Edmunds.com is aiming to make customers’ car buying experience more like Amazon.com with a new simplified pricing program called “Price Promise,” according to Edmunds.com President and Chief Operating Officer Seth Berkowitz.
View full sizeEdmunds.comDETROIT- In a perfect world, buying a vehicle would be as easy as shopping on Amazon.com.
Customers could log into a website or walk into a dealership, pick a vehicle that has a set price, pay and pick it up or have it delivered.
However, we all know that's usually not the case.
In reality, buying a new car or truck from a dealership can be a confusing hassle (MSRP, true market value, average transaction price, etc.) that many would like to avoid at all costs. From signing a mountain of paperwork to not knowing if you received a good deal , it’s definitely not like clicking through a few webpages to buy a DVD.
Edmunds.com is aiming to make customers’ car buying experience more like Amazon.com with a new simplified pricing program called “Price Promise,” according to Edmunds.com President and Chief Operating Officer Seth Berkowitz.
“The average American person cannot understand how it is, as an industry, that we can’t deliver an actual car price to them,” he said during an Automotive Press Association meeting Wednesday announcing the new program. “Think about your own experiences and the way you shop … and the experiences you have on Amazon.com or even any kind of traditional brick and mortar type experience that you have.
“It’s just totally mystifying to people how it is that they cannot get this actual price.”
The new program, according to Berkowitz, car shoppers who are interested in a car listed on the Edmunds.com can instantly receive the dealer’s guaranteed price for that car by simply entering three basic pieces of information: name, phone number and email address.
The guaranteed price listed through Edmunds.com is from dealers in their area and include primarily all pricing stipulations except trade-ins.
"Our goal is to try and be as close as close as possible to the Amazon.com for the automotive experience," he said.
The way it works is participating dealers pay a subscription fee and submit information to Edmunds.com, which then shares that direct, instant price with consumers on the website.
About 600 to 700 dealers are participating in the Price Promise program, Berkowtiz said. He said by the end of 2013, Edmunds.com hopes to have 2,000 dealers in the program.
The new program is similar to other services offered by other car websites and companies, such as TrueCar.com.
Dealers who participated in a Price Promise pilot earlier this year reported impressive engagement among car shoppers, according to Edmunds.com. They also noted that these consumers seemed more interested in saving time in the process than getting the rock-bottom price, unlike consumers who request multiple price quotes.
What this product is beginning to attract is people who are putting a premium on speed of service, safety in having a guarantee of something locked in,” Berkowtiz said. “People who are used to going to Amazon and who are looking for a similar experience in the automotive space.”
Edmunds.com plans to roll out a national television advertising campaign in the fourth quarter of this year to raise further awareness of the program.
Check back to MLive Autos for more details.