TrueCar Used Cars and New Cars Ratings and Reviews

Welp, it worked

If you’re on the market for a new car and know exactly what you want, you’ll inevitably have to shop around for the best deal. Due to the manual effort required, it takes time and persistence. I hate buying cars and I generally despise dealerships. TrueCar gave me a means to significantly cut down on the amount of time and stress required to trudge through this process. I picked out my parameters, entered my location, and let the request fly. Dealers had to reach out to me for my business. I curbed messages that lacked transparency in pricing or ignored my request. I also skipped any dealership with markups. However, I did find a few diamonds in the rough, thanks to TrueCar, which put me in a significantly stronger negotiating position when I had two clear OTD offers to work with at competing dealers. Thanks to them, this car buying experience turned out be the LOWEST STRESS one in my life. And hey, a dealer still got to make some money. So dealerships, what are you waiting for? Get on board with this. For anyone on the market for a new car, make TrueCar your first stop.

Hate leaving reviews

Ugh, I hate it when the app comes up with a pop up message asking me whether or not I like the app, and then taking me to the review page if I say yes. I wish it wouldn’t do that. But since I’ve already formed my opinion, I’ll go ahead and leave a review.

So the app is very informative. It’s been my favorite car-buying app. But when you’re in the research mode, and you’re just flipping through the different trims of the car you’re researching, the tables of information are just so big (especially when there’s a lot of trims to compare) that the information doesn’t stay lined up. You think you’re looking at the LE for instance but you’re actually looking at the SE. I don’t think this is the app’s fault, knowing how tables work you just really need a screen large enough to be able to still show the header once you get really far down on the table. I found a way around this. I go to the TrueCar website and I view it in landscape mode, problem fixed.

So even though I don’t like that, I don’t think it can be helped and I found a way around it so overall I like the app and I’m keeping it and am going to continue to use it to read up and to find cars.

I have bought my last 3 cars using TrueCar

After getting $7000 off the sticker price of a new car 6 years ago, I have been a truecar believer and I’ve never looked back. I have questioned my faith at times, double-checking Costco auto buying program pricing and other no hassle internet car sales systems, and truecar remains the best. We had to upgrade our car size 2 years ago and got a new Subaru for $5000 below MSRP through truecar with zero hassle, dealers fighting with each other over email for my business. Now that the chip shortage happened, we got offered MORE THAN WE PAID FOR OUR CAR for a trade in. So we had no choice but to upgrade our car to a nicer one for a lower payment and 0% financing. So essentially because of truecar, we were PAID to drive our last car around for 2 years. My car salesman ended up saying only two people this month got more than they paid for their car, and both were truecar customers.

A surprisingly Positive buying experience

I was looking for a 2019 VW Beetle SEL Final Edition for my wife who had a Beetle as her first car. I searched nationwide and found 3 that were available through TrueCar. Complicating the process was the fact that we were closing on a house and needed to slow the process until the closing so as not to jeopardize the closing by having credit pulls or spending a large amount of money. The City Volkswagen of Evanston in Chicago was the only dealership that would work with us by holding the car with a small deposit a week until closing and another 3 days to arrange an Amtrak trip to pick up the car. We were blessed by the patience and cooperation shown by City VW managers, salespeople and financial staff. The car was very rare and in demand. Thanks wholeheartedly to Marcus, Eric, Ian and Alex. It was a most happy experience for us that had never happened in the course of many many cars bought before.

Found the PERFECT car

We’d been searching high and low for an older model Suburu Impreza for our 15 year old daughter to drive when she gets her license. We didn’t think we’d find anything with less than 150k miles, or in anything other than good condition. Imagine our surprise when the first time we used TrueCar, her dream car popped up! We somehow stumbled onto a gorgeous 2009 Impreza with 80k miles, in phenomenal condition. Clean title, no issues, well taken care of... everything a parent could hope for when we’re talking the BabyGirl of the family lol. This car was not listed on ANY of the other search engines we used! We found it around 7pm on Thursday; went straight to the dealership Friday afternoon, and were driving her new car home in about an hour. We will definitely be using this service again for my older son who’s vehicle was just totaled. In fact, we have already used it to go look at one vehicle already.

Saved me $900 on my truck

I had great success with this app. I saw my truck on a Saturday, and locked in my price, which was a great deal. The dealer said someone was coming in the next day to see buy it. I said if anything happens, let me know. The deal fell through, and it was back on for $900 more. I told them I had my TrueCar price, and they honored it. I went up the next day, and picked up my truck. I am extremely happy with it, and how much I paid for it.
Another thing I like about this app over most others is that they tell you exactly what packages are in the vehicle, so you know exactly what options are included. I found this very helpful in weeding out the trucks that didn’t fit my criteria.
I plan on keeping this truck for a while, but would always use this if I’m in the market for a new or used car.

Phone calls wont stop!!!!!!

Just awful and I don’t even understand how this level of harassment is even legal in 2018. Basically what happens is that after you just view a car and I mean it (just viewing), they will send your phone number to numerous dealerships and trust me that they wont stop calling and emailing you, even after you remove the car from the apps menu they even tell you that you will continue to receive calls and emails, there is no way out out of this that I could find and ( I’m even in the do not call registry ).... apparently they don't even share the databases with the dealerships.

There was a time at the very beginning when they truly care about the customer, now they just blatantly and with no apparent way out just give out your personal info, how is that for a balanced scale between the dealerships and the car seeker, this is even horrible for the dealerships imo as i pretty much blacklisted them all from my current and future car purchasing experience and now they wont be getting my business....

Very helpful research tool

This has helped me greatly in pricing research for my car buying search as well as seeing what amenities are available for the cars I’m looking into. Pictures and stats. And when I have time to answer 4-8 emails I can check pricing in my area and see who’s offering decent prices and who’s marking the car up exponentially. It’s very helpful for someone who is actually trying to buy a car. It can also be a great tool for finding out what is in stock near you. And what is impossible to find. Also when certain cars will become available. But be warned if you ask for the specific pricing near you the dealers are notified of your interest and you will receive a few emails. How ever many dealers there are near you that you received pricing for.

Developer Response ,

Hello, and thank you for the kind words! We're very happy you had a great experience with the app. If you have any questions or more feedback, feel free to contact us at: (888) 878-3227.

They steal your phone number and sell it

True Car is nothing but a scam to sell your private information to other companies. When you search a cars price they give you a value that is way below MSRP and make you sign up with your email to look at prices in the area. However, they do not give you price lists afterward, they just sell your phone number (which you don’t give them, they just raid your phone for it) and your email that you used to sign up to all of the dealerships in your area. These dealership prices are no where near what True Car tells you they are before you sign up, and the dealerships send you info for all cars, not just the one you were looking at. Amongst 8 dealerships, 19 emails, and 7 phone calls, all within the first hour, there was only 2 cars that matched what I had searched, leading me to believe that True Car doesn’t even tell the dealerships what you searched for. It is just as easy and quick to avoid True Car and you won’t have to be spammed by the dealerships.

Phone calls won’t stop

Like others have said, this app is advertised as a new way to buy a car with less hassle. It should make it clearer to users that dealers will call them despite asking for email contact only.
The idea behind this app is great, and I like the ability to see inventory on dealer lots. But the phone calls kill the purpose.
I downloaded the app about a month ago and clicked through to see the price on a car, suddenly my phone blows up with calls and texts and voicemails. These eventually slowed as the date on the offer passed. Yesterday I completed a survey in my email from truecar asking how my experience was. I filled that out and boom the phone calls start again.
This app needs to be clear that dealers will get all your contact info, despite your preferences.
If I could leave a zero star rating I would, and if I could redo the survey I would give a terrible rating. Better yet, don’t fill out the survey because they turn around and tell the dealers to contact you again!

Developer Response ,

HI Kraig, we appreciate your feedback and want to apologize for the number of phone calls you've received. We want to help you find your next car, which means that we provide local dealers that might have the vehicle you want in stock with your information. We can work on letting them know that you're not interested. Just give our Customer Service team a call at: (888) 878-3227.