Buying a new or used vehicle is complex and irritating.
That's been my experience when buying two vehicles — new and used — in the past year.
My wife's lease was coming to an end and she was taking the new crossover we bought last year.
With the new crossover being our family-hauler, I wanted a vehicle for my daily 35-mile round trip. Those circumstances led me to either a cheap lease or a used Chevrolet Volt for $12,000 to $15,000 with under 45,000 miles.
Why a Volt? After researching Autotrader, Cars.com, Carvana, Kelley Blue Book and several dealership and automaker websites, a 2011-14 Volt was roughly the same price as several other compact, or even midsize, cars that weren't as well equipped.
In addition, I know General Motors overengineered the car and every owner I've spoken with has enjoyed it. I also like the instantaneous torque and the idea of not paying for as much gasoline.
I first went to several used-car purchasing websites and researched cheap lease deals for new vehicles. My goal was to do as much as possible online before visiting a dealership, which turned out much harder than anticipated.
In the end, I spent countless hours researching and 5.5 hours in dealerships, including 2.5 hours for purchasing. I ended up buying a vehicle that was slightly over my initial budget but significantly better equipped than I initially wanted.
I also learned that while online deals and programs appear attractive, most are smoke and mirrors to get you in the door of a dealership.
I have never leased a vehicle, so I thought it might be a good idea to try it, especially with the number of ads about monthly payments for less than $200, if not $100.
The leasing ads, combined with home renovation plans, led me to consider a pickup, where the deals seemed too good to be true. They were.
I quickly learned that these ads are even more misleading than I expected. Most have disclaimers that took longer to read than the ad itself. They typically required thousands of dollars down, applied only if the buyer qualified for employee pricing and included niche incentives that aren't readily available.
For example, Ram, on its website, advertised an employee promotion for a 4x2 Ram 1500 Express crew cab for $189 per month for 24 months with $1,148 due at signing. I searched for the exact vehicle within 100 miles of my home, and there was only one.
One salesman told me that getting a lease on that pickup for around that price or even $250 was "impossible" even with a family discount. A salesman at another store told me that in six years of selling cars and trucks, he may have sold one 4x2 because they never stock them.
So, I shifted to the Chevrolet Silverado. The lowest advertised price I had seen was about $100 with $995 down for a 2018 Silverado WT double cab. Again, I ran into roadblocks. The best deal I could find after several online inquiries and dealership visits was about $300 a month with a less than $1,000 down payment, including one deal for a Silverado custom crew cab that was coming out of the dealership's loaner fleet.
I also looked at swapalease.com but the vehicle prices were more expensive than expected, largely because of transfer fees of hundreds of dollars.
So I decided to buy a used vehicle.
I monitored several websites — mostly Autotrader and Carvana — for used Volts in my price range.
Shop-Click-Fail
I was interested in using Carvana, but its prices were higher than local dealerships' and despite my love for Amazon, I was uncomfortable buying a vehicle online sight unseen. That led me to three dealerships with used Volts, including one that I had been monitoring for several months with a good variety on the lot.
After visiting that dealership and taking two test drives, I left to do some additional research and cross-shopping. That afternoon, I decided I wanted to buy a certified pre-owned 2014 Volt Premium. I ended up using GM's online Shop-Click-Drive program that night because the Buick-GMC dealership I was working with would not hold or let me reserve the car without an appointment.
GM launched Shop-Click-Drive in November 2013 as a simple and easy way to learn about and choose "financing and insurance products, get information about their trade-in and apply for financing, all online," as GM put it. Buyers still must visit dealerships to sign the paperwork and take delivery, but that was not clearly stated in my experience.
Overall, if other customers have experienced what I did buying though the program, GM should shut it down immediately or significantly retrain used-car sales staffers.
I thought the program might save me some time at the dealership. Instead, it caused additional tension, confusion and stress — particularly with scheduling the vehicle to be delivered.
Everyone at the dealership was polite and courteous, but they either didn't know details about the program or they told me that features of it, including delivery, were unavailable. There also were discrepancies in pricing of the car by hundreds of dollars — odd for a program that touted pricing transparency — and for at least one F&I product.
Vehicle nondelivery
After completing the Shop-Click-Drive process, including a credit application, I quickly received a confirmation email of my "purchase request" and scheduled vehicle delivery to my house at 3:30 p.m. the next day. I thought that was a quick turnaround, but it was offered so I accepted.
After receiving no communication from the dealership the next morning, I called to confirm the delivery time. I told the phone receptionist my situation and she transferred me to the used-car department.
A salesman whom I had not talked to the previous day said he was unsure about the program and would check. He quickly called me back and said the store doesn't deliver vehicles. Two others also told me this, while a CPO manager eventually told me the store's "delivery guys" had just left for a vacation to Florida for three weeks so delivery wouldn't be available until their return.
I said I could wait, as my wife's lease isn't up until the end of the month and I wanted to experience getting a vehicle delivered to my home. The manager told me to call in a few weeks to schedule the delivery or give 24 hours' notice if I decided I wanted to pick it up.
So pretty much everything the Shop-Click-Drive program promised was inaccurate or has not occurred. I also was given a $100 accessory online coupon that I used for a $100 all-weather mat. When I brought it up, I was told I had to run that through the parts department, which was not open.
In the end, I bought the 2014 Volt Premium for about $16,800, including a tire and wheel protection plan — Michigan has horrible potholes — but all I have from my purchase is this article, a key fob, a pile of papers and a potential delivery in the coming weeks.
