Received my 2018 Infiniti Q50 3.0t AWD from VROOM and initially very happy with it! It should be a worthy replacement for my 2008 CTS, which I will remember VERY FONDLY as my last and BEST Manual Transmission car (the Q will be my 1st automatic in 30 plus years). The CTS served me VERY well over nearly 9 years and 125k miles (bought it 2 years old and 16k miles). The car was NEVER in a shop although it SHOULD have been when it started throwing the infamous P0008 code with 130k miles on it. I fixed a few minor issues with her along the way with the help of the great CTS community here. Thank you everyone for advice, encouragement and friendship! I will be lurking on the site from time to time as long as the bookmark is still saved in my favorites. I have learned a ton about cars from you all and about my limitations as a mechanic! BTW If you come across a CTS with a VIN ending in 61967 – BEWARE!! Grab the AISIN tranny, it’s still in great shape - but leave the rest! If you are interested in my experience with VROOM or the rebuilt Cylinder Head source, read on. Otherwise SO LONG and GOOD LUCK with your lives and your Caddies!
VROOM – Bottom line on my VROOM experience…in the end, I got exactly what I hoped to get out of it. I was able to get my Q50 newer / cheaper than I could have at a local, physical dealership. Initially I thought I would be able to negotiate a price close to the VROOM price with dealers. What I found in attempting negotiation on 2 separate cars is that they are advertising prices very near where they feel they need to sell the car. Neither would budge more than a few hundred bucks. One very openly sited VROOM, CARMAX, CARVANA and other online dealers as changing the market in used cars, forcing locals to advertise very near their bottom line pricing. While I don’t believe much of anything I hear from a used car dealer, both let me walk out without a fight on cars I was willing to drop 90% of their ask price on. Further I was offered only $250-$400 for my CTS IF I was able to somehow get the car into their lot or to a salvage yard of their choice. VROOM offered me $1000 and will pick it up even though I listed in the description that it does NOT run and drive (I could likely limp it to anywhere I needed to in the area because it does start and run). Last drive for her may very well be up on a truck.
All that said, buying through VROOM was an adventure. Once I committed to purchase they were quick to call and ensure I made the $500 required deposit. Paperwork was quick and EZ – Fedex to me the next day with a return overnight. Sent back with the balance of payment and that is where VROOM folks go a bit radio silent on you. Went several days without any information. Just 1 email saying the purchase was “Complete” and I would hear from them with a scheduled delivery date soon. When I would call for status, they just kept saying they don’t know until it ships! Anyway when you fork over your $20k for a car unseen, under-communicating is NOT what you want to go through. Got to the point I started researching VROOM financial situation hoping not to read about their bankruptcy filing! Finally on day 8 after the sale was “final” (a Friday) they called and gave me a Monday AM delivery date. GREAT, I was SO relieved, until the next day they sent a bizarre automated email saying there is a delay and they will let me know when they can give me a delivery date! Called and their representative had no idea on the email, but did say the car had NOT been picked up and she would have to get back to me. Later another rep called me out of the blue and said my delivery window was 7AM to 9AM on Monday morning. Car was with the carrier and on schedule. Finally as the topper, the driver called me and said he would be there Sunday night at 11PM. Ended up taking delivery at 1AM! Hey but the car is AS ADVERTISED so all good? So my final timeline – Committed 2/4, received confirmation of completed paperwork and my full payment on 2/6 (including trade in). Car delivered 2/16 LATE AT NIGHT! Anyway I am a happy VROOM customer because it was the car and price that mattered to me. Oh and no word on when they are picking up THEIR CTS. It’s signed over to VROOM and I paid net – I give it a 50/50 shot they just forget about it and I’ll repurpose her as a BEAUTIFUL yard sculpture.
ODESSA CYLINDER HEAD – I attempted to replace the timing chains myself when it threw the P0008 code, but timing was still off when I put her all back together. I then tried to make a small adjustment without re-doing the whole job. Didn’t work, but I got another 10k miles or so out of it until my real big mistake reared its ugly head. At some point I dropped a broken bolt into the intake. It finally lodged into an intake valve and I ended up with a bent valve. I sourced a rebuilt drivers side head on EBAY through ODESSA cylinder head for only $365. Nearly 15k feedbacks with over 97% positive so I felt pretty good about using them. They were very easy to work with and send a paid FEDEX ground label to send back the core. I am a complete novice on this stuff, but the head looked to be very good quality and I really thought it was going to work to get my Caddie back on the road. Install went fairly smoothly considering I was the one doing it! Unfortunately upon startup the engine spewed raw oil out of the exhaust. While my best guess is that it was faulty valve seals on the new head, I lack the knowledge say for sure. I will say that Odessa was NOT interested in having any conversation about it and quickly pointed other directions (not at all interested in possibility they did anything wrong). I will not post feedback (positive or negative) as I am not sure what exactly happened. I still say it seemed like a safe purchase given their EBAY feedback. While I may have been willing to inspect, test, replace the valve seals in the head, the knock-out punch was the timing codes coming back on (crank/cam correlation). I was extremely careful this time so not sure what the problem is - but I have done all I am willing/capable of doing for her. Hopefully someone out there will get her back out on the road again!
VROOM – Bottom line on my VROOM experience…in the end, I got exactly what I hoped to get out of it. I was able to get my Q50 newer / cheaper than I could have at a local, physical dealership. Initially I thought I would be able to negotiate a price close to the VROOM price with dealers. What I found in attempting negotiation on 2 separate cars is that they are advertising prices very near where they feel they need to sell the car. Neither would budge more than a few hundred bucks. One very openly sited VROOM, CARMAX, CARVANA and other online dealers as changing the market in used cars, forcing locals to advertise very near their bottom line pricing. While I don’t believe much of anything I hear from a used car dealer, both let me walk out without a fight on cars I was willing to drop 90% of their ask price on. Further I was offered only $250-$400 for my CTS IF I was able to somehow get the car into their lot or to a salvage yard of their choice. VROOM offered me $1000 and will pick it up even though I listed in the description that it does NOT run and drive (I could likely limp it to anywhere I needed to in the area because it does start and run). Last drive for her may very well be up on a truck.
All that said, buying through VROOM was an adventure. Once I committed to purchase they were quick to call and ensure I made the $500 required deposit. Paperwork was quick and EZ – Fedex to me the next day with a return overnight. Sent back with the balance of payment and that is where VROOM folks go a bit radio silent on you. Went several days without any information. Just 1 email saying the purchase was “Complete” and I would hear from them with a scheduled delivery date soon. When I would call for status, they just kept saying they don’t know until it ships! Anyway when you fork over your $20k for a car unseen, under-communicating is NOT what you want to go through. Got to the point I started researching VROOM financial situation hoping not to read about their bankruptcy filing! Finally on day 8 after the sale was “final” (a Friday) they called and gave me a Monday AM delivery date. GREAT, I was SO relieved, until the next day they sent a bizarre automated email saying there is a delay and they will let me know when they can give me a delivery date! Called and their representative had no idea on the email, but did say the car had NOT been picked up and she would have to get back to me. Later another rep called me out of the blue and said my delivery window was 7AM to 9AM on Monday morning. Car was with the carrier and on schedule. Finally as the topper, the driver called me and said he would be there Sunday night at 11PM. Ended up taking delivery at 1AM! Hey but the car is AS ADVERTISED so all good? So my final timeline – Committed 2/4, received confirmation of completed paperwork and my full payment on 2/6 (including trade in). Car delivered 2/16 LATE AT NIGHT! Anyway I am a happy VROOM customer because it was the car and price that mattered to me. Oh and no word on when they are picking up THEIR CTS. It’s signed over to VROOM and I paid net – I give it a 50/50 shot they just forget about it and I’ll repurpose her as a BEAUTIFUL yard sculpture.
ODESSA CYLINDER HEAD – I attempted to replace the timing chains myself when it threw the P0008 code, but timing was still off when I put her all back together. I then tried to make a small adjustment without re-doing the whole job. Didn’t work, but I got another 10k miles or so out of it until my real big mistake reared its ugly head. At some point I dropped a broken bolt into the intake. It finally lodged into an intake valve and I ended up with a bent valve. I sourced a rebuilt drivers side head on EBAY through ODESSA cylinder head for only $365. Nearly 15k feedbacks with over 97% positive so I felt pretty good about using them. They were very easy to work with and send a paid FEDEX ground label to send back the core. I am a complete novice on this stuff, but the head looked to be very good quality and I really thought it was going to work to get my Caddie back on the road. Install went fairly smoothly considering I was the one doing it! Unfortunately upon startup the engine spewed raw oil out of the exhaust. While my best guess is that it was faulty valve seals on the new head, I lack the knowledge say for sure. I will say that Odessa was NOT interested in having any conversation about it and quickly pointed other directions (not at all interested in possibility they did anything wrong). I will not post feedback (positive or negative) as I am not sure what exactly happened. I still say it seemed like a safe purchase given their EBAY feedback. While I may have been willing to inspect, test, replace the valve seals in the head, the knock-out punch was the timing codes coming back on (crank/cam correlation). I was extremely careful this time so not sure what the problem is - but I have done all I am willing/capable of doing for her. Hopefully someone out there will get her back out on the road again!
