It was one of the few things you couldn’t buy on Amazon … until now.
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Long gone are the days when the only way to buy a vehicle involved visiting a showroom staffed by pushy salespeople. These days, online platforms and no-haggle pricing have taken some of the frustration out of the experience — and Amazon wants to simplify things even further.
Four dozen cities
A new program being rolled out in select locations nationwide will allow shoppers to add a new Hyundai to their cart just about as easily as buying any other product from the e-commerce giant. For now, only the Korean automaker has entered into a partnership with Amazon, but additional brands are expected to join in on the experiment.
Like it does with other smaller retailers, Amazon is essentially acting as a middleman between auto dealerships and consumers. So instead of buying a vehicle from Amazon, you’re actually conducting business with a dealer.
Nevertheless, everything is designed to be as straightforward and convenient as possible. Every aspect of the purchase, including financing, delivery, and even trade-ins, can be arranged directly on the Amazon platform.
An added bonus
As part of Amazon’s promotion of this new service, anyone who buys a vehicle through the site before January 10 is eligible for a $2,300 gift card.
But perhaps the bigger winners will be dealerships, which now have an opportunity to reach a much larger pool of prospective buyers.
Fran Jin is the head of Amazon Autos and described it as a way to bring “the simplicity and ease customers expect from Amazon to car shopping, one of their largest purchases, while offering dealers a new channel to connect with a broad audience.”
While Amazon Autos is “excited” that Hyundai was the first automaker to join, Jin said much more selection will be available “as the program grows.”
