When I decided to buy a used car, I was intimidated by the amount of
effort I was expected to put in and the amount of caution I had to
exercise before biting the bullet. Whether getting a car from a local
dealer or from a stranger on Craigslist, one ideally has to get (and
examine) the vehicle history report, test drive the car (and
importantly, be knowledgeable about what to watch out for during a test
drive), get the car checked by a trusted mechanic, haggle over the price
to try to get it within your budget, and if everything seems alright -
wonder if you can get a better deal at a different dealer, only to let
someone else buy the car while you are still wondering, and start this
painful process all over again. Being so used to buying things online,
the thought of visiting dealers/private parties/mechanics week after week seemed intolerable to me,
and fortunately, that's when I heard of Beepi.
Beepi (www.beepi.com) is a company offering an online peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling and leasing used cars, where transactions can be carried out entirely with a smartphone or a PC [Wikipeda].
The business model of Beepi is as follows:
1) sellers request their cars to be listed on Beepi.com,
2) Beepi sends a mechanic to the seller's place to inspect the car,
3) if the car passes a 240-point inspection and the seller agrees to Beepi's quote for the car, Beepi lists the car for sale on www.beepi.com for a fixed (no-haggle) price,
4) an interested buyer commits to buy the car with a $500 minimum deposit on www.beepi.com,
5) Beepi collects the car from the seller,
6) Beepi cleans and details the car and delivers it to the buyer,
7) buyer pays for the car in full on delivery and also buys insurance for the car (from any 3-rd party auto insurance company),
8) buyer has 10-days to test drive the car for a maximum of 1,000 miles and decide if he/she wants to keep it,
9) if the buyer decides to keep the car, the car is covered with a 3 month/3000 miles Beepi CARE warranty,
10) if the buyer decides to return the car, Beepi performs an inspection of the vehicle, and provided it passes the inspection, the vehicle is accepted and all the money is returned to the buyer (buyer has to deal with the 3rd party insurance provider to cancel the coverage).
Thus, Beepi is a peer-to-peer marketplace for car-sale. However, it's not the same as Craigslist! I would call it an actively monitored peer-to-peer marketplace where the quality of the cars is ensured by Beepi and each order is fulfilled through Beepi (the buyer and seller never come face-to-face). There are some additional details in Beepi's model that I did not mention above. For example, if a listed car is not sold within a 30-day period, Beepi buys the car from the seller. So, sellers are always assured of getting the quoted price for their cars.
When I visited Beepi.com, the first thing I noticed is that not many cars are available for less than $10k (only 4 mid/full-size sedans, the type I was interested in, were listed for <$10k), and none were available below $5k. Due to Beepi's tough inspection checklist, only very few old and inexpensive cars seem to get through. Most of the listed cars are from within the past 1-5 years with relatively low miles on them (less than 50k miles). Therefore, if your budget is less than say $8k, you will almost certainly find nothing interesting on Beepi. My budget was $10k, and still, I could count my options on the fingers of just one hand!
Fortunately, I found a car that fit my budget and needs - a 2010 Honda Civic LX, listed at $9,400. The car had 88,200 miles on it. The price was about $200 less than what Kelly Blue Book deemed to be a reasonable suggested retail price from dealers. Beepi listed all the findings from their inspection report on the car's webpage. This included results for crucial things such as engine and brakes and also for visual aspects such as dings and scratches found on car's exterior, and stains present on the seats. Most of the visual defects are supplemented with pictures, so you can decide whether or not you are OK with those. I was impressed that they listed details such as brake pad thicknesses and tire tread depths left on the car. You can also request a free vehicle history report by entering your email address and make sure the car has a clean title and has had no accidents.
A tip: If you are considering a car on Beepi, do request the vehicle history by entering you email address on the car's webpage. After some time, Beepi may email you a discount coupon for that car! I received a $100 off coupon within an hour of requesting the vehicle history report for the car I eventually bought. Also, Beepi gives away discount coupons to people who make a purchase to distribute among their friends. The purchaser gets some credit for every new purchase that's made using his/her discount code. As a result of this, you should be able to find a handful of working discount coupons for Beepi on coupon sites such as retailmenot. I was able to get a $400 off coupon on https://www.retailmenot.com/s/beepi for the car I bought. Obviously, this incentive program may change from time to time, but it's worth scanning the web for a few minutes for such coupons before you finalize your purchase.
While you are examining the car's inspection report, you can chat with a Beepi representative and ask them specific questions about the car. I chatted with a helpful representative (Jordan Harris) and inquired about the tire tread depth left on the Civic I was interested in. To my surprise, he mentioned that since the car had 80k+ miles on it, the treads were near minimum depth, and Beepi was going to replace all the tires with new ones before delivery. It was strange that they did not specifically mention this on the car's webpage, because this obviously made the deal sound much better. In the end, I decided to buy the car and proceeded to pay the initial amount using a credit card. This is another small perk of buying a car through Beepi. You can use a good rewards credit card with no extra fees to pay for any portion of your total car cost (advisable only if you plan to pay off your credit card dues in time, otherwise a bank loan will most likely give you lower interest rates). The final amount included an additional $199 for delivery (varies by where you stay and where the car is coming from), about $190 for what Beepi calls the "final touch" (fees for cleaning and detailing after Beepi received the car from the seller), and additional fees for taxes and DMV paperwork (varies by the price of your car). You don't ever have to visit the DMV since Beepi takes care of all the bureaucratic processing, which is great considering how busy DMV offices are in the Silicon Valley.
After I made my purchase, I was assigned a "primary point of contact" within Beepi (Gurshan Singh). Gurshan sent to-the-point emails periodically to keep me updated on the processing of my car and also to collect information from me (such as making sure I had purchased insurance for the car). Beepi also offered an extended Beepi CARE warranty for my car, something worth considering especially if you are buying a newer used car. After you make the purchase, there has to be a 9-12 days delay before the car can be delivered to you. This delay is necessary because in most cases, the seller is still using the car you just bought. After your purchase, Beepi collects the car from the seller, cleans and details it, and delivers it to you. Beepi is flexible about the car delivery schedule. I scheduled my car delivery to be on a Friday evening and they accommodated my request.
The car was delivered on schedule by the Beepi staff member Eric Faltz (and yes, it did come with the fancy bow they show on their website). The car did look like it was cleaned pretty recently and it did come with all 4 new tires as Beepi had mentioned. Eric was friendly and provided me with enough information about the car to get going. I was surprised that the car had about 86k miles on the odometer, less than what Beepi had advertised online. Eric clarified that since the seller can still drive the car during the period it is listed on Beepi, the mileage listed on Beepi.com is a conservative estimate. So, in most cases, the car should show a lower mileage than what is advertised on Beepi.com. After a short test drive, we went through all the paperwork, arranged for the remaining payment and then I was all set for my 10-day test drive phase. I drove the car for about 300 miles over the next weekend, and it seemed just as good as I would have expected. I am no car expert but all the controls worked as expected, and the ride was smooth. A cautious person can use this 10-day period to get the car checked by a trusted mechanic, however, I decided to trust Beepi based on so many positive reviews I have read on Yelp.
One small issue that cropped up with my car was a smelly floor mat on the front passenger side. The Civic I bought had stock carpet floor mats and Beepi delivered the car with the mats covered with plastic. However, after removing the plastic, the front floor mats caused a stench in the car. I guess issues like this must be common with 6-year old cars, however, I would have also expected Beepi to notice and take care of it during their "final touch" phase. On the positive note, as soon as I contacted Beepi about this, their staff (Chris Sigmund and Wil Curiel) showed genuine concern and immediately reimbursed me for the replacement rubber floor mats I bought for my car. I loved that with a few emails, Beepi resolved my issue without me having to get out of my chair. They do seem to value their customers a lot and that is a great reason to go with them for such a significant purchase. I decided to keep my car at the end of the 10-day test drive period. The car is still covered by a 3-month/3000-miles Beepi CARE warranty. I do not want to have to use this warranty, but if I have to, I will edit this review to provide details on how Beepi responds to warranty claims.
The downsides of buying a used car on Beepi include (1) limited options (compared to the inventory your local dealers may maintain) and (2) not being able to test drive the car before you pay for it. The former limitation is actually a boon for me, because, with too many options, I would spend too much time analyzing the pros and cons of my purchase. Also, the relatively limited options Beepi has are supposed to be great picks due to their higher inspection standards. From my experience, your budget has to be at least $10k to get a reasonable number of options on Beepi. The second limitation probably keeps many conservative people away from Beepi. Although there is a 10-day test drive period within which you can return a car to Beepi at no cost, the fact that you have to arrange all the money to buy the car (loan or otherwise) and also purchase insurance before you can begin your test drive is a drawback of Beepi's business model. It could be improved by asking only for some token money (say $500) before the car is delivered and then collecting the balance at the end of the 10-day period if the buyer decides to keep the car. I think the current setup works better for Beepi because a customer will generally tend to keep the car if he/she has already gone through the hassle of arranging funds for it (especially if a loan is involved). My recommendation would be to thoroughly read reviews of the car you are considering to buy on Beepi. Make sure that you check reviews from many online sources for the exact same make/model/year/trim before you press the "Checkout" button. It's important to check the features of a particular trim to make sure that it has the bare minimums you need in your car. For example, in the lowest DX trim of the 2010 Honda Civic, there is no stereo! If you select a lower trim due to its lower price, you may be in for some surprises after you receive the car. Also, if you can get inside a similar car (from a co-worker, friend, or a rental company) to get a feel of the vehicle, do that. It will give you an idea of how well the car fits your height, how much legroom the backseat has etc. You do not want to waste time getting a car from Beepi only to have to return it because you do not like the particular car model (while the used car itself is near-perfect).
Overall, I am very impressed by the quality of service Beepi provides and I would very much recommend it to anyone who's willing to buy a car online. Finding a match that fits your budget is going to be difficult (especially for people with a relatively low budget). However, if you do find a match, it seems that you cannot go wrong with Beepi.
and fortunately, that's when I heard of Beepi.
Beepi (www.beepi.com) is a company offering an online peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling and leasing used cars, where transactions can be carried out entirely with a smartphone or a PC [Wikipeda].
The business model of Beepi is as follows:
1) sellers request their cars to be listed on Beepi.com,
2) Beepi sends a mechanic to the seller's place to inspect the car,
3) if the car passes a 240-point inspection and the seller agrees to Beepi's quote for the car, Beepi lists the car for sale on www.beepi.com for a fixed (no-haggle) price,
4) an interested buyer commits to buy the car with a $500 minimum deposit on www.beepi.com,
5) Beepi collects the car from the seller,
6) Beepi cleans and details the car and delivers it to the buyer,
7) buyer pays for the car in full on delivery and also buys insurance for the car (from any 3-rd party auto insurance company),
8) buyer has 10-days to test drive the car for a maximum of 1,000 miles and decide if he/she wants to keep it,
9) if the buyer decides to keep the car, the car is covered with a 3 month/3000 miles Beepi CARE warranty,
10) if the buyer decides to return the car, Beepi performs an inspection of the vehicle, and provided it passes the inspection, the vehicle is accepted and all the money is returned to the buyer (buyer has to deal with the 3rd party insurance provider to cancel the coverage).
Thus, Beepi is a peer-to-peer marketplace for car-sale. However, it's not the same as Craigslist! I would call it an actively monitored peer-to-peer marketplace where the quality of the cars is ensured by Beepi and each order is fulfilled through Beepi (the buyer and seller never come face-to-face). There are some additional details in Beepi's model that I did not mention above. For example, if a listed car is not sold within a 30-day period, Beepi buys the car from the seller. So, sellers are always assured of getting the quoted price for their cars.
When I visited Beepi.com, the first thing I noticed is that not many cars are available for less than $10k (only 4 mid/full-size sedans, the type I was interested in, were listed for <$10k), and none were available below $5k. Due to Beepi's tough inspection checklist, only very few old and inexpensive cars seem to get through. Most of the listed cars are from within the past 1-5 years with relatively low miles on them (less than 50k miles). Therefore, if your budget is less than say $8k, you will almost certainly find nothing interesting on Beepi. My budget was $10k, and still, I could count my options on the fingers of just one hand!
Fortunately, I found a car that fit my budget and needs - a 2010 Honda Civic LX, listed at $9,400. The car had 88,200 miles on it. The price was about $200 less than what Kelly Blue Book deemed to be a reasonable suggested retail price from dealers. Beepi listed all the findings from their inspection report on the car's webpage. This included results for crucial things such as engine and brakes and also for visual aspects such as dings and scratches found on car's exterior, and stains present on the seats. Most of the visual defects are supplemented with pictures, so you can decide whether or not you are OK with those. I was impressed that they listed details such as brake pad thicknesses and tire tread depths left on the car. You can also request a free vehicle history report by entering your email address and make sure the car has a clean title and has had no accidents.
A tip: If you are considering a car on Beepi, do request the vehicle history by entering you email address on the car's webpage. After some time, Beepi may email you a discount coupon for that car! I received a $100 off coupon within an hour of requesting the vehicle history report for the car I eventually bought. Also, Beepi gives away discount coupons to people who make a purchase to distribute among their friends. The purchaser gets some credit for every new purchase that's made using his/her discount code. As a result of this, you should be able to find a handful of working discount coupons for Beepi on coupon sites such as retailmenot. I was able to get a $400 off coupon on https://www.retailmenot.com/s/beepi for the car I bought. Obviously, this incentive program may change from time to time, but it's worth scanning the web for a few minutes for such coupons before you finalize your purchase.
While you are examining the car's inspection report, you can chat with a Beepi representative and ask them specific questions about the car. I chatted with a helpful representative (Jordan Harris) and inquired about the tire tread depth left on the Civic I was interested in. To my surprise, he mentioned that since the car had 80k+ miles on it, the treads were near minimum depth, and Beepi was going to replace all the tires with new ones before delivery. It was strange that they did not specifically mention this on the car's webpage, because this obviously made the deal sound much better. In the end, I decided to buy the car and proceeded to pay the initial amount using a credit card. This is another small perk of buying a car through Beepi. You can use a good rewards credit card with no extra fees to pay for any portion of your total car cost (advisable only if you plan to pay off your credit card dues in time, otherwise a bank loan will most likely give you lower interest rates). The final amount included an additional $199 for delivery (varies by where you stay and where the car is coming from), about $190 for what Beepi calls the "final touch" (fees for cleaning and detailing after Beepi received the car from the seller), and additional fees for taxes and DMV paperwork (varies by the price of your car). You don't ever have to visit the DMV since Beepi takes care of all the bureaucratic processing, which is great considering how busy DMV offices are in the Silicon Valley.
After I made my purchase, I was assigned a "primary point of contact" within Beepi (Gurshan Singh). Gurshan sent to-the-point emails periodically to keep me updated on the processing of my car and also to collect information from me (such as making sure I had purchased insurance for the car). Beepi also offered an extended Beepi CARE warranty for my car, something worth considering especially if you are buying a newer used car. After you make the purchase, there has to be a 9-12 days delay before the car can be delivered to you. This delay is necessary because in most cases, the seller is still using the car you just bought. After your purchase, Beepi collects the car from the seller, cleans and details it, and delivers it to you. Beepi is flexible about the car delivery schedule. I scheduled my car delivery to be on a Friday evening and they accommodated my request.
The car was delivered on schedule by the Beepi staff member Eric Faltz (and yes, it did come with the fancy bow they show on their website). The car did look like it was cleaned pretty recently and it did come with all 4 new tires as Beepi had mentioned. Eric was friendly and provided me with enough information about the car to get going. I was surprised that the car had about 86k miles on the odometer, less than what Beepi had advertised online. Eric clarified that since the seller can still drive the car during the period it is listed on Beepi, the mileage listed on Beepi.com is a conservative estimate. So, in most cases, the car should show a lower mileage than what is advertised on Beepi.com. After a short test drive, we went through all the paperwork, arranged for the remaining payment and then I was all set for my 10-day test drive phase. I drove the car for about 300 miles over the next weekend, and it seemed just as good as I would have expected. I am no car expert but all the controls worked as expected, and the ride was smooth. A cautious person can use this 10-day period to get the car checked by a trusted mechanic, however, I decided to trust Beepi based on so many positive reviews I have read on Yelp.
One small issue that cropped up with my car was a smelly floor mat on the front passenger side. The Civic I bought had stock carpet floor mats and Beepi delivered the car with the mats covered with plastic. However, after removing the plastic, the front floor mats caused a stench in the car. I guess issues like this must be common with 6-year old cars, however, I would have also expected Beepi to notice and take care of it during their "final touch" phase. On the positive note, as soon as I contacted Beepi about this, their staff (Chris Sigmund and Wil Curiel) showed genuine concern and immediately reimbursed me for the replacement rubber floor mats I bought for my car. I loved that with a few emails, Beepi resolved my issue without me having to get out of my chair. They do seem to value their customers a lot and that is a great reason to go with them for such a significant purchase. I decided to keep my car at the end of the 10-day test drive period. The car is still covered by a 3-month/3000-miles Beepi CARE warranty. I do not want to have to use this warranty, but if I have to, I will edit this review to provide details on how Beepi responds to warranty claims.
The downsides of buying a used car on Beepi include (1) limited options (compared to the inventory your local dealers may maintain) and (2) not being able to test drive the car before you pay for it. The former limitation is actually a boon for me, because, with too many options, I would spend too much time analyzing the pros and cons of my purchase. Also, the relatively limited options Beepi has are supposed to be great picks due to their higher inspection standards. From my experience, your budget has to be at least $10k to get a reasonable number of options on Beepi. The second limitation probably keeps many conservative people away from Beepi. Although there is a 10-day test drive period within which you can return a car to Beepi at no cost, the fact that you have to arrange all the money to buy the car (loan or otherwise) and also purchase insurance before you can begin your test drive is a drawback of Beepi's business model. It could be improved by asking only for some token money (say $500) before the car is delivered and then collecting the balance at the end of the 10-day period if the buyer decides to keep the car. I think the current setup works better for Beepi because a customer will generally tend to keep the car if he/she has already gone through the hassle of arranging funds for it (especially if a loan is involved). My recommendation would be to thoroughly read reviews of the car you are considering to buy on Beepi. Make sure that you check reviews from many online sources for the exact same make/model/year/trim before you press the "Checkout" button. It's important to check the features of a particular trim to make sure that it has the bare minimums you need in your car. For example, in the lowest DX trim of the 2010 Honda Civic, there is no stereo! If you select a lower trim due to its lower price, you may be in for some surprises after you receive the car. Also, if you can get inside a similar car (from a co-worker, friend, or a rental company) to get a feel of the vehicle, do that. It will give you an idea of how well the car fits your height, how much legroom the backseat has etc. You do not want to waste time getting a car from Beepi only to have to return it because you do not like the particular car model (while the used car itself is near-perfect).
Overall, I am very impressed by the quality of service Beepi provides and I would very much recommend it to anyone who's willing to buy a car online. Finding a match that fits your budget is going to be difficult (especially for people with a relatively low budget). However, if you do find a match, it seems that you cannot go wrong with Beepi.
