Looking For Less Haggle, Less Hassle

Does the very idea of car shopping give you the prickly hives?

- David Muhlbaum

Going toe-to-toe with salespeople who, let’s face it, have a few negotiating tricks up their sleeve has intimidated car buyers for decades. So the prospect of doing the entire transaction online— without fielding calls and e-mails from dealers—at a fair, fixed price is tantalizing.

If you’re shopping for a used car, you can get pretty close to that promise. Building on CarMax’s fixed-price model, Vroom and Carvana let you pick a car online, line up financing and have it delivered to your doorstep. No fuss, no muss, no “C’mon down to the showroom and let’s talk.”

For new-car shoppers, this quest remains more elusive. In theory, you can get awfully close to buying a new car online, though state laws requiring actual signatures on paper documents and red tape for financing approvals are often an impediment.