Amazon Autos: Buy New Cars Online with Dealers

Amazon Autos has significantly expanded its vehicle offerings, now including Chevrolet, Jeep, Kia, Mazda, Subaru, and Hyundai alongside the previously available Hyundai models. This means customers can now purchase a new Corvette while adding everyday items to their cart, creating an unprecedented shopping experience.

The service has rapidly grown to cover more than 130 cities across the United States, including major metropolitan areas like Dallas, New York, and Los Angeles. Despite this expansion, traditional dealerships remain integral to the process, handling all final paperwork and legal requirements.

The Amazon car-buying experience offers several advantages for consumers. Shoppers receive transparent pricing without the typical dealership markups for nitrogen-filled tires or unnecessary trim packages. The platform allows for online financing and provides the flexibility to pick up vehicles at the customer's convenience.

Dealerships pay to list their vehicles on Amazon Autos but gain access to a vast online customer base. Some dealers have embraced this new sales channel. "I think it's a really innovative product," said Matthew Phillips, owner of a participating dealership. However, experiences vary, with some dealers reporting initial success followed by challenges as traffic increased.

"Before it was click, click, click, and then the buyer would show up, sign four documents, and leave with the car," explained Alex Ruiz, general sales manager at South Bay Hyundai. "As traffic increased, we started to run into issues."

Currently, new car sales remain heavily regulated to protect dealerships. Unlike direct-to-consumer manufacturers such as Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid, Amazon is not attempting to eliminate dealers from the process. Instead, it functions as a massive digital showroom, creating a partnership between the world's largest online retailer and traditional automotive dealers that appears to be here to stay.