Mazda begins selling cars right on website
Back in the Jacques Nasser days, Ford Motor Company decided to cut the dealer middleman and sell its own vehicles online. Considering that's Ford's dealer network was probably too big even when SUVs were selling like hotcakes, it's easy to understand why the Blue Oval's dealers would be angry. Almost a decade later, Ford's Mazda arm is getting more involved with the sales process, but instead of stealing bread from its dealer arm like Ford did, the Zoom Zoom folks are simply making the process easier for its customers.
At the click of a mouse on the Mazda website, online car browsers can contact a Mazda employee via web chat, and the Mazda "shopping assistant" will help buyers configure a vehicle, find a dealership, arrange for the dealer and customer to work out pricing, and make sure the final vehicle is sent to the dealership. The anatomy of the OEM sales site has been relatively unchanged for years now, and if Mazda's new idea works well, we think it could help Mazda nab a few more sales on convenience alone. The Mazda sales initiative has just started, but it took almost eight minutes for us to get someone online. We think Mazda will need to quickly work out the kinks and get wait time under a minute or two for this new endeavor to be a success. If you've given the Mazda sales assistant a whirl, let us know in the comments how it turned out.
[Source: Auto News - sub. req'd]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Johnny Rocket 5:48PM (7/09/2007)
I liked Nasser's idea of cutting out the middleman. We all know how much we hate salespeople and dealers.
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srivendel 5:51PM (7/09/2007)
Excellent idea. Why not take the stealerships out of the picture entirely and ship direct to Mazda "service centers" where the car can be test driven, picked up, and serviced?
Incredibly awful Honda (current car) and Toyota (previous car) dealers are what will probably drive me and my wife to the domestics or Germans next time.
I would pay more for the car if I could get (a) exactly the color and specification I want and (b) avoid dealer sales gnomes.
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geo.stewart 6:32PM (7/09/2007)
If you will pay more, I'm sure the sales pukes will make the experience painless. Do 90% of correspondence through email with the internet mgr and go in and do the paperwork.
Did it on my last three cars. I spent 1 hr each time in the dealership.
Brian 6:32PM (7/09/2007)
This is exactly what I've been saying should happen for years. The auto retail channel (and real estate agents, for that matter) are basically a Mafia of Dinosaurs in this age of information. There is simply NO REASON for them anymore. We can get all the info we need (and most of us do) online already - it's just a matter of having regional test/service centers instead of dealerships. There should be fixed pricing, set by the manufacturers and no more, "Hmm, I dunno ... let me check with my boss on that" bullsh*t.
A big part of Detroit's problems is the antiquated "dog wagging" dealer channel. It's time for the manufacturers to join the 21st century.
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Viv 7:28PM (7/09/2007)
and how are Toyota and Honda any different?
Scott 7:03PM (7/09/2007)
I am the internet MGR for a large Mazda dealer near Cleveland. So many people love to spew vile in our direction simply for being salesman. We are a dealer who is keeping up with the internet imformed customer. We don't play games, and I will work payments etc. via e-mail. I think this is just another tool that will help Mazda sell it's great product. Those who think we aren't necessary.... what are you going to do with the cars you need to trade? Service centers won'tt work, because Kelley Blue Book doens't have a phone number for you to call them and have them pick up your car. It's simple, you have the advantage on us. The first moment you find a gimmick.. leave and find someone straight forward like us. Put the slimebags out of business by walking away. BTW, you have us for trying to make 3-5% markup on a car, but many will gleefully pay 50%+ markups at Best Buy etc, any feel great. This is the only business that you can walk into and know what I pay for my product. Just because many are bad doens't mean even most are.
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geo.stewart 7:18PM (7/09/2007)
I agree with a lot of what you say. There are good and bad. For the most part, using the internet to find the blue oval/5star/name your premier status dealer will net you a positive buying experience, in my history.
Outside of that net, you are on your own. I've been baited and switched, lied to, run through 5 pages of paperwork to talk to someone about pricing, dealt with 4 layers of managers ( I understand the need for some layers to weed out who's looking and who's serious but 4 was kind of ridiculous), and run through the ringer just to get a brochure and a 1/2 mile test drive.
On the plus side, when I've used the mftr ratings of dealers, I've gotten pricing for a name and number, gotten exactly what I asked for, gotten conservative estimates on trade-ins that have gone up when I brought the vehicle in,...
Jeff 10:24AM (7/10/2007)
I'm sure your dealership is different and I wish I knew where you were located the next time I need to buy a car. My experience where I live is quite the opposite. The local Toytoa dealership is just terrible. They use the entire bag of tricks. Last summer, I was looking at a Solara convertible (ended up not buying one mainly because of the BS the dealer spewed) and after 45 minutes of discussion, I could not get them to even quote me a price, let alone give me a price in writing. After 45 minutes, we were still playing the "make me an offer" game. However, I had made them an offer, even up trade my Corolla for the Solara. The ball was in their court and they still would not counter but kept talking about monthly payments, etc.
Scott, you're not included in this comment, but I just hate dealing with car salesmen and the overwhelming majority of the ones I've talked with are nothing more than slimeballs.
Put me in the eliminate the dealership and let me just deal with a distribution center where I can pick up my car. I'll handle selling the used car myself, or just push it's carcas over a hill somewhere (tree huggers, I'm joking).
RC 7:13PM (7/09/2007)
It is funny how everybody always complains about the dealers playing games and lying to the customers but I am sure NOBODY from here walks in any dealership and agrees to pay the manufacturer suggested retail price for the vehicle. Everybody wants a DEAL in their purchase and guess what? When you want a DEAL you end up having to put up with all of the negotiation and all of the bullshit
I am not supporting the dealer's games in any way but c'mon people it takes two to tango. We as customers also lie to the salesperson the same way the salesperson lies to us. Is all a game.
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jason 7:24PM (7/09/2007)
When I was shopping for my Mazda3 back in 12/05, I accomplished the same basic things the "sales assistant" does on my own. It was very easy and didn't take much time at all either.
The Mazda website was critical for searching inventory and finding the contact at each dealer, but that's all that I needed. I found all cars that met my criteria within 250 miles, emailed the dealers who had them and waited for email quotes to come back.
A few of the dealers baited me, tried to get me to come in or didn't give a specific quote. Most of them were much more straightforward, though. I ended up getting a quote that was even lower than my goal price. I made them fax me a contract to lock in the price, called with my credit card deposit and picked the car up two days later. The 200 mile drive was inconvenient, but I spent under a half hour finalizing the deal and getting back on the road in my new car.
At least in my experience, Zoom-Zoom described the buying process as well as the car.
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wiseman 1:15PM (7/10/2007)
with my experience with car dealers I can say that most quotes are within about $100 dollars of one another over the internet because they all want you to come down and buy, they all want to have the best price just to put that unit on the books. The fact that you drove 3 hours just to save $100 (or even $200!) is completely ridiculous for a $20,000 car.
jason 7:45PM (7/10/2007)
Actually, the savings was much greater than a few hundred dollars and I the specific car I wanted wasn't readily available at many lots.
The closest dealer with one matching my specs was under an hour away. The deducted $500 from the MSRP and said that was as low as they could go. The sticker was around $18,200 and they refused to go lower than $17,700. This particular dealer also had an 'advertising fee' pre-printed on the sales contract in the amount of $395. Total price if I had bought it there- $18,095 plus tax, tag, title. When I told them I wouldn't pay that much for the car, they told me that I needed to go somewhere else then.
The dealer three hours away in Knoxville, TN offered the car at $17,000 drive out (out of my state, so sales tax wasn't in the deal). After two brief email exchanges, they got the price down to $16,500 out the door. The amount I saved was approximately $1600!
I am an intelligent person and realize that the three hour trip wouldn't haven't been worth just a few hundred dollars. But it was most certainly worth it to save $1600. I also had a much better customer service experience than with the first dealer, which is worth a lot to me.
Local dealers are probably very close in their price quotes in a lot of cases. But the difference in the quotes of two different metro areas separated by a few hundred miles can be quite significant.
I made a sound decision that saved me a sizeable chunk of money. I'm actually thinking about buying a MAZDASPEED6 later in the fall after the new '08 Mazda6 is released. I will most likely be making the same trek to TN to buy it if they give me as good of a deal as they did on my current vehicle.
Aetius 7:38PM (7/09/2007)
My Mazda dealer (Airport Mazda) here in Etobicoke (Toronto) is perhaps the model dealership. It's a fantastic new, modern facility, they always have the latest models on display, you get to know everyone, they never play games with you, they always have the options/model you want and the whole experience is a textbook example of what a good dealership can be like! Infact, I go in there once in a while just to see the newest cars and talk to them. They're like my friends!
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A&W 7:49PM (7/09/2007)
This is a baby step in the right direction. Cars sales and brand loyalty would build quickly if the process was more like buying a TV and less like selling your first born.
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r129 8:56PM (7/09/2007)
I have to say that I love my local Mazda dealer. It's a brand new facility, and they always have a couple examples of each model parked right on the side of the building ready to be test driven. You walk right in, tell them which vehicle you want to drive, and they hand you the keys right away. They do make a copy of your license, but you're already in the car with it started by the time they're done. Then you're on your way, with no attempt at a salesman coming along for the ride. Afterwards, there's no high pressure sales pitch, either. Are many other Mazda dealers like this, or is this unique?
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Scott 10:40AM (7/10/2007)
They are supposed to be if they are a retail revolution store.
1337 8:59PM (7/09/2007)
Car salesmen are so fun to mess with, though. How will we con easy test drives if it is all online?
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htn 10:53PM (7/09/2007)
When shopping for a car I know what I want, MSRP, Invoice, holdback, dealer incentives (usually) and consumer rebates. What I don't have available (but the dealer does) is area inventory. I wish the manufacturers would put an area wide (x miles from zip code xxxxx) model/trim search engine on their web sites. All current search function I am aware of are dealer specific. That way I could find out if the car I want is available and contact that dealer. Still can do that but may have to search 20-30 dealers in a 200 mile radius.
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jason 2:04AM (7/10/2007)
htn- A lot of sites are dealer specific, but the Mazda site actually lets you search within 50, 100 or 150 miles from home. The initial results it gives are for the closest three dealers, but there's a link for 'see even more results' that expands the search to the radius you specified. You can select a specific dealership if you want, but it's a much more useful tool without limiting it to one dealer.
Unfortunately most sites don't offer that. I know Ford's site just gives you the five closest dealers to your zip code and you have to view each dealers inventory separately.
Honda is one of the worst websites in this regard. There is no search inventory function at all! The best they offer is the ability to locate a dealership near your zip code. Then you go to each dealer's specific website and hope they have an inventory search function (which some don't). What a pain!
I'm sure there are a few reasons not to offer an easy, effective and accurate inventory search function. First, all they would have to maintain the information which would mean coordination between the maker and all the dealerships. The main reason, at least in my opinion, is that it takes power away from the dealerships. They lose the ability to talk a customer into taking what they have in stock rather than what the customer actually wants!
A few years back, I was negotiating the purchase of a Jeep Grand Cherokee for my mom. The dealership near her home had one with everything she wanted, a few things she didn't and in a color that wasn't her first or second choice but she'd take if she had to. I haggled a while with the salesman and, ultimately, the sales manager and got to my goal price (just under invoice). Then I deducted the invoice cost of the options she didn't want (sunroof and chrome wheels) and told the dealer where he could locate the vehicle in the color she wanted without those two options. He got visibly irritated with me, but eventually I got his boss to get the car transferred and we bought it at my price.
They hate losing that control.
Alex B 1:02AM (7/10/2007)
When I read "...arrange for the dealer and customer to work out pricing..." I realized that this still doesn't fix the number one thing people hate about the typical car buying process, which is negotiating the pricing, trade in, loan, payments, etc.
Until that can be done online too, this isn't really a big improvement from what some dealers already let you do online.
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