Vroom Review: How It Works, Pros and Cons

Would never recommend. Specifically brought up and clearly stated to NOT run my credit against all their lenders. Did it anyway. Baited me with a discount that didn't exist. Salesmen were blunt and rude and pushy when I was already planning to buy and he knew that. If I hadn't gotten the car I wanted at a price I liked I would have walked. Delivery was fast and easy and paperwork was smooth. If it weren't for the shady salesman this would probably be a 10/10.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I really wanted this to be a good experience, but it was a complete waste of over 3 weeks and I'm out $600. Everyone I spoke to at Vroom was very friendly, so that's one positive. However, sales assured me that the longest it takes for a car to arrive after they receive the down payment and signed contract is two weeks.

My dad is sick in PA (I'm in NY) and I tired of renting a car to go back and forth, so thought I'd try Vroom given COVID-19. I found a car I liked at a price I was willing to pay. But 3 weeks after I returned the contract and sent the down payment I still had not been contacted about a delivery date. Every time I called they said it was at the local distributor and they'd contact me. My dad took a turn for the worse so I had to go to PA. Knowing I'd be there for several days at least, I had to contact Vroom and tell them to cancel my order. That part was relatively easy, but I was told that they would keep the $600 transport fee.

If you insist on using this company I would suggest that you demand that they provide a date that you will receive your vehicle by, and if it's not received within a day of such date that the contract can be canceled at your option without loss of any of your funds. I made the mistake of taking them at their word.

What a waste of time and money. Don't waste your time with this company if you think you're going to see the car you're buying anytime soon. Go with Carvana, who at least tells you up front when the car will arrive. I figured since Vroom can afford national TV commercials and was about to issue their IPO this was an up-and-up company, but they got me...

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Outside of the salesman, my experience with Vroom was not a very good one.

They told me my car would arrive about 2 weeks after the contracts were signed but the car didn't arrive for a little under a month.

The customer service was subpar, I had to speak with 3 to 4 supervisors/managers in order to get any kind of update on the delivery status. And they were the only ones that seemed to have the order information the regular customer service representatives just told me what I already knew from the confirmation email after I signed the contract.

Overall a bad experience and I would not recommend using Vroom.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Purchased a 2019 Dodge Grand Caravan with severe undercarriage damage. Vroom had assured me that the vehicle passed 2 inspections before I purchased it and that it was in new condition with less than 3000 miles on it. They even gave me a Carfax report stating there was no damage. When I received the vehicle I noticed the smell of exhaust gas on my first 25+ mile drive in the cabin. I nearly passed out before I was able to pull over. I took the van to my local dodge dealership where they inspected it and showed me where there was such severe damage to the catalytic converter and the torch marks where someone had tried to heat it an bend it back. Vroom was the only dealer to own the vehicle after the rental company sold it to them at auction so they were the responsible party and knew about the damage. They only paid for parts and left me with almost $600 for the balance. That's BS in my book. Lying about the condition of a vehicle is unacceptable, especially if the purchase is online. 7-day return policy is BS as well. They will stall you and never refund the delivery fee. I'm filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and will consult a lawyer about a possible full refund of my purchase price. I could have died while died driving that vehicle and VROOM could care less. VROOM is another heartless dirtbag used car dealership with no morals.

Ashley was my rep and was no help. She just kept saying that only the parts were approved by some un-named manager. I'm betting she was the manager. It sounds like an unorganized small operation. My friend tried CARVANA with a much better outcome. I'll try them next time.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I have purchased cars on both Carvana and Vroom and there is no comparison between the two. Carvana is easy, user-friendly, efficient, and what you see is what you get. I received my Carvana car delivered to me around two weeks after I made the purchase. It was fully registered with plates ready to drive in the same condition that was disclosed during the purchase. I give them the highest rating possible. After having such a great experience buying a car for my wife on Carvana I figured I would try out their competition "Vroom" for buying my car. What resulted was the worst buying experience I ever had. I can’t see Vroom staying in business when they are so difficult to deal with. On Feb. 18th I made a vehicle purchase on Vroom. After several months, and hundreds of phone calls, I finally received my car without plates, unregistered, and with scratches that were not disclosed during the purchase. I couldn’t even take it for a test drive!

Let me go through both companies point for point:

1. Carvana's website is easy to navigate and do "what if" scenarios experimenting with different amounts down and different finance durations (several months to years…just put in the term and the site will calculate it for you...I finally put in for a ten-month term with a specific dollar amount down). Vroom is a minimum of a two-year term with no way to calculate different amounts and terms on their website. So you have to call them and even then they would not allow me to do a ten-month term. That should have been a red flag and I should not have gone further with them...but I did.

2. Carvana’s site shows any dent or scratch on any car you choose. When I picked a car on Vroom it didn’t show any scratches or problems which I thought was strange so I called them. The Vroom representative told me there were no scratches which I later learned was not true when I finally received the car.

3. On Carvana’s site once you make your deal along with finance terms it tells you the amount you must have via a certified check to give to the driver when your car is delivered. On Vroom’s site once you make your deal it requires you to send them your certified check amount UPFRONT before they even schedule your car for delivery and if you don’t do it within a few days they void the deal!

4. Carvana delivered my car in two weeks fully registered with plates ready to immediately drive. Vroom took months and lied to me repeatedly every day when I called to get a status. Plus I couldn’t even cancel the deal because they had my money and they have a clause in their contract to keep a portion of your funds if you cancel! When I finally received my car it was not registered, they didn’t even give me temporary plates (which I got from them a week later) so I couldn’t even legally test drive the car! The car also had several deep scratches that they had not disclosed. Plus I had to pay car insurance (NYS law) as soon as I made the deal so that was several months I was paying hundreds of dollars in insurance for a car I didn’t even have. Not to mention the finance bank wanted my payments immediately even though I didn’t have the vehicle.

5. The last insult to me was when I took the Vroom car to get inspected it would not pass inspection unless I changed all 4 tires which cost me $1,500.00. Outrageous!

The constant lies, poor customer service, and lack of respect Vroom has for their customers is a disgrace. I’m not even going to get into the day-to-day nonsense they put me through because I would need hundreds of pages to describe it. Even the final driver for Vroom that delivered my car actually cursed at me when I asked him to wait while I call Vroom to find out why the car didn’t have plates. My advice to car buyers that want to buy a car online, use Carvana. They were courteous and efficient and you don’t need to pay them your certified funds until you actually receive your vehicle. I plan on reporting Vroom to the Better Business Bureau.

Length of Use: 3–6 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I have purchased my vehicle and paid the down payment on 6/4. Today is 6/26 but I still have not received the vehicle. I called probably 20 times, keep getting transferred, hung up on several times, only the sales team answers. The delivery team never picks up, nobody knows where the car is but I received a survey and congratulations email. Oh, the 1st bill was sent to but still no car! Exasperated at this point

If you want a headache and terrible service go ahead and purchase a car.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Oh boy. My 2019 Hyundai Elantra arrived:

1) With a completely dead battery that could not be jumpstarted.

2) With a deep scratch through the metal of the car that was only visible once it was being towed to a dealership to have said battery replaced.

3) Covered in a layer of dust.

4) With the back passenger window slightly ajar.

5) Spiderwebs in the back seat.

Nothing about this experience has made me think my car was ever even looked at by Vroom before selling it to me. The battery was replaced by my Hyundai warranty, not Vroom.

The scratch? Vroom claims it was in the original listing because it is faintly visible in a picture of the side of the car. No close-up. No text disclaiming its existence. Clean Carfax. And assurances on my listing, and every listing, that "Vroom fixes all scratches over 6 inches."

The only remedy Vroom is willing to extend me at all is to return the car to them, minus the $799 shipping fee. So that I can lose money, on top of everything, and still not have a car.

Thank you, Vroom, for emailing me your invitations to share my experience on rating websites. I plan to.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I recently purchased a Dodge Charger and upon delivery, I noticed a black vinyl sticker on each side skirt. The car I purchased is white, so these stickers stuck out like a sore thumb. I decided to remove them and saw underneath it was hiding damage to the side skirt where paint was chipped off and missing, it was about the size of 2 quarters. I created a "ticket" to get it repaired and the "supervisor" denied my repair stating that it was my fault for removing the black sticker. On the initial Vroom posting it stated normal wear and tear on the vehicle but that damage was not indicated and all the agent said was that "the car was advertised with the black vinyl in the pictures." They have not made this right and I won't be recommending Vroom to anyone to purchase a vehicle. The negative reviews speak for volumes to how this company operates.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

What started as a pleasant experience spiraled into a very bad one that I don't wish any other potential car buyer out there to experience. Their prices are good and employees are nice, everything else is pretty bad.

For starters, Vroom does not own their vehicle distribution network and rely on third-party companies to pick up trade-ins and drop off purchases. This process makes the experience wholly unreliable and not customer friendly. Half the time I didn't know who I was dealing with.

Secondly, the aforementioned third-party delivery company damaged my vehicle in transit and did not mention anything to me so they could save themselves the money. There is a glaring lack of accountability on this front since a damaged vehicle means these people get paid less.

Lastly, and arguably my biggest issue, is the fact that I requested over 5 times to have a check mailed to me for the difference in what they were paying me for my vehicle and the one I was buying since mine had a higher value. I even made them send me a second contract because the first one was wrong in this regard. Lo and behold, guess what happened? It looks like they still applied this amount to my new vehicle's note.

Bottom line: They're just as shady as any dealership you have to deal with in person. At least you can test drive the dealership vehicles. Stick to your local sellers or go to Carvana.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

They promise the world and once you buy a car, zero customer service! They advised me that their policy is to respond to vehicle damage requests in 24-48 hours, it's now been a week with no response from Vroom. Getting ready to give up and turn the vehicle back in, but of course, I am responsible for the fees over the 250 miles, even though I have not heard from anyone and this is the only vehicle I have. Do not recommend this supposed better car buying experience.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

The overall process of using Vroom was really unsatisfactory.

Purchasing a car is a large commitment, and requires a high level of customer service. When buying online, that customer service is SO much more important because you are really taking a chance when you buy a car without physically seeing it or test driving it. Unfortunately, this is where Vroom really falls flat. The level of communication should have been really high, but it was, and continues to be, really poor. At this point, I still have several emails that were never responded to (and were sent weeks ago).

Aside from communication, the delivery process was also really poor. The driver missed the delivery window by several hours, he wasn't wearing a mask, he couldn't get the app to work, and the car was dirty. And I'm not talking about the kind of dirt that can accumulate on a car as it makes its way across several states on a car carrier. I'm talking about mud on the tires and in the wheel wells, mud splatter on the sides of the car, carpets not vacuumed, and more.

Plus, the car arrived with a nearly empty gas tank. I get that it may be a bad idea to haul a trailer full of cars that all have full gas tanks, but the solution to that is to have the car arrive with a complimentary gas card.

I've bought cars at dealerships before. They put a lot of focus on the little touches (washing the car, making sure the tank is full, they take care of everything so you don't have to go to the DMV to do things like VIN inspections, etc.), that mean a lot. Working with Vroom was the exact opposite and I won't be buying from them again.

Length of Use: Less than 3 months

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend