Skip to footer

Amazon launches car comparison site as auto buying moves online

Edmunds.com, TrueCars and Kelley Blue Book are among the main resources consumers currently use to research cars and get pricing quotes from dealers. If Amazon were to establish links to local dealers, it could become a formidable competitor.

|
David Goldman/AP/File
Nissan electric vehicles sit on display at an auto dealership in Roswell, Ga. Amazon has taken a further step into one of the most dreaded consumer experiences: car shopping, launching Amazon Vehicles this week

Amazon.com, which has reshaped commerce in many categories, has taken a further step into one of the most dreaded consumer experiences: car shopping.

The Seattle-based internet shopping giant has long sold auto parts and accessories. But Wednesday saw the introduction of Amazon Vehicles, which includes a search tool for researching new and used cars and trucks.

Amazon’s new research features put it into territory occupied by “car finder” tools already available in different forms on many automotive sites. However, the move could be what one company insider described as “a trial balloon” to eventually establish a deeper foray into online car shopping.

What it could mean

Edmunds.com, TrueCars and Kelley Blue Book are among the main resources consumers currently use to research cars and get pricing quotes from dealers. If Amazon were to establish links to local dealers, which may be a logical next step, it could become a formidable competitor. By more aggressively trying to sell auto parts and accessories, it could cut into a market dominated by eBayMotors.

“I see this as a way for Amazon to put their foot in the door of the car market and maybe in the future become a lead generator for dealers,” said Oren Weintraub, president of Los Angeles-based car buying service AuthorityAuto.com, and himself a former car dealer. “There are many facets to a good car deal, including negotiating a good price for the car and trade-in, leasing and financing rates, and all the back-end products dealers sell.”

Amazon’s new site displays owner star ratings and reviews. Additionally, it allows car shoppers to pose questions to car owners, a successful feature the company has used in selling other products. While the information is helpful to car buyers, a couple of things are noticeably absent: pricing information and access to auto financing. Amazon displays the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, but the actual sales price found on dealership lots is not provided.

Evolution of car buying online

The internet has vastly changed the shopping process for most products — but not automobiles. Car dealerships do have internet departments through which pricing and negotiating can be handled via phone, email or text, but many consumers are unprepared for the negotiating process needed to get the best price for a new or used car. And upstarts such as CarGurus, Beepi and Vroom are trying to disrupt the auto-buying process by moving the entire transaction online.

Amazon’s new product offering is more modest for now. “Finding cars on Amazon Vehicles is simple — just search like you would any other product,” reads the company’s press release. Amazon’s tool allows shoppers to filter their search based on needs such as features, options, size and fuel economy. Results are displayed in the familiar format the site uses for selling other products.

Another sign that Amazon is moving into the auto market is its announcement this month of a very limited pilot program that provides test-drives for the Hyundai Elantra compact sedan. An appointment can be scheduled through the Amazon Prime shopping service.

Amazon couldn’t immediately be reached for comment about its long-term plans for its new vehicles site.

Philip Reed is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email:preed@nerdwallet.com.

The article Amazon Launches Car Comparison Site originally appeared on NerdWallet.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Amazon launches car comparison site as auto buying moves online
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Saving-Money/2016/0826/Amazon-launches-car-comparison-site-as-auto-buying-moves-online
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe