Personal Finance News
Amazon Launches Amazon Autos Car-Buying Platform
The online retail behemoth Amazon is now allowing customers in select cities to buy their next vehicle using the site.
About Amazon Autos:
This week, Amazon announced the official debut of Amazon Autos. Using the platform, customers can view, finance, and arrange pick-up for new vehicles.
At launch, Amazon Autos only supports one manufacturer: Hyundai. Moreover, the platform is currently only available to those in 48 U.S. cities across 26 states (and the District of Columbia). However, Amazon says it intends to add more brands, expand to new cities, and add more functionality in the year ahead.
In addition to browsing available vehicles online with upfront (and haggle-free) pricing, buyers can also get instant valuations for their car trade-ins. Customers also have the option of requesting financing or paying up-front. After completing their order, shoppers can schedule a time to pick-up their new vehicle at their local dealership. Those trading in vehicles can also complete that process when they take delivery of their new vehicle.
Amazon Autos is currently available by going to Amazon.com/Autos or searching “Amazon Autos” in Amazon’s mobile app.
What they’re saying:
Announcing this new marketplace, Amazon Autos global head Fan Jin stated, “We’re partnering with dealers and brands to redesign car shopping—making it more transparent, convenient, and customer-friendly. With Amazon Autos, we’re bringing the simplicity and ease customers expect from Amazon to car shopping, one of their largest purchases, while offering dealers a new channel to connect with a broad audience.”
Jin added, “We’re excited to have Hyundai as our exclusive launch partner and look forward to welcoming more brands and expanding our selection to customers as the program grows. It’s still early for us and we welcome customer and dealer feedback as we continue to add new functionality, expand to additional brands, and iterate on the customer experience.”
My thoughts:
As someone who previously purchased a vehicle online through Carvana, I can absolutely endorse the concept on the whole. Personally, we loved the ability to search for cars in this manner, pay a pre-determined price (versus worrying about add-ons and trying to negotiate), and, in the case of Carvana specifically, pick it up via the unique “car vending machine.” However, I do want to note a few differences between that experience and what Amazon Autos currently offers.
The most obvious difference as it stands today is that Amazon Autos is limited to Hynudai. More than that, though, it seems that shoppers are mostly searching vehicle inventory in their area. In contrast, when we purchased on Carvana, we were able to view nationwide availability and have a car brought to our area. Another difference I noticed is that the photos currently available on Amazon Auto are fairly traditional dealership shots whereas Carvana has a cool 3D visual tool you can use to explore the interior and exterior of the vehicle.
I didn’t mean to make this a commercial for Carvana — but clearly I’m a fan. In turn, I’m interested in seeing if Amazon can help grow the online car-buying concept. Thus, I’ll be keeping an eye on this platform as it looks to expand in 2025.
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