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While I really like the idea of buying a NEW car direct from the manufacturer, a used car from Amazon is significantly less appealing - both for the consumer an
by Night_Thastus 11mo ago
While I really like the idea of buying a NEW car direct from the manufacturer, a used car from Amazon is significantly less appealing - both for the consumer and Amazon.
* If Amazon spends the appropriate time researching into each car's history, properly inspecting and repairing any defects and working with customers if there are problems - they will not make a net profit. Not 'maybe', they won't.
* If Amazon doesn't have due diligence, people will get cars with endless problems, Amazon will be covered in bad press, and the whole thing will collapse due to low demand.
Plus, unlike buying a new car where inspection doesn't matter nearly as much - buying online gives you 0 way to really look at it yourself and take it to a local mechanic to have it inspected. (Which I am EXTREMELY glad I did, I nearly bought a car that would have been a disaster)
I suspect this effort will last maybe a year and a half at best.
Cars are bulky, heavy, expensive, and lose value quickly with age. Even new, the competition is so tight and logistics so hard that it's a nightmare. Used cars are so much worse an industry to work in.
- linuxftw 11mo agoIf people are foolish enough to buy used cars from Carvana, they'll be foolish enough to buy from Amazon too.
- kotaKat 11mo agoNothing wrong with Carvana if you use due diligence. Bought an ‘18 Fusion Hybrid in mid-2019 that I was able to trace back to Avis’s rental fleet before it went unsold by Avis to CVNA into their sales pool. (Figured at the time that the ‘hybrids’ cost more to rent, and anyone getting one as part of an upgrade would have treated it better than an econobox. Paid off quite nicely.) It was a reasonable price at the time and I’m sure as hell glad I don’t have to go back into the used car market now with how stagnant the prices got.
- zerocrates 11mo agoSince they go through the dealers it's probably just the dealers' existing "certified pre-owned" scheme.
- kotaKat 11mo agoYeah, it’s just the normal Blue Certified process. It’s an interesting look to dig the checklists up for various CPO programs from various OEMs to see what they demand. https://www.ford.com/cmslibs/content/dam/brand_ford/en_us/brand/cpo/pdf/Ford_Blue_Advantage_Blue_Certified_Inspection_Checklist.pdf https://www.ford.com/cmslibs/content/dam/brand_ford/en_us/br...
- gruez 11mo ago>* If Amazon spends the appropriate time researching into each car's history, properly inspecting and repairing any defects and working with customers if there are problems - they will not make a net profit. Not 'maybe', they won't. Given that used car dealerships have existed for decades, it's possible to do profitably. Why can't amazon?
- Night_Thastus 11mo agoIf you're a used car dealership you can: * Avoid paying any shipping costs, and require the car be driven to you in person * Have a shop attached to the dealership for inspection to avoid paying a third party * Have a person at the ground level look over the car and refuse to accept ones that are obviously junk, minimizing wasted time and money If Amazon is literally just acting as a front-end/advertisement for Ford and has 0 involvement than most of this doesn't apply. It's only a concern for places that act as a true online retailer, taking on all the inventory and risk associated with it.
- m463 11mo agoI've bought used iphones off amazon with no issue. (no other way to get a small-sized iphone 13 mini except used)