Online sellers have allayed buyer concerns by including a warranty in a used car’s purchase price. Minnen’s 2012 Subaru Impreza, took away her 2003 Subaru and signed the final paperwork in her driveway. Similarly, Vroom offers a seven-day or 250-mile tryout.Ĭarvana delivered Ms. Carvana allows vehicles to be returned for free within seven days and 400 miles. I don’t want to be talked down to,” she added. “I have not had great experiences going into car dealerships as a woman solo. “You can drive it up to a certain number of miles and still return it if it’s not working for you,” she said. Carvana’s return policy appealed to Jessica Minnen, who is 39 and lives in Denver. ![]() The test drive - which made dealerships unavoidable - has been replaced with what might be called test ownership: a tryout period with easy returns. But different platforms have refined different parts of the sales experience to meet expectations of younger generations. For one thing, many states require a “wet signature” on sales contracts, meaning a physical signature. It’s an exaggeration to say any current platform is truly end to end. “Some dealers get it some are maybe still hanging on to the past a little bit more,” Mr. Some dealers entrenched in hoary sales culture may use websites merely to maneuver buyers into a showroom. and Nissan sites may work differently from dealer to dealer because of differing state laws and because their dealers can choose which parts of the online tool kit to use. “We are using it for a brand differentiator of Nissan.”īut even individual G.M. “It’s clear that the younger generations want to do more online, and Gen Z even more than millennials,” said Dan Mohnke, Nissan’s vice president for e-commerce. Nissan is refining an online sales system, based on a platform licensed from CarSaver, which was developed for Walmart. may be edging closer to what the industry calls an “end to end” transaction. It did not meet that lofty ambition, but G.M. ‘Shop-Click-Drive’ can eliminate showroom visits” in USA Today. General Motors took steps toward standardizing dealer sites with its “Shop. Individual dealerships often license software platforms on their own, and the resulting websites work and look different from one another, even within the same brand - which may not be good for the brands. Dealerships can sell online, but not manufacturers. More established manufacturers face thornier barriers to online sales. Tesla did not respond to a request for a comment. In states where it could not sell directly at all, like Michigan, it had customers take delivery in a neighboring state. That allows it to sell cars directly online and in its stores because there are no mom-and-pops to threaten. Tesla sidestepped the regulation by owning all of its dealerships. The regulation of dealerships has been challenged by Tesla, which Mr. ![]() Before the regulations, auto manufacturers could strong-arm mom-and-pop dealerships into taking cars they didn’t want by threatening to open a competing showroom and undercut prices. Crane, a law professor at the University of Michigan. Those restrictions, from the mid-1950s, protected dealerships, said Daniel A. Used-car apps outnumber new-car services because they face fewer legal restrictions. And those millennials were nearly twice as likely as boomers to shop for and buy a vehicle - new or used - entirely online, according to, which outfits dealers with technology for online sales. Financially strained with school loans, difficult job markets (the Great Recession and the just-now-fading pandemic set back careers) and an average new-vehicle cost of $38,000, they delayed car-buying even longer.īut in 2020 millennials bought more new cars than any other age group, accounting for 32 percent of total new-car sales, edging out baby boomers for the first time, according to the market research firm J.D. Millennials were presumed to dislike cars because - thanks to alternatives like Uber, Lyft and helicopter parents - they often delayed getting a driver’s license. “I don’t get the whole ‘You’ve got to take it for a spin, kick the tires!’ That was a model when cars weren’t the same quality they are today across the board.” “I dislike the car dealer rigmarole of ‘Let me go talk to my manager’ and ‘Let’s go over to the finance department,’” said Will Clark, 38, a recent car shopper who lives in a suburb of Portland, Ore. ![]() They hate car dealerships.īut the pandemic has pushed car dealers to step up online sales, eliminating what millennials (and others) dreaded: showroom visits that averaged five hours, haggling, paperwork, and high-pressure pitches for add-on products like wheel and tire insurance. Contrary to popular belief, millennials don’t hate cars.
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