Even for non-car-enthusiasts – you know, normal folks who don’t have an unhealthy obsession with a piece of machinery, like yours truly – it can be hard to part ways with a car. For one thing, there are the memories, both good and bad, of your time with said car. Not to mention, the arduous task that lies ahead to even sell the thing. That makes me ask myself… How about using Vroom sell my car?
The process of getting rid of your car is never easy. It could take weeks worth of asking around to see who’d offer you the most. In addition, there are mountains of red tape, paperwork, and other legal matters that need sorting out, too. Never before has wanting to dispose of something ever been this difficult. It’s about time that simpler alternatives are upon us, which is where companies like Vroom come in.
They (supposedly) make selling your car pretty easy. The gist of it is that selling your car can be done over the internet. Getting appraisals and quotes could be done without all that haggling, nor do you have to negotiate with others on a good price. And, once a deal’s been made, Vroom may even send someone over to pick up your car for you. However, is Vroom sell my car really the best option?
Sell My Car To Vroom
First off, and before we get into Vroom sell my car, what is Vroom, anyway? Back in the day, buying or selling a car requires you to go through used car lots or dealerships. However, this model isn’t the most ideal, especially for consumers. The process of either buying or selling a vehicle could be a taxing experience on your mental health, in addition to being time-consuming, as well as exhausting.
Yet, that unpleasant experience would still yield you a bad deal, unless you’re a skilled negotiator. As for a majority of people, you’re leaving out a lot of money on the table, as car salesmen would easily talk you down to under-offer or over-sell you on a car. Hence, why companies like Carvana, CarMax, and Vroom have sprung up over the years. They claim to make this ordeal fairer and easier on you.
Vroom is a relatively smaller brand compared to the other two, but it works the same way. In short, they advertise their entire inventory of cars online, so you could browse them at your leisure. If you want to buy a car, Vroom would even deliver it to your doorstep. The same goes for selling a car, as they would deliver a truck to your house (once you’ve taken up their offer) for free to pick it up.
In summary, then, Vroom offers a car buying and selling experience that won’t require you to visit a dealership lot in person. Nor, would you need to haggle endlessly on the price. Instead, their entire process is pretty efficient from the get-go, so their take-it-or-leave-it prices are often pretty fair. On top of that, they make it pretty easy to compare their cars and prices with the rest of the market.
Vroom Sell My Car Step #1: Submit Some Details About Your Car
If you want to sell your car on Vroom (and fun fact, go check out our guide on how to sell cars in GTA 5), in general, here’s what you need to do…
First off, head over to their website, and find the Sell/Trade page. There, you’re immediately alerted that you can get an appraisal in as little as 2 minutes. In practice, it might take longer depending on what car you have… Older or rarer cars may take a bit to appraise, while newer or commonly-found cars could literally take just 2 minutes or thereabouts. Nevertheless, it’s a rather speedy process.
To get an offer for Vroom sell my car though, you’ll need to submit some information about your car. Here’s a brief list of what sort of details they’ll need:
- License plate number and state of where your car’s registered (or the VIN, which should have most of your car’s information)
- Make and model of your car (this should be automatic, as the VIN or license plate should have those details in the DMV registry)
- Trim level of your car (for example, is it just a standard BMW model, or might be a sportier M model, or a middle-of-the-ground M Sport and M Performance), as well as any installed optional extras (such as what does SE mean on a car)
- Precise mileage of your car (this will be important to assess its value, and would give them hints as to how it’s aged and your car’s general condition)
- Vehicle condition (this is where you’ll note down any damage, whether it’s had any serious repairs, or if you’ve had something rebuilt, and so on)
- History of the vehicle (mainly, it’ll concern how long you’ve owned your car, or whether or not you’re the legal owner, and have the rights to sell that car)
Vroom Sell My Car Step #2: Get Your Free Appraisal From Vroom
The earlier process might seem complicated, but really, it’s pretty simple. Just type everything in and wait for Vroom to come up with an appraisal. Once again, getting an offer for Vroom sell my car can take longer than the advertised 2-minute wait time. Although, it won’t be long until Vroom spits out what they can offer for your ride. At the very most, you’ll probably need to wait 30 minutes, which isn’t bad.
Here’s what’ll happen next, once your car’s been appraised:
- An agent from Vroom will reach out and provide a cash offer for your car based on their appraisal process.
- Just like most other online-focused car buying or selling experiences, you can’t negotiate or haggle that offer. In short, you either take it or leave it.
- If Vroom somehow can’t calculate and offer an appraisal for your car instantly, they’ll still email you back within the same day, regardless.
- Vroom’s offer will stand for up to 7 days or 250 extra miles on the odometer (whichever comes first) after the offer’s been made.
- As the seller, you won’t need to pay them any fees. After all, your car isn’t being listed for sale, as it’s bought directly by Vroom to be resold.
- If you’re okay with the appraisal and are willing to accept that offer, then you can move on to the remaining steps, down below.
On a side note, you shouldn’t rely on just a single appraisal from Vroom alone. Their competitors in the online car dealership sphere, like Carvana or CarMax, offer similarly simple appraisal processes. Mostly, it’s the same with the others, too… Submit some basic information about your car, and wait as they begin appraising your ride and make an offer. Their respective appraisals are valid for 7 days, too.
Vroom Sell My Car Step #3: Provide Them With Additional Information
With that in mind, it’s a good idea to shop around for those 7 days and have your car appraised here and there. Between all the offers you get, this sets a baseline price for your car, and you’re aware of its value. Crucially, this also allows you to compare their offers, and see who’s offering you the most. If Vroom isn’t offering you as much as its rivals, then why sell your car to them for a lower price?
On the flip side, accepting Vroom’s offer isn’t the end, as you need to provide them with some other tidbits of information. This is mostly for legal purposes and validating your ownership of the said car. To keep things simple, here’s what they’ll ask you to upload for verification before they can finalize the selling of your car into Vroom’s inventory:
- Your personal ID
- Vehicle registration
- Vehicle title (only if applicable in your State)
- Lien release letter (if applicable)
- Proof that you’ll be able to pay off any negative equity (if applicable)
- Photos of the odometer
- Photos of the car (this doesn’t apply to most cars, but some may require proof of a car’s condition – otherwise, Vroom will take your word for it)
Vroom Sell My Car Step #4: Schedule Your Car’s Pick-Up
At this point, the transaction is mostly complete – Vroom has all the documents ready, and you have already accepted their offer. The next step may take a few days, as you and Vroom will now have to schedule a truck to pick your car up. These carrier trucks are mostly one-car delivery trucks, but they can sometimes send a 10-car hauler over, too. Therefore, you’ll have to schedule the pick-up time.
Here’s what you need to know about the car pick-up process:
- Depending on your location, it makes take between 1 to 4 days (or occasionally more) for a truck to arrive at your home or the appointed pick-up location.
- The entire pick-up process is free, as Vroom will cover the charges required to transport the car. At times, they may either send a Vroom-branded truck or a non-branded one.
- Note, picking up your car might be harder if you don’t live in the Lower 48 states. Thus, Vroom may not be able to offer any free pick-ups if you live in the other 2 states – Hawaii and Alaska.
- When you schedule the pick-up time and location, make sure that you’ll be there. Once the truck is there, you’ll have to sign some documents to confirm that your car is being picked up.
- The pick-up team will walk around your car to verify which one it is. Also, they’ll confirm that your vehicle is as described in the previous appraisal process – condition, mileage, trim, etc.
Vroom Sell My Car Step #5: Accept The Payment From Vroom
Finally, and once the carrier truck has picked up your car, Vroom will make the payment. It’s usually done with a check, which Vroom will mail to you. Although the check is issued immediately, it might take 2 to 3 days for it to arrive in your mailbox. Alternatively, if you don’t want to receive a check, it can be done with a direct deposit, instead. Usually, this is faster, often within the day of the pick-up.
Should you have an outstanding loan on your car, a part of the offer price will be used by Vroom to pay off your current lender. Other than that, Vroom also offers a trade-in option. Here, the value of your car can be used to purchase outright or finance a down payment on any other car that you’re fancying from Vroom’s inventory. This way, you could save a lot on sales tax on a car, as well.
Vroom Complaints
With that being said, that’s not to say that Vroom sell my car is without its faults. In fact, a quick search on Google alone will tell you that folks have had mixed feelings after buying or selling their cars on Vroom. There have been complaints and bad reviews aplenty, so it’s worthwhile being cautious if you’re buying or selling your car on Vroom. Here’s the take-away for how they perform:
- As of May 2022, Vroom’s BBB (Better Business Bureau) has a poor “F” ranking, and a very low 1.12 out of 5.00 stars from their customers.
- At the time of writing, their Trustpilot scores are rated as “Bad”, and more than 90% of customer reviews have been poor or below average.
- On Consumer Affairs, Vroom has an equally low score of just 2.75 out of 5.00 stars, once again with loads of bad experiences.
After doing some digging, it appears that a greater majority of bad reviews come from people who bought cars off of Vroom, not selling. In particular, folks who’ve bought a car from Vroom reported how they’d receive problematic or faulty cars. Furthermore, and this impacts both buying and selling, people have experienced extensive delays when communicating issues with customer support.
If you’re unlucky, there have been people who’ve been put on hold for hours at a time during a call with their support team. Although, their staff usually are pretty professional once you get to them. Despite those bad reviews, Vroom is very much a legit way of buying or selling a car. We’d suggest that you stay in close contact with Vroom’s agents, just to make sure that it goes smoothly.
Vroom Reviews
Since we’ve gone through the entire process of selling your car to Vroom and what issues you might come across, how can we summarise Vroom sell my car? Well, here’s a quick TL;DR for the pros and cons of going through Vroom…
The Pros:
- Everything can be done online, except for when you need to step outside to hand off your car.
- There’s no need to haggle a price, and they can appraise you a decent offer pretty quickly.
- Once you’ve signed off on the deal, they’ll send a truck over to pick up your car for free.
- (Mostly) straightforward, and in some cases, the entire process can be done in just a few days.
- Options to trade in your car instead of just selling, which may save you some on sales tax.
The Cons:
- An abundance of bad reviews from past customers, mostly for Vroom’s lackluster customer service.
- Their appraised offers to buy your car can sometimes be lower than competing marketplaces.
- You can’t negotiate the price of your car, so you’ll just have to take whatever offer they give.
For any of you interested in buying a car from Vroom (not selling), there are some other pros and cons to be aware of, as well:
Pros:
- You can have your new car delivered to your home.
- A fairly large inventory of cars to choose from.
- Free history and condition report on every car.
- Various payment options are available – third-party financing, Vroom financing, or cash.
Cons:
- You can’t test drive the cars before buying them (although there’s a return policy if you’re not happy).
- There may be a delivery fee attached to send over your car.
- Any refunds would only cover the car’s purchase price.
- A lengthy history of bad reviews, like not getting the title on time.
Best Place To Sell Your Car
So far, we’ve learned that Vroom sell my car is a somewhat decent marketplace to have your old car be sold off. They’re pretty straightforward, quick, convenient, and offer you a competitive price. The fact that you don’t have to physically bring your car hither and tither between dealers, haggle on an appraisal, and have Vroom come to pick up your car is a neat bonus. But, there are some downsides.
Their history with customer service and consistency is rather spotty at best. If you’re lucky, you could sell them your car and be done with it in a matter of days. Otherwise, this supposedly headache-free operation would take weeks or even months. Even then, pray that you’ll ever get the opportunity to get in touch with an agent right away. If you can stomach that risk, Vroom’s certainly worth the shot.
But as we’ve mentioned earlier, it’s a good idea to get your car appraised by numerous sources. That way, you have a point of comparison and more alternatives of who to sell your car. If someone out there wants to offer you more than Vroom, then why not take up on that deal? With that in mind, an abundance of online-focused car buying and selling platforms are available for you to try out, like…
- CarMax – Unlike Vroom, CarMax also has physical lots that you can visit, or buy and sell your car at.
- Carvana – They’re Vroom’s most direct competitor, and offer great deals for online buying or selling.
- Peddle – They’d buy vehicles in almost any conditions, even the worst ones, and offers free pick-ups.
- CarBrain – Not like other platforms, CarBrain uses AI to analyze your car’s condition to appraise it.
- Wheelzy – Like Peddle, they’ll buy vehicles in practically any condition, and offers free towing, too.
Vroom.com Car Buying Pros and Cons Facts:
- Vroom.com is a car buying website that buys and sells used cars, and was founded in 2013.
- The company describes itself as a “Better way to buy a car” as most of the car buying functions are handled online.
- Vroom maintains its own inventory of vehicles, which it acquires from various sources, and inspects and reconditions them to ensure they are safe to sell.
- Every Vroom vehicle comes with a 90-day limited warranty and a year of roadside assistance.
- Vroom also offers a service to buy a car, truck, or SUV from the customer at competitive prices.
- Vroom’s prices are fixed and “no-haggle,” which means customers cannot negotiate for a better deal.
- Delivery fees for Vroom’s vehicles can be as high as $1,399, and there are other fees to contend with, such as a $249 nonrefundable deposit and a document fee ranging from $150 to $350.
- Unlike a traditional car sale, the Vroom test drive takes place after taking delivery rather than before.
- Vroom only sells used vehicles, and it does not offer guidance on what car to buy.
- Edmunds offers both new and used cars for sale, plus an expert review on nearly every vehicle on the road.
FAQs On Vroom Sell My Car
If you still have lingering questions, our FAQs here on Vroom sell my car might have the answers…
Is Vroom Legit
Yes, Vroom is as legit as most other car buying and selling marketplaces and is among the largest ones around. Although, Vroom’s reputation has been impacted by waves of negative reviews recently. Most of them are related to their car-buying experience. Once you’ve bought a car, there’s a chance that you might notice issues with it, such as cosmetic damage or physical defects. Moreover, there’s been a lot of owners who’ve not received their titles until long after the cars themselves arrived.
Is Vroom Reliable
As we’ve highlighted so far, Vroom’s image has been affected by bad reviews and poor experiences. For instance, many people who’ve used Vroom have complained about their customer support. Yet, and to be fair to Vroom, most of their support agents have been very professional and informative. The concerns are in the lapse of communication. Sending an email or inquiry can take days or even weeks before a response is met. Call them up, and you might be put on hold for hours at a time.
Does Vroom Negotiate
Just like Carvana or CarMax, Vroom doesn’t negotiate. Their haggle-free process for selling a car is great for those not keen on negotiating endlessly with used car salesmen. But, this means that you won’t be able to negotiate any higher than what Vroom is offering. Once they appraise your car, its price is set, and you have 7 days or 250 miles (on the odometer) to take it or leave it. To ensure that you can get a better deal, appraise your car on other platforms, and see if they’ll offer you more.
How Does Vroom Work
Vroom prides itself on convenience. If you want to buy a car, they have a fairly large inventory that you could pick and choose from on their website. Buy one, and Vroom would even have it delivered to your doorstep. Alternatively, selling a car requires you to only input your car’s details. Give it a few, and Vroom will spit out a price. Should you choose to take up on their offer, they’ll then send a truck over to pick it up. There’s no haggling on price, nor do you need to ever leave your home.
How Long Does Vroom Take To Deliver
Once you’ve bought a car off of Vroom, they’ll send a truck to deliver it to your home. Note, that Vroom charges a delivery fee for it, usually $699. Once that’s settled, Vroom will have your car delivered in around 10 to 14 days. Nevertheless, it can take longer depending on where you are. It’s crucial that you schedule a date with Vroom beforehand, which they’ll usually coordinate by phone or email. Although, there have been complaints that customers didn’t receive any emails prior to delivery.
