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Stay Up and Save: Money-saving hacks for online car shopping

If you're in the market for a car, shopping online can be a good idea, here are some resources for you.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — **Watch First Coast News at 11 Friday, Feb. 7 for this exclusive story.**

We're living in the future. You can literally sit down at your laptop, or even your phone, buy a car and have it brought to your home.

You can even secure your own financing online on these same sites and never have to even worry about talking to another human. 

Some of these sites will even buy your old car and tow it away when they deliver your just purchased vehicle.

You can do this in a couple of hours and be done. 

That's exactly what a site like Carvana does. 

Some even offer "risk-free" guarantees. So if you drive it and don't like it, they'll come to pick it back up and let you off the hook, giving you your money back.

That all sounds fine for some but absolutely terrifying for others. I personally can't imagine my parents ever buying a car that way. 

Would I do it? Definitely, maybe. 

The pros are that you don't have to deal with another human being or the stress of face-to-face haggling. 

Now, for many that would be seen as a con. There are certainly those who could get themselves a better deal when interacting with another human, not a lifeless robot on the internet. 

There are near limitless options of cars with online shopping as well, which can help you narrow things down to exactly what you want. And you can do all this without someone breathing down your neck. 

But, one thing you'll not be able to do with online shopping is one of the most important steps of car buying: Test driving and seeing the car in person.

Imagine that awesome pre-owned, online bought car gets delivered to you and it smells like Marlboros. That would be less than ideal. 

Generally speaking though, experts with Consumer Reports say that you should use a combination of both online shopping and dealership shopping to narrow things down, drive the cars you like and save the most money. 

Here's a look at some ideas from Consumer Reports when buying a car online. 

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