eCarOne

I bought a vehicle at eCarOne this past weekend. On the plus side, the staff is friendly and great to work with. They also have a nice showroom with plenty of coffee and seating to complete the transaction. The transaction went relatively quickly and the car was as described. My biggest complaint and why I'm deducting all the stars is that the dealership forces you to purchase but does not make any reference to, describe, or itemize the mandatory costs of "VPP" and "PermaPlate" up front in the cars.com ad. It's problematic when the consumer has no idea what VPP (which I found out is vehicle paint protection) or Permaplate (essentially an insurance to cover mishaps to the paint and interior and not something related to a license plate) are when putting down a $400 (non-refundable?) deposit to reserve the car for 24 hours only to later find that there will be $1,690 ($695 for VPP + $995 for PermaPlate) added to price of the vehicle. The eCarOne website buries references to VPP and PermaPlate in just those terse terms in the fine print for tax, title, registration, smog, insurance, etc. so the consumer who is not in the car business is led to believe it's just an unavoidable procedural fee you'd encounter at any dealership in the state. On a side note, I question even the value of the paint protection since after getting home and washing the vehicle, the water barely even beaded on the car and certainly less than on a wax or ceramic coat. Either way, my warning to anyone shopping at eCarOne is that eCarOne will likely add close to $1700 to the price you see in their online ads.