from the title department, get the vehicle inspected by the dealer, and make sure that there are no physical damages that are more of what needs to be repaired through the company.
In my research, the only way to have success with this company is to know what they're doing, how they're doing it, and to bring all the information together so that you can make an informed decision. I think that there are a lot of great cars here but I don't think you'll get the level of care and inspection of a vehicle like you would at a dealership, unfortunately. Like the title department said, "it's not like buying a pair of pants from Amazon, you are buying a car, and this will be a slow process". I believe that dealers block Vroom so that's why it takes up to four months to get your tags, and they do not say this on their website so I hope you have the best of luck to find your vehicle. I will keep you updated on what my experience was at the end. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you stay blessed and safe.
Length of Use: Less than 3 months
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
