
Why You Can't Buy a New Car Online - soundsop
http://www.alternet.org/story/126714/why_you_can%27t_buy_a_new_car_online/
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cperciva
There's a much simpler reason, which doesn't seem to be even mentioned in the
article: You can't test-drive a car online. If I'm going to spend $30k buying
something which I'm going to use for the next 5-10 years, I want to try it out
-- or try out a very similar model -- first.

Then again, maybe I'm just weird. I think people who buy condominiums before
construction starts are crazy, too.

~~~
vlad
_There's a much simpler reason. You can't test-drive a car online._

One wouldn't need to. One could test drive a car at a dealership.

I'm not sure how that's a simpler reason than the fact that selling new cars
without a dealer is banned in the US.

Most buyers research their new cars on the internet even though they can't
test drive them on the internet. Since they're on it already, ordering a car
would not be difficult to swallow (there are already laws that allow buyers to
return a new car for any reason within a certain time frame.)

Programmers are taught to try to cut out waste and save time and money, and
they've tried to do so here. From what I recall reading, web sites had been
shut down because they tried to skip the dealers. This shows that it is not a
lack of customer confidence, but the force of the law that is keeping things
as-is.

Finally, the argument that "one can't test-drive cars online" would be an
important enough deterrent to an all-online purchase process does not consider
that a new approach might be developed to allow potential buyers to test drive
a car (such as for a price). More realistically, consumers will test drive the
cars of their friends, that were already highly rated on the internet, such
as... the cars that are already popular today.

A downside is that with fewer dealerships and the new development of getting
charged to test drive a car, cars will become less fun to drive and more
feature- and safety-oriented. But, that is already the trend. Luxury car
manufacturers will still have dealerships for that reason.

~~~
gravitycop
One could even rent a car (to test-own) from a business that rents cars.

------
quellhorst
I just got a new car a few days ago... I filled out a finance form online,
made a call the next morning. Did some negotiation after I got there, got
$5500 off and drove off the lot with the new car with the salesman following
me with my old car.

Old car is for sale on craigslist now.

~~~
gravitycop
_I just got a new car a few days ago... I filled out a finance form online,
made a call the next morning. Did some negotiation after I got there_

Where was "there"? Do you generally do some negotiation after you get "there"
when you buy a book on Amazon.com?

 _drove off the lot with the new car_

Why was it not delivered to your home or office, like Amazon.com purchases
are?

~~~
quellhorst
Does a book have options?

This dealership would have driven it if I asked them. But people typically
want to drive their own _new_ car.

------
jacquesm
I don't know where the author has been for the last 10 years but it has been
possible to buy new cars online for at least that long. They'll simply be
dropped off at a dealers lot near you.

It is also one of the cheapest ways to buy a new car.

In _America_ you may not be able to buy a new car online, but the world is a
lot larger.

~~~
vlad
_"I don't know where the author has been for the last 10 years... the [cars]
will simply be dropped off at a dealers lot near you."_

The article is about it being impossible to buy a car straight from the
manufacturer.

 _"In America you may not be able to buy a new car online, but the world is a
lot larger."_

As the first word in the entire article is _Americans_ ("Americans can buy
virtually anything over the Internet, (...) but a new car"), I don't think the
author was trying to write about the situation on the global scale. But even
ignoring that, articles of American origins often limit their criticisms to
those within their own country, same as British and Australian journalists
often write about problems with their own.

~~~
jacquesm
the title is "Why You Can't Buy a New Car Online"

~~~
vlad
_the title is "Why You Can't Buy a New Car Online"_

Thanks for the reply. That is the title, but there are three pages of text to
go along with it.

The first word of the article mentions that this is American-centric and
somewhere in the first few paragraphs, the author clarifies that he or she is
writing about buying a new car without a dealer.

It is interesting to learn that you have been able to buy a new car directly
from the manufacturer where you live. Do you know if the dealers complained
when this came about? Also, do friends and family members buy new cars this
way now?

~~~
jacquesm
Dealers complained, but at the end of the day their profits are really in the
service and maintentance of the cars much less in the initial sale. Most
dealers get their profits only if they reach certain sales targets in the form
of kickbacks.

As for how friends and family members buy their cars, most of them drive
corporate lease cars.

Dealers get paid for the test-drives they arrange for such customers because
it is a certainty in those cases that the dealer will not be involved in the
actual sale.

One example of an online store for cars is:

<http://www.nieuweautokopen.nl/>

(dutch, sorry and apologies for the irritating flash intro as well)

Of course the dealers are trying their hardest to sketch buying of a car
through the internet as the most terrible decision you could make.

By law at least in Europe the whole concept of a brand dealer is no longer an
acceptable concept, any car dealer can sell you any brand of (new) car.
Importers / manufacturers can no longer make deals based on exclusivity.

I realize HN is US centric, in spite of that I would suggest a title of 'Why
Americans can't buy a new car online'.

~~~
gravitycop
_at the end of the day [dealer's] profits are really in the service and
maintentance_

Amazon.com's profits are in the service and maintenance of the books it sells?

 _Most dealers get their profits only if they reach certain sales targets in
the form of kickbacks._

Amazon.com receives "kickbacks" for reaching book-sale targets?

~~~
jacquesm
I fail to see the relevance of injecting amazon.com flawed analogies in a
discussion about buying cars on line, could you please explain what you mean
with that ?

~~~
gravitycop
_could you please explain what you mean with [amazon.com analogies to online
car sales]_

Wikipedia can do it: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com>

_Amazon.com [...] is America's largest online retailer_

