Big Box? Nissan Note the First-Ever Car You Can 'Buy' On Amazon 182
cartechboy writes "You knew the day was coming when they started selling diapers. Amazon is now dipping its toe into car sales by selling a single car: the 2014 Nissan Versa Note. Amazon users hit a real live Versa Note product page, but instead of "Add to cart" you provide your ZIP code so Amazon can connect you with a nearby Nissan dealer. The first 100 Versa Note customers whose car purchases are initiated through Amazon receive $1,000 Amazon gift cards. Best part: Customers who end up actually buying the Note *will* receive them via boxed home delivery. Now, that's a big box." (The linked article says that "some" customers will get their Versa boxed; maybe this is only if you specify gift wrapping.)
I wish this was real (Score:5, Interesting)
It just sends you to a dealer. I wish you could buy cars like everything else. No instead you have to fuck around with dealers who try to add fees, refuse to special order cars, try to convince you to take what they have in stock, or try to show you crap you are not interested in.
Car dealers please go out of business.
$1000 off? (Score:5, Interesting)
Can I pay them an extra $1000 and buy directly from amazon? Why get a dealer involved?
(Not that I'm interested in a Nissan Versa. But my point is the same. Car dealers are the scum of the Earth.)
Re:That's nice and all, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
Why not download the specs for use in my 3D printer?
Re:I wish this was real (Score:5, Interesting)
Not a matter of backbone, but rather, of the pointlessness of it all. I don't make it a habit of intentionally dealing with wolves, either, even though a modern firearm will make short work of them. I simply have no interest in the whole negotiating game. For my last car, I found what I wanted, went to the nearest dealer, took it for a ride, came back and told the salesperson what I would pay for it (a fair price, not the most profitable customer of the day but not a loss, either). As soon as she started to play the "I'll need to talk with my manager" bullshit, I headed for the door (and would have left) when she backpedaled faster than Lance Armstrong on Oprah. I drove it home half an hour later after filling out the annoying ream of paper (getting rid of that wouldn't suck, either, but I realize most of it doesn't have anything to do with the actual dealer).
Specialists and middlemen exist for a reason, I pay them to make my life easier.
No, they don't. You haven't bought a car in a while, have you?
You don't get to customize them anymore. You pick one of a small number (half a dozen or so) of equally ugly colors with stupid names you don't even recognize, you pick one of a small number (less than three, usually) of standard trims, and you might have one or two options you can select (like alloy vs steel wheels); in most cases, upgrading to option-X requires upgrading the entire trim (or buying it after-market). Oh, make no mistake, I have no doubt you could get it with whatever you want. But whether they say it or not, you will pay for trim-package-B when they "throw in for free" the 17" rims.
But the best part about all that? You could just as easily choose all those options via the dropdown size/color/etc boxes Amazon already has. So no, I don't have any use whatsoever for salesmen; and those particular middlemen haven't counted as "specialists" in a good 20 years (if they ever did, which I somewhat doubt).
Now, as for this listing on Amazon - Amazingly enough, I currently need a new car. And I have considered that exact car as an option. I went to that page fully intending to add it to my cart and order (you won't do much better than $1000 off a $14k car anywhere else, so paying MSRP really doesn't much matter here)... And sure, I understand that a "real" dealer would technically have sold it to me, but at least I wouldn't have needed to actually deal with them.
And as one further perk, most dealers won't actually let you put a whole car on plastic (usually limiting it to something like $5k or 10% as a down-payment), but that woudln't present a problem on Amazon... Except... It did, and in fact, just cost them a sale. That page doesn't sell you a car, it amounts to nothing but an ad. You can't just buy it there and check out, "Purchase or lease must be completed at Nissan dealer within 30 days of submitting your contact request". You don't buy a car at that page, Nissan buys you as a sales lead.
So fuck you, car dealers, and fuck you too, Amazon - Oh, and fuck you too, Slashvertisement on the FP. I can't wait for Tesla to come out with something under $30k; Once they do, I'll never go to a physical dealership again in my life.