I keep telling you I’m not an “I told you so kind of guy”-yet I keep telling you that I told you so, so maybe I am after all. Last November, I wrote an article titled: Destined To Fail: Amazon To Sell Hyundais. If you missed it, you can read it here →
The idea was that Amazon planned to launch online vehicle sales in the U.S, starting with Hyundai in 2024. It was part of a new partnership the companies announced. The idea is that customers will find and buy their vehicle on Amazon.com, then pick it up from their local dealer.
We are now 10 months into 2024 and nearing the end of the year. If you go to the Amazon website it set up for Hyundai sales, it will tell you that the program is launching later in 2024.
According to the President of the National Auto Dealers Association, the dealers are running out of patience, and I can understand that totally.
“Amazon announced this about a year ago and they’re still not out of pilot,” said Mike Stanton, CEO of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), according to Automotive News and reported on thedrive.com.
“What I am hearing right now is that the dealers are frustrated,” Stanton said. “They’re not there yet with the agreement. It appears to be another digital retailing tool at the moment and probably not top tier.”
Last November, I posed these questions, and so far, we don’t have a single answer:
- How much in commissions does Amazon get?
- How much does an Amazon middleman add to the price of the car for consumers?
- If you buy from Amazon and have a problem, do they take care of it?
- What do they do if you have a trade-in or need financing?
For 30 years, everyone has been trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to buying a car. With all humility, I believe I’ve come the closest to actually doing that. The only reason it works is because I owned car dealerships and know the inner workings of them. There is no perfect system, including mine, because of the human element and there is no way around that. Things fall through the cracks, my contacts have bad days, they fight with their spouses, and the list goes on and on. Based on listener feedback from those that follow my process, it works in a huge majority of cases.
A good buying experience and a good deal still happen on the showroom floor, after a good test drive, and mutual trust between the buyer and the seller. Everything is about relationships, and those extend well after a sale is made. As I asked in my questions above, if you buy from Amazon and have an issue, best of luck trying to get them to help. Do they have any criteria for choosing the dealerships, or will they take an enrollment fee from just anyone?
I am not convinced the Amazon car buying site will ever get off the ground, it certainly hasn’t been a good start. If it does, it won’t fly.
Photo Credit: Hyundai (2023 File Photo.)
