"CarWoo is a service that solicits local dealer bids for a car with your desired specifications. For $49, you get bids on one car. For $99, you get three. The dealers must set a firm price and do not get to see your contact information until you agree to their price. I solicited bids on a Toyota Corolla, Chevy Cruze and Nissan Altima and ended up buying a Corolla through a CarWoo dealer.
The good:
1) Authenticity. The fact that you get REAL bids is the key value proposition. I tried all the other free services that supposedly give you low dealer prices -- Zagg, Edmunds, Consumer Reports, USAA -- and, to a tee, these online prices were never honored after several back-and-forths with the dealer. There were no surprises at all after I accepted my CarWoo offer.
2) Decent bids. Of the four dealers who gave me bids, all bid below MSRP. One even counter-bid to match another dealer's price, which allowed the economic benefits of dealer competition to kick in. In the end, I bought my Corolla at exactly invoice.
3) Hassle-free pricing. It's true that you can contact dealers directly for free, but they will want to play a game of cat and mouse before giving you a price. When they finally do, their first offer will be at or above MSRP. Some will require you to come in for a test drive before they will negotiate. All in all, getting a decent quote for free can be time-consuming. CarWoo is a time-saving alternative.
4) Customer service. Despite the problems listed below, customer service was extremely responsive and resolved everything in a timely manner.
The bad:
1) Glitches. I experienced two glitches with the Web site. First, when adding the Cruze to my list of vehicles, I limited the dealers from the 25 listed in my region to eight local dealers I could easily reach. Yet a day later, I was getting offers from the full list of 25, even those I had not selected. This happened again with the Nissan Altima. Second, one dealer who gave me an offer did not do his math correctly. His "offer price," listed at the top of the offer Web page, was not the same as the "total price" listed at the bottom. CarWoo contacted the dealer and straightened it out at my request, but I wish CarWoo would implement some sanity checks on the dealer offers to make sure the offers are clear.
2) Number of offers. Over the course of one week I received three bids on the Corolla, one on the Cruze and nothing on the Altima. That was a disappointing take for top-10, consumer-driven makes like these. I think this is because CarWoo is still actively building dealer participation, but for the time being I would not recommend the service for a hard-to-find vehicle. I wish they would do more to pro-actively solicit local dealers for bids, preferably by phone (I believe their only form of communication with dealers is e-mail).
3) Price. In my opinion, $99 is a bit much to ask given the relatively small number of offers you get. I am glad I had an aggressive dealer.
Conclusion: I will use CarWoo again when I buy a car for my wife this June, and in the meantime I hope they iron out some of the kinks with the Web site and get more dealers involved."
"Carwoo.com was awesome. I got six or seven offers on each of the two cars that I posted. The offers gave me a much better idea of how much each of the cars would cost me. I was disappointed that a couple of the dealers wouldn't stand by their offers because they included discounts I wasn't eligible for such as a customer loyalty discount. I kind of expected the car dealers to try and screw me though, and I was glad I had multiple carwoo offers so I could quickly filter out the car dealers with more egregious tactics. "
"Carwoo made it really easy to get a great deal on my new car. I don't like negotiating in person, but I was able to do everything online. I got a great offer (under invoice) from a dealer who was a little farther away, and the purchase really couldn't have been easier. I just walked in with my offer sheet and the deal was done."
"I first read about Carwoo.com from some news article on the web. I'm an American but live abroad for work, and this was the perfect solution to buying a car remotely. I knew exactly what car I wanted and which colors I'd be willing to consider, so I paid for the Plus service and picked my car. I waited for the dealers to submit their prices to me and negotiated with them via the customer portal. After 2 days I was finally down to two dealers who were willing to deal with me. One dealer had the better price but not the color I wanted, so he was out of the game.
The best surprise was yet to come - since the dealer had all of the information prior to the pick-up, all I had to do was go in, test drive the car, sign some paperwork, and leave with the car. No upselling. NONE! That was incredible.
At the end of the day, I got a great price on a great car (Honda Accord), and it was the smoothest process ever. THANKS CARWOO!
Tips to new users: Keep an eye out for promotions on Carwoo's Twitter site!"
"I heard about this site while reading Money magazine. What a great experience! Car Woo acts as the intermediary between you and the dealer. They provide several dealers in your area that have the exact car you want to buy and then offers are made to you through Car Woo. The dealer doesn't know who or where you are unless you agree to contact them directly yourself. No annoying phone calls or high pressure. Just select your best deal, check the pricing against dealer cost info available and show up and pick up your car. Be aware that dealers will play the same games (bait and switch) they always do. I just ignored those dealers and went with one that gave me straight info. I will use it again and recommend it highly!"
"GREAT SERVICE.A GREAT SITE TO BUY A NEW CAR.NO HAGGLING,NO TALKING TO A DEALER.BEST OF ALL GETTING THE LOWEST PRICE.I HAVE RECOMMENDED THIS SITE TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS.I SAVED OVER A THOUSAND DOLLAR ON MY CAR PURCHASE."
"Buying a car through Carwoo made the whole car buying experience hassle free. I will never buy another new car without Carwoo. They did all the work to find the car I wanted and I didn't have to speak with any sales people until I had found my car and agreed on the price. I like having the opportunity to counter offer on the price offered. I feel I got a better deal through Carwoo than I would have if I had done all the work myself. I tell all my friends to buy through Carwoo. "