Car Buying Now Brought To Your Doorstep
In a move sure to cause concern at every brick and mortar car dealership, Tred.com has begun a program that allows you to order a car online and have it delivered to you at your home for a test drive.
For just $349, a fee that is refundable should you actually purchase a car through the service at their “great price,” Tred will bring the car of your choosing to your house where, presumably, you will be able to better assess its qualities by stuffing it with your kids and their related paraphernalia, your bicycles and any other life-essentials that you happen to have laying about. Narrowed down your options but still not set on which exact car you want? For just 499 refundable upon purchase dollars, you can have two cars delivered.
In an era where more and more car buying research is done on-line, this seems like a natural extension of that process. I assume the purchase price is similar to other car buying services offered at places like Costco so this really comes down to a matter of convenience. The cars will be delivered by a “concierge” who will help explain the various features of the vehicle and help you decide which features may or may not be right for you. Good thing or not? You decide.
More by Thomas Kreutzer
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The part about the fee being applied toward the purchase of one of their cars sounds good, but unless you just don't mind parting with $400-500 dollars, it does limit your purchasing range and power. If the specification of the car you want---or something close to it---can be found at Hertz or Enterprise or Avis, you're better off just renting it for a day...
I'm waiting for the dealers to shut them down. It probably violates salesperson licensing laws, or bird-dogging laws, or brokering laws, or something, and the dealers will find them. If car dealers would take the resources they spend fighting anything new, like keeping Tesla from opening factory showrooms, and spent the same effort fixing the things that make us hate them, everyone would be better off.
This seems overly convuluted but I'm sure there is a large group of people who will jump on it. I personally enjoy the showroom experience because if a salesperson gets pushy I can leave. If I get a modicum of humanity out of them that's even better. By the time I'm in a dealership I'm trying cars for size. But that's me and my lack of small children.
Is Tred buying its cars direct from the manufacturers? If so, you'd think an OEM's dealer network would be a tad upset. The end run around the dealership for the initial sale is bad enough, but you've also created an orphan customer that has no connection to a particular dealership for routine maintenance and service, warranty work, recalls and so on.