Shift

I bought a car through Shift. For the most part it was a very positive experience. I only test drove one car, and that’s the one I bought. The process of signing up for a test drive was easy and the driver arrived on time which I appreciated. I feel their cars are priced fairly – mine being a KBB value between a private party and a dealer. The car I wanted didn’t have a spare key. These cost about $ 300, so they knocked that off the price. It’s a bit of a hassle for me to go get a key made but at least they were willing to flex a bit on the price
Their start-​up roots showed a bit though. I wanted to use my own financing but they couldn’t take it. I went through their financing, AutoPay, and was charged a $ 300 fee to do so. This was unexpected and I only noticed when going to do the final sign. I’m not sure if everyone is charged this $ 300 ‘documents fee’ but something to consider. Also when they came to deliver the car, they brought the wrong car! When they pulled up I noticed right away it wasn’t the right car, I thought I was duped. Turns out the person was fairly new and they had just moved their inventory. Still, I was left wondering, ‘how could this happen’? They brought me the right car the next day, and paranoid, I checked the VIN against my papers, and it was the right car. The manager called me and offered me a $ 50 Amazon gift card for the inconvenience.
Overall a positive experience. Though I’ve only had my car a week, so still waiting to see if something major might go wrong.

I used shift to sell and buy a car. Fantastic service!
Selling
— Prices are close to private party. Dealers were quoting 9k for my Nissan 350z. Shift got it sold for 12.5k
— Shift took care of fixing minor issues
— They are very transparent with the process and send status updates
Buying
— I got to test drive the car and «car enthusiast» had pretty good knowledge about the car.
— Their 50 point inspection is pretty solid. Confirmed it with my local mechanic
— They have 7 days refund policy (Full refund, no questions asked)
Compared to Beepi :
— Beepi is like a dealer with online presence. And since they hold cars in their inventory i could see higher spread in prices
— Beepi doesn’t buy/​sell cars older than 5 years.
— No Test drives

Outstanding. Simply outstanding. After having discovered these guys/​gals, I don’t think I can EVER go back to craigslist to purchase a used car again (… and this is coming from someone who has purchased every one of her used cars via craigslist over the past 20 years).
DriveShift is the way used-​car-​buying should be:
___[*]___ Transparent: You see all the photos + the vehicle’s mechanical inspection report + the CarFax with maintenance records, and they go out of their way to show you where the flaws are (dings, dents, etc.)
___[*]___ No-​Haggle: The price for the car is listed upfront — no commissions, no extra fees; just your local sales tax that you’d have to pay anyway.
___[*]___ Convenient: They bring the car TO YOU for a test drive — amazing! — and then if you want to buy it, they have all the forms for you to fill out. That’s right: no separate trip to the DMV, no navigating the DMV website to figure out what you need to fill out & send in… Just 3 forms + payment at your home /​meeting place, and you’re done.
That’s the general process as I experienced it as a buyer.
Here’s my own experience with them:
I was in the market for a new-​to-​me vehicle and came across one of their listings. The car (a 2007 Prius) looked just super! I called a hybrid mechanic to ask if I could bring the vehicle in for a diagnostic, and he gave me some more background on the (amazing) vehicle and told me it was a decent price for that vehicle overall… but by the time I went to schedule a test drive, it had already been marked as «sale pending». Doh! My loss. Gotta move fast on reasonably priced great vehicles…
However. because of the mechanical conversation spurred by this DriveShift listing, I narrowed my search to Generation-​2 Priuses. I waited patiently for another match to show up on DriveShift, while also scanning craigslist. I interacted with five different craigslist sellers during that time, only two of whom were actually willing to submit the car to a mechanic’s inspection (at my cost, of course)… and one of the two just vanished into thin air; the other car was fine mechanically but overpriced by about $ 2k.
In the end, I found my nearly-​everything-​I-​wanted-​mobile three weeks after I started looking, via DriveShift. I found my now-​beloved «Eeyore» listed on DriveShift on a Sunday morning, and scheduled a test drive for that Sunday evening. That night, I test-​drove the vehicle (which I already had an insane amount of info about, via their website), and decided to buy on the spot. My awesome DriveShift concierge (dude) was superb — had all the forms ready to go, filled them out expeditiously, and Über-​ed his way back to the offices. (He also knew Priuses pretty well, as his former girlfriend had owned one.) (I didn’t ask any further. He clearly knew what he was doing regardless.)
Overall: THIS is the way used car-​buying should be. As I said at the start… I don’t think I can ever go back to craigslist after this! A great idea, well-​implemented. Love it!!! Just love, Love LOVE it.

I was dreading selling my car and dealing with the inevitable awkwardness of listing it, showing it, inspections, etc (not to mention the time it takes to do all of that). A coworker of mine recommended Shift (his friend works there) and I decided to give it a try. The whole process was fast — my fiancée remarked that I didn’t even have the chance for a farewell drive.
I sold my car with close to zero effort on my part. I might have made a bit more if I had sold it on my own but the time savings and peace of mind were worth the difference. That being said, I had set a price range before ever engaging with Shift and the sale price was still within the range. It’s not like I compromised a lot price-​wise.

I’ve just sold a car through Shift (75k miles, about $ 12.9k sale price) in Jan/​2016.
The experience of selling the car is as promised. You set an appointment, get a firm quote, they take your car and you don’t need to do anything else until the check comes. Differently from selling the car through other means, the transaction is transparent, honest and worry free.
Shift does encourage the seller to make (and pay for) the necessary repairs in the car. So I also recommend the service for car buyers.
If you care less about the experience and are thinking about getting the most cash out of selling your car, there is something for you too. The repairs are managed by Shift and you pay the wholesale prices for them. For example, replacing a bumper (which might costs $ 2000 at a regular body shop) costs about $ 300.
Assuming that you want to sell a car that is well-​functioning and good-​looking, the cost of repairs benefit alone might offset the about 10% Shift takes to manage the whole thing.
Cost of repairs come out of seller’s proceeds (which makes sense), but the amount is much lower that if you were going to fix it on your own.
So, bottomline: Based on this experience, I recommend Shift both to buyers and sellers.

Just bought an Accord from them January 2016. Great experience. I have bought multiple cars from traditional dealerships in the past and hate «the dance» of having to spend hours at the dealership just to find out the out the door price which is inevitably much higher than any advertised price. Shift pricing is upfront, no hidden fees and they don’t hard sell. They even point out any small flaws with the car before you buy which is refreshingly honest. They were priced well below comparable cars at dealership advertised prices (before the dealer adds-​on fees). I test drove two cars from them before making a decision and never felt rush. Will definitely be using them again in the future.

Easy & Quick. Three friendly guys came to our house to check out the car and take it away. After cleaning, fixing a door issue and taking some pictures, they sold our car. The check cleared for a price higher than they quoted originally. They communicated with us during every step and delivered. If I had a car to sell again, with no time to do it, I’d use SHIFT.

This review is for the test drive only. I have not bought or sold a car through them yet.
Good experience, had to meet them at a gas station /​Starbucks in South SF to test drive two cars, otherwise they normally bring the car to you. The two people I dealt with were pleasant and knowledgable.
The cars were in very good condition, although it’s still your responsibility to vet the particular model year for any known defects and complaints.
Phone and email contact were timely and responsive.
I would likely buy from them when Craiglist flakery reaches unacceptable levels or I’m too lazy to get my ass to Carmax Fairfield.

I absolutely love my new car and my entire experience with SHIFT was fantastic and completely seamless. My car enthusiast, Kyle, was friendly, polite and knowledgable. This is the only way to buy a used car. The car has been fully checked and fairly priced. My son works for BMW and he said they do not check out their used cars as throughly as SHIFT does!

The bottom line is that Shift, like any other used car dealership, will inevitably sell lemons. When I bought my lemon from Shift, I was largely left holding the bag with a hole in my wallet.
Since I bought my Mini Cooper, I have spent over $ 1,600 in repairs and that is over a dollar per mile I’ve driven the car. (I bought my car at 64K mileage and now am at 65K.) My car has spent all major holidays (Thanksgiving, Xmas, New Year) sitting in the shop which left me sitting at home carless and cheerless. :(
The slew of problems included a brake fluid system that needed to be flushed to significant carbon buildup of the engine to a faulty censor. Should all these problems have been revealed at Shift’s inspection? Maybe not. (The brake fluid system was a simple plug into the diagnostic computer. Carbon buildup is a common issue among used Minis but the mechanic would need to see the engine.) Should they have warned me about the various common problems I might inherit from a used Mini? Probably.
I did not contact Shift when I had to flush my brake fluid soon after the purchase because it was a relatively small item. When my engine light kept coming on (scary experience when you’re on the freeway), I discovered that my engine had a lot of carbon buildup. Because this was an expensive repair and I’m fairly certain I had not caused the buildup, I contacted Shift and they finally agreed to pay half of the cost.
Then the engine light came back on and even my mechanic became alarmed and concerned. I tried to contact Shift right before the holidays to try to get the service record of the car. I left nice emails with holiday greetings and nice voicemails with holidays greetings (though they could probably hear the frustration in my voice), then just … Crickets! I still have not heard from Shift.
My car is finally back from the shop and now I’m nervous just getting into the car, fearing that the engine light might come back on.
I wish I could attach an animated GIF of my mechanic shaking his head every time he sees me. That might make this review funnier and less sad.

I received a call from a representative (Eugene) of Shift and at first was taken aback as I’d never heard of a service like this. He saw my listing online to sell my 2013 Subaru Outback and wanted to send someone up to take a look at it and give us an estimate on sales price. He explained that with Shift, they will give us a guaranteed price and we have three options for how to structure the sale.
Jeffrey T. came up from Shift and took a look at our car and explained the three options for how we could sell it:
— We could split the difference between the guaranteed sale price and actual sale price
— We could pay a flat fee of $ 500
— We could take an advance payment for an amount just below the guaranteed sale price
In our case, we decided to take the advance payment for the amount just below the guaranteed sale price. We did this even though we felt it would sell pretty quickly because we wanted the funds freed up in order to purchase another car.
We signed the contract and they picked up the car. From contract signing to check-​in-​hand there was only a few business days wait and that was even with the New Year holiday thrown in the middle!
Both Eugene and Jeffrey were a pleasure to work with. They were super responsive and answered all of our questions quickly.
The biggest surprise for us is that we ended up not buying a car right away. We’re getting by with just the one car for now so we can see what comes available on Shift as we’d love to buy our next car through them. The process to sell was such a breeze, I can imagine the buying process would be just as pleasant.
Great experience overall!

After this experience I will never set foot on a dealer lot again. They brought two cars to me to test drive and all the paperwork was streamlined because all the games that dealers play to break your will don’t work when you are on your home turf. This concept is the future of car buying. No need to deal with the sales weasels at a normal dealership or meet strangers in a parking lot.
Great business.

My experience has been great.
I had a 13-​year old BMW which despite still being in a pretty good shape, was giving me lot of maintenance work. After having to cancel a trip because of car issues, we’ve decided it was time to change our car.
Enters Shift. We’ve scheduled 2 test drives, the cars were really brought over to my residence (quite far from where they were). The experience was great, the agent was very honest and friendly and didn’t look like a regular pushy dealer at all.
The test drives come with a full CARFAX report as well as a fantastic inspection report with over 150+ items, which was pretty awesome. And it is a very honest report as well, things that I would have to pay a mechanic to look at if I was on a regular dealer.
At the same time we started to visit a few other dealers and we got very bad trade-​in offers, pushy agents, and also we weren’t even approved to take loans with big banks and lenders. We only got 1 offer which rate was about 9% per year which is pretty high.
Although my credit score is 750+, because I moved to US last year (my SSN has 1.5 years so far) then my credit length is not considered enough for banks and lenders.
We got a great price and condition on a car with Shift, so we decided to apply with Shift and since they have partnership with First Tech Credit Union, we ended up getting a 3% per year rate, which was awesome. The approval was quick and the whole process was very unbureaucratic.
Then, the best part. The agent scheduled to go to my home with the car, I signed all the paperwork and he simply filled the tank and drove my old car back.
And that is it! Got all paperwork on mail. Their service is excellent and they make sure things work out the best way.
Totally recommend it.

What a different (a very positive one) way of selling a car with Shift. Dont need to go through hassle listing it at Craigslist or dealing with negotiation with dealer.
Kyle, my car enthusiast, was friendly, knowledgeable and passionate. Arriving on time on the date picking up the car and explained in detail the selling process and inspection, without feeling pressure of forcing decision. Throughout the selling process, I was updated on the progress via email. I was also impressed on the thorough inspection process that instilled confidence of buying a car from shift in the future.
Offer was 3K above dealer offering, and eventually sold it 1K extra. From the time of getting an estimated quoted on line to get the car sold and receiving a check took only 2 weeks.
Will definitely go back to shift to buy/​sell my car in the future.

Shift was able to get me ~3k above dealer offer on my car. It was an easier experience than working with a scummy car dealership as well. The only problems I ran into during the process was related to Fed-​Ex being terrible at delivering important documents.
I highly recommend selling though Shift.

I used Shift to buy a new car and sell my old one.
Selling process: They gave me over $ 2K more than any dealer offered me on a trade-​in. Once the car was up on their site, it sold in only 3 days, so I think it was slightly under-​priced. It’s possible I could have gotten more $ on Craigslist, but that is not worth the epic hassle and fraud risk. My car needed a few minor repairs which they deducted from my proceeds, but all their pricing for these repairs was fair. The price they charged me for new brake pads was roughly the same as what it would cost me to buy them myself at Autozone and put them on.
Buying process: I tried to buy a Honda Civic from two dealers before trying Shift. Super frustrating negotiating process with the dealers wasting my time. Also, a lot of them won’t let you test drive on the freeway. I know a Honda Civic is not going to drive great, but I wanted to evaluate it vs a VW and you can’t do that without highway driving. Shift brought the car to me and I drove it around my neighborhood so I got a good feeling for what the car would be like to drive on an everyday basis. Also, no haggling, no taking an Über to the dealer, no waiting around. The car I found on Shift was also better maintained than the ones I saw at the dealer, most of which I think are acquired at auction.
I would definitely recommend this service!

Overall, I had a pretty great experience with Shift! Much less hassle than dealing with a dealership, especially as a young female. I never felt taken advantage of or pressured at any point in the process.
My car guru, Jordan, brought me car the same day I requested– in rush hour traffic from SF to San Jose! After a simple picture of my DL we were able to drive the car, I loved it and reserved it pending financing.
I did have a hassle with FirstTech their recommended (only established) lender and because of the unique buying process found that most larger banks aren’t willing to finance that sort of purchase– not something Shift can entirely help and that’s ok. They were very apologetic about the experience I had with FirstTech and held the car another 2 days so I could wire them the cash instead.
Throughout the entire experience I was able to call, text, email my «go to guy» Jordan– any day of the week, anytime of the day and he always answered and was so helpful and awesome to deal with. From the moment I met Jordan he instilled confidence in his knowledge, without EVER pressuring me to buy anything. He even mentioned in my test drive that he felt the car pulling to the right and that Shift would have it realigned the next day for me.
I did have a private PPI done during the 7 day period at a specialized mechanic for Porsche to insure it was a good purchase and we found a couple of things wrong that I would have expected Shift to have picked up on (oil pan leak etc). Shift’s inspection did say no leaks were found and the mechanics at the PPI and later at the Porsche dealership told me it had been there awhile. HOWEVER, I told Shift immediately and they did everything in their power to right the situation… Including picking up the car from me and taking it to the dealership for me to be repaired, they checked that all repairs were covered under warranty and assured me if not I would be able to reconsider keeping the car.
Car delivered with a full tank of gas, 5 minutes of paper work— easy and awesome! Thanks y’all!
Needed to update my review after another experience…
I had an issue with my car, and I tried reaching out to the company, honestly I didn’t hear back from them and got frustrated so I Unilocaled about it… I had a call within 20 minutes from the assistant GM. Kevin offered to pick my car up from me and have it fixed. It was gone a week and the entire time I was in contact with Kevin. He went above and beyond in every way possible. He apologized for the lack of communication and did absolutely everything in his power to correct the situation. My car was returned to me in mint condition and I could not be happier.
I will 100% but another car from Shift. The staff and their dedication is something I fully trust and believe it. Wonderful mission and wonderful commitment to their customers without any pressure.

A zillion times better than going to a dealership to buy a car.
I was looking for a car, found one online and shift happened to be selling it. they showed up at my house where my wife and test drove it, thought it was fine and bought it. With Shift everything that usually sucks about buying from a dealer:
a) they are far away (they brought the car to my house)
b) you have to dick around for hours to do the test drive (they took a picture of my license with an ipad and then gave me the keys)
c) you have to dick around for hours to take your payment (I gave them a check and showed them my bank balance on my phone)
d) you have bargain (I don’t mind bargaining, but the price was reasonable since it is basically private party to private party)
e) it isn’t practical to take it to your local mechanic (I took it during the 7 day trial period)
was eliminated. It was smooth and easy.
My nitpicks: there was a little screw up bringing it over and I had to wait an extra half hour. But I WAS AT HOME so it wasn’t really waiting it was just hanging out at home playing with the kids. Also when I took it into the mechanic during the 7 day return period, there were a few things he found that would have been easy to fix and not too expensive. I am too lazy to do anything about it, but Shift should have fixed that stuff.
Overall, still 5 stars because my next best alternative would have been going to a dealer which is absolutely a miserable experience.

I had an amazing experience with Shift and will definitely use them again in the future – either for buying another car or selling a future one.
My car had recently been totaled by another infamous Bay Area driver who wasn’t paying attention. I commute to work every day so I desperately needed a new car but wanted to make sure I found the right one. I found my dream car listed on Craigslist by Shift and immediately contacted them. I had been driving around every day for the past few weekends looking at cars and it was getting very tiring. When I contacted Shift, they offered to bring the car to me! It was already getting late on a Sunday afternoon and they were extremely busy but their awesome rep, Ed, was willing to meet up with us anyways. He brought the car to us and was able to answer all of our questions about the car’s history, service, owners, etc. The car had recently been fully detailed, washed, serviced and filled up with gas (free of pay), which was great.
In short, we bought the car on the spot and I couldn’t be happier with the customer service that Shift (and Ed, specifically) provided, the entire buying process (they handle all of the registration and paperwork for you so you don’t have to wait in line at the DMV all day), and – of course – my beautiful new ride. Keep up the good work Shift – it’s about time we had a service like yours!

I had superb experience working with the driveShift team while selling my Honda Civic 2010. I worked with Nick George. He explained end to end process and worked with us very patiently. He provided us weekly updates on interested takers.
My car required front pad replacement, Nick and team provided a quote which was way below than other repair centers in the area.
It was very much hassle free experience and Nick handled things very professionally.