CAR-BUYING PAIN
LOS ANGELES TIMES:
JARED MAZZASCHI went car shopping well-prepared. He was a cash buyer who knew what he wanted, and he had agreed on the price of the car with the dealer in Glendale, California.
Seven or eight hours later, after an “endurance test” in which he was shuttled from salesman to salesman, baited with multiple ways to finance the transaction, and offered costly upgrades he did not want, Mazzaschi left the dealership driving a new car. But he worried that he’d been ripped off, and was disgusted with the process.
Stories like that, common enough among recent car buyers, provide fresh ammunition for auto manufacturers, who believe the traditional car dealership model is outdated, ineffective, and perhaps even counterproductive.
“Everybody likes shopping and people love shopping for cars,” said Edmunds Senior Consumer Advice Editor Matt Jones. “What they dislike is transacting for cars. That part has to be made easier.” Car companies agreed. “The business model of having fixed stores and demanding that customers come to us is ready for disruption,” said Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen.
Some carmakers have a solution: Take most of the transaction online, and limit consumer-dealership contact to test-driving the car at the beginning of the process and driving it home at the end. Just as online shopping has reduced the amount of time customers spend in traditional bricks-andmortar stores, the auto companies hope to do the same for car shopping.
Hyundai last month launched a programme called Shopper Assurance. Using this web-based system, prospective car buyers, working with Hyundai dealers,