Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon Now Sells Cars (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the one-click-away dept.

Fiat Chrysler said it has teamed up with Amazon to sell its cars via the e-commerce company's site. Not only will you be able to order a car with a simple click online, but doing so will earn you an additional discount. Reuters reports: Initially only Italian buyers will be able to purchase their cars with a simple click online and the offers on Amazon. It will be limited to three models -- the 500, the Panda and the 500L. FCA said the choice was deliberate because the Panda is Italy's biggest selling car, while buyers of the 500 and its larger 500L version embody the young and adventurous nature this initiative is trying to appeal to. "The time has arrived to give consumers a new, more efficient and transparent way to choose a new vehicle," Gianluca Italia, responsible for Fiat Chrysler in Italy, said during an online press conference. The manager at the world's seventh largest carmaker said the partnership will appeal to buyers looking for deals from the comfort of their own home, adding that existing promotions will be improved by up to 33 percent for online customers. So, after making their clicks online, buyers will be contacted by Amazon to decide on a dealer where they can finalize their purchase and pick up the car. The vehicle should be ready within two weeks of the initial click.

14 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Finalize with a dealer, screw that by EmperorOfCanada · · Score: 4, Informative

    They have completely missed the point. I, nor just about any other human on earth, wants to have to "deal" with a dealer. Those sleazy turds are only going to give this process a bad name. If there is a way that any one of them can figure out how to screw us on this deal, then they will. Once one figures out the loophole, they all have figured out the loophole.

    One of the few powers I have when dealing with a dealer is to say, FU and walk away the moment they pull their sleazy crap. But if I have made a commitment to Amazon and then have to go to some dirtbag who will own me. I might as well go there not wearing pants as it will just make the whole process of screwing me that much faster.

    A tiny example of the sort of sleaze that dealers will do is to hand you a pile of forms for you to sign. They will say things like that they are required by law, or that the warranty won't be valid. But the reality is that you don't need to sign anything but the registration form that is part of the car's title. So what forms are they getting you to sign? A very common one is that you are agreeing to binding arbitration if there is any dispute about the car. Another allows them to do a credit check, even if you are paying cash. Others will look very official but are just to get detailed marketing information. These will look like finance agreements and will ask for SSN wages, employers, references, etc.

    The dealers are scum, and Amazon gave me a glimmer of hope that they were going to allow us to end run them, but nope, they are just sending us to a deeper form of dealer hell.

    All hail Tesla for doing its damnedest to break the backs of the dealers and their monopolistic abuses.

    1. Re:Finalize with a dealer, screw that by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah but when you deal with a dealer, at least a little guy is coming out ahead, and maybe a bunch of little guys. When you deal with Amazon, only Jeff Bezos is coming out ahead.

    2. Re:Finalize with a dealer, screw that by turkeydance · · Score: 2

      individual states have laws/regulations which allow ONLY dealers to sell new cars. Amazon is complying with those laws.

    3. Re: Finalize with a dealer, screw that by WarJolt · · Score: 2

      I don't really care as long as it's prime eligible.

    4. Re:Finalize with a dealer, screw that by thenitz · · Score: 2

      Can anyone explain to a foreigner why is it such a pain to buy a car in the US?

      I live in Eastern Europe, bought a car last year and it was simple and actually fun. First I researched the car online, then I went to a number of dealers to see the cars live, test drive them, and ask questions about things like maintenance costs, software updates or performance of the lane keeping system on local roads. I really enjoyed, as a shopper, those two weekends spent doing test drives.

      I eventually selected a model, went to the manufacturer web site and configured it to my liking. Ended up with a one-off vehicle configuration - blue compact minivan body with Android Auto, raised suspension and a sunroof. I emailed the spec sheet to a couple of dealers in the area, picked the one with the largest discount, paid them a visit to sign a contract; then made an advance payment by Internet banking. Two months later I had my built-to-order car waiting in the dealer showroom. I transferred the rest of the money and picked it up.

      Buying a car in Germany was a similar experience.

      I can't really think of a much better way. OK, the Amazon allows you to skip that one trip to the dealer where you sign the contract. But that wasn't that much of a problem in the first place.

      Don't forget that it's Amazon Italia doing this; not amazon.com .

    5. Re:Finalize with a dealer, screw that by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 2

      These are middle-class family businesses. You are raging against the wrong machine.

    6. Re:Finalize with a dealer, screw that by anegg · · Score: 2

      I bought my current vehicle, a 2000 Toyota 4Runner, on-line in January of 2000 from an outfit called carorder.com. They had built an on-line sales engine, and were trying to establish on-line auto sales as a regular thing. The buying experience was great; they sold multiple makes and models, all of the information was on-line, and it was a fixed price determined by the base car price plus options - no haggling.

      Unfortunately for carorder.com, it was very difficult (ultimately impossible) for them to break through total lockout of anyone other than the existing dealers selling cars. I bought my 4Runner on-line, but in order to actually deliver the car to me, they had to work with a local dealer. They would have delivered the car to my house so that I didn't need to even see the dealer, but I opted to go to the dealer to pick it up. I asked the sales guy at the dealership if he felt threatened by the on-line sales model, since it was a much more pleasant way of buying a car, and netted me a better price than I think I could have gotten any other way. The dealer showed me the $4,000 check that carorder.com had written to the dealership in addition to the $35,000 or so that I was paying (my cash going directly to the dealership), and said if this is what on-line sales are then he was all for it. carorder.com had plans to have their own outlets in each state so that they could deliver the cars themselves, but they were unable to make this happen before they ran out of money (not surprising, given that they were probably paying dealers extra money on every sale that they made). What did work for me was that since I had made the deal through carorder.com, I didn't have to sign any extra dealer paperwork - I just wrote the check, handed it over, and drove away in my car. Unfortunately, I think carorder.com only lasted another 6 months or so.

      I'm glad that Tesla has been pursuing opening up the car market for their own vehicles, but perhaps Amazon will be able to make inroads where carorder.com was unable to with the broader market. The argument against on-line sales seems to be primarily based on the idea that an on-line seller won't be around to provide maintenance and support. This seems to be a solvable problem, perhaps with manufacturer's having a distributed network of authorized warranty repair vendors instead of/in addition to dealerships.

      I would be very happy to see true competitive market pressures introduced to new automobile sales such that buying a new car was a lot easier and a lot more like buying any other commodity.

    7. Re:Finalize with a dealer, screw that by epyT-R · · Score: 2

      These days, they're state wide conglomerates that have swallowed up individual brand dealerships. Now, I have a choice of Executive Honda, Executive Hyundai, Executive Dodge, or Executive volkswagen. Yay!

      Dealers are a pain in the ass and they're always looking to manipulate.. What sucks is I have to pay them for the privilege of such manipulation in order to get a car, when all I need from them is warranty service (which should be doable at any sane garage if they didn't DRM the hell out of the onboard computers).

      Yet, they wonder why the used market is flourishing..

  2. Re:will UPS deliver it in a box? by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Funny

    and i suppose i have to assemble it too?

    Yes, the car comes in flat packs. Over 5000 cam lock fasteners are included, along with a 500-page book of wordless picture instructions.

  3. Re:Prime Eligible? by praxis · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So you paid the dealer 3% more for a car (surely they didn't eat the transaction fees but passed them along to you in the negotiation) so you could "save" 1% in cash back. Wow.

  4. Re:will UPS deliver it in a box? by John.Banister · · Score: 2

    I want mine to deliver itself. Until that can happen, I'll settle for picking up the key in the Amazon locker in front of my local grocery store. The person who delivers the car to the grocery store parking lot can catch a ride back to the city in the Amazon locker delivery vehicle.

  5. Re: Prime Eligible? by LanceMcGrath · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Easy. You just don't tell them that you're paying with card until the end. Negotiation 101 - they may be sleazy, but they're not geniuses, and it's not that hard to outthink them.

  6. So by hackertourist · · Score: 3, Funny

    what does the Ferengi Commerce Authority have to do with trade on Earth? Did the Grand Nagus buy Amazon? (That would explain a few things, mind)

  7. The UPS Guy is going to hate me. by Salo2112 · · Score: 2

    Jeeze, getting that package from the truck to the porch was hard. What's in the box? Lead? (actual conversation when I had bullets delivered)