If you hate haggling over the price of a new car, in fact, if you would rather just buy one online like everything else instead of going to a dealer, Drive Motors has you covered. Developed over a five month period, the plugin can be added to a dealer’s existing website. You select the car, configure the options, set up financing, make your payment and you can pick up the car at the dealer or have it delivered to your door.
There has been a lot of activity in this direction for some time, notably Tesla, who has been working with the online process and fighting dealers along the way, Beepi is available if you want a used car, GM has Shop Click Drive, but it’s limited to only GM products, obviously, so Drive Motors has a wider range of options, since it will eventually cover as many brands as there are dealers to offer them.
The auto dealer system is a convoluted, highly regulated, opaque and politically touchy method of buying cars and any move in the direction of simplicity and transparency is a win for buyers. Drive Motors is currently just beginning its rollout in California, but I would expect them to spread rapidly. I would expect competitors to jump in pretty quickly, too.
Online car buying, … it’s about time!