Ford moving to online purchasing

[EVTrucking]

I read recently that Ford is moving towards online purchasing.

Recently I purchased a Mach-E online and the experience was great. Order exactly what you want with no hassling to buy what is on the lot.

I am hoping more legacy auto makers will move in that direction as well.

Dealerships will benefit by not having to carry so much inventory.

Sponsored

 

[cwoodcox]

I bought a Mach-E and took a very long post-purchase survey a couple of weeks ago. A huge portion of it was dedicated to very focus group-ish questions about buying a vehicle online. “What excites you most about buying online? How much time would you expect to spend buying online?” etc.

They are working hard on this, but it will be a while.

 

[Gshenderson]

I bought a Mach-E and took a very long post-purchase survey a couple of weeks ago. A huge portion of it was dedicated to very focus group-ish questions about buying a vehicle online. “What excites you most about buying online? How much time would you expect to spend buying online?” etc.

They are working hard on this, but it will be a while.

Was “Not have to educate your sales people about your product” one of the choices? ?

 

[CommodoreAmiga]

The largest benefit to the franchise dealership sales model is the large amount of "in-stock" inventory. If manufacturers move to a model where you must order your vehicle, but laws still force the franchise dealership sales model then we're going to end up with the worst of both worlds.

If they want to move to online ordering, then they need to lobby to change the law to allow direct sales, imo.

 

[Gshenderson]

The largest benefit to the franchise dealership sales model is the large amount of "in-stock" inventory. If manufacturers move to a model where you must order your vehicle, but laws still force the franchise dealership sales model then we're going to end up with the worst of both worlds.

If they want to move to online ordering, then they need to lobby to change the law to allow direct sales, imo.

Great point Commodore. However, the dealer franchise laws are solely about boxing out competition, and therefore the dealers will continue to actively and aggressively push to “have their cake and eat it to”.

Sponsored