Death of the Car Salesman? BMW Makes AI App To Sell Electric Cars 168
cartechboy writes "You thought Willy Loman had it bad. BMW is launching an artificial intelligence app allowing consumers to ask questions about its new BMW i3 electric car without the hassle of having to pick up the phone or go into a dealership. Potential customers can text a simple question about the i3 and the system builds an appropriate response in real-time using AI — interpreting words, sentiment, and context. The futuristic robo-car salesman was developed by 19-year-old entrepreneur Dmitry Aksenov and operates around the clock. No word on whether the app says, 'Wait here — I'll check with my sales manager,' like human car dealers often do."
No way (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No way (Score:5, Insightful)
"Notice: Please press 'Accept' to the agreement below within the next 59 second(s) to avoid having every photo on this device forwarded to your twitter account."
More seriously, traditional dealers are considered a hurdle to EV sales because they have to compete with their other inventory. Dealers may not be as knowledgeable and enthusiastic about EVs to make an effective sale. There's also a notion that, since thee majority of a dealer's profit comes from the service department, that EVs don't get pushed as aggressively because they don't need as much service.
Since selling factory direct runs afoul of many state laws here in the US, this seems like an interesting alternative... just take the human interest out of the sales pitch.
=Smidge=
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selling factory direct runs afoul of many state laws here in the US
Out of interest what is the justification for those laws? They seem to run contrary to the idea of a free market.
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And you know who is the biggest advocate of those dealer laws: Texas.
Yes, folks, just maybe people screaming "free market" and "no regulation" are trying to scam you.
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My basic understand of it is: for when a new auto manufacturer comes around, they don't have to setup a dealership themselves in every city across the country, instead they can just ship their cars to all the existing dealerships. This is a service provided by the dealership to the automaker to help the automaker grow when it is young. Then, to prevent the automaker from cutting off all their shipments to dealerships when they are big enough to setup their own stores, laws were put into place to prevent
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Here is another good article
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/19/172402376/why-buying-a-car-never-changes [npr.org]
In short, it’s not illegal – probably (Tessla is trying to do this but are having a few issues).
The short answer is that you can either sell your products directly or use a franchise system but you can’t compete against your own franchise system. It is to stop big business from abusing around small, locally owned business who are highly active in local politics. (I can point to abu
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It's not a big surprise that economics that were good for everyone in the 1940s and 1950s might not be good for everyone now.
The first action of any corporation when their historically affective business model starts to falter is to go screaming and whining to the various legislators. This is always after a period where they're whining about "too much regulation."
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Selling through dealerships has offered several benefits to manufacturers historically.
Of course this is an idiotic justification. If the dealership network really offered benefits to the manufacturer, then there would be no need for laws that require them to use it.
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Here is the reason.
A local person buys a franchise, and invests 20 years into building up the brand. After 20 years the manufactory opens a store next door. Or, better yet, sells a new franchise down the block.
The economic sense that made the partnership a “partnership” (in the sense of mutual gain) will probably shift in 10 years and be completely different after 50.
Re:No way (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds to me like a contract issue between the dealer and manufacturer (I'm guessing that terms about the opening of competing branches of the same franchise within a certain geographic area are standard for just about any type of franchise). There shouldn't be legislation about it outside of standard contract law.
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Right, in which case that kind of direct competition can be (and is!) bargained into the franchise contract. So there is STILL no reason to make direct ownership of auto sales outlets illegal, except to prevent people from trying out new ways of doing business.
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Since selling factory direct runs afoul of many state laws here in the US
I find this to be particularly disturbing I cannot buy directly from the manufacture which means I have to pay extra to some middle men. I would like to buy a car that doesn't cost me an arm and leg but the state is writing laws that serve to inflate the price. This also serves to insure that startups in the auto industry have a higher barrier to entry and limits competition for established players.
Re:No way (Score:5, Funny)
"Hi, I'm Malfunctioning Eddie, and I'm malfunctioning so badly, I'm practically giving these cars away!!! "
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I don't know, if it actually answered the questions posed it would be an improvement over the guy I talked to at Nissan last time I was car shopping. I clicked a "give me an instant quote" button, which was actually a "we'll get back to you with an email" button, and despite three attempts to get actual facts out of the guy the only thing he said each time was "Yeah, we've got lots of models. Give me a call or come on down and we'll talk."
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Having sold cars for a brief time, I can assure you, that people do not WANT a nice car salesman. They expect the stereotype and respond awkwardly to a "nice, friendly" person.
I recall one day, I was particularly in a Pissed off mood, and was rude, belligerent, condescending as only I can be. That day, I sold four cars. By far, the best day I ever had. Coincidence? Perhaps, however, the grumpier the sales person, the more cars they sold.
The problem with selling cars, is that most people are ill equipped to
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Two hours? Our last car purchase took 30 minutes. We got a quote, asked if our local dealer could match it (or get acceptably close) and call us if they could - and when they did, we sorted it out.
Two hours is insane
oh please please please (Score:4, Insightful)
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Yes. The Internet already does 90% of what a realtor does.
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How are the all the douchebags you remember from high school that are in love with the glamor shot photo going to feed themselves if we get rid of realtors?
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Except for collecting their percentage.
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But it's the other 10% - ensuring all the legal paperwork and details are handled that makes it worth paying them.
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But it's the other 10% - ensuring all the legal paperwork and details are handled that makes it worth paying them.
Nope, the title company does that.
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Reading comprehension - get some. I didn't say "handles" the paperwork and details, I said "ensures they are handled". Not even remotely the same thing.
Not to mention there are details that are beyond the (very narrow) purview of the title company.
Re:oh please please please (Score:4, Informative)
Yes. The Internet already does 90% of what a realtor does.
Which makes me wonder what I need them for and why I am legally required to only sell my real-estate through a realtor. They only use I can see for a realtor like person is to act as a trusted intermediary who checks buyers/sellers criminal records and verifies everything is in order before a sale is finalised (ya'know basic stuff like does he actually own or have authority to sell the house?) but unfortunately, as the system currently works in my country, they are not required by law to do either because I regularly read news of people being cheated.
If your understanding of what is involved in a real-estate transaction is so ... well "off", to be polite... I'd strongly suggest if you ever do so, use a real estate agent. In the buying and selling side, I think they provide value, but not good value at a split of 5% of a transaction. On the selling side, some do earn that with sufficient work but most don't. On the buying side, some earn it with dozens or hundreds of hours of showing houses to inexperienced buyers. As a seller I'd prefer a buyer with one because the odds are higher that the process will go smoothly.
But, at least in the US, there's no law requiring it for sale or purchase. Your might need to drop a few hundred more in lawyer fees, but the forms you need are public and easy to fill out. And, as a seller without one, you do have to understand that you're not likely to find a buyer if you're not willing to pony up the 2.5% to a buyer's agent that they would've gotten from the seller's agent if you had one.
Its a staggeringly inefficient process, but there are too many people with their fingers in the pie to ever optimize it. At least the Internet has streamlined the mortgage process and passing around documents.
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I am legally required to only sell my real-estate through a realtor.
I am unaware of anyplace that this statement is true. Certainly nowhere in America. Where do you live?
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Yes. The Internet already does 90% of what a realtor does.
Which makes me wonder what I need them for and why I am legally required to only sell my real-estate through a realtor. They only use I can see for a realtor like person is to act as a trusted intermediary who checks buyers/sellers criminal records and verifies everything is in order before a sale is finalised (ya'know basic stuff like does he actually own or have authority to sell the house?) but unfortunately, as the system currently works in my country, they are not required by law to do either because I regularly read news of people being cheated.
A realtor doesn't even do that. That is what a Title Company is for. And you get to pay them extra to do that on top of what you pay the realtor.
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You don't need middlemen, just ignore them, and it is like they were never there.... until they stab you in the back that is.
Oblig (Score:3, Insightful)
"About 50% of the human race is middle-men and they don't take kindly to being eliminated."
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I don't want you trouncing through my house without an escort, thank you. I think the Buyer's agent is still a good thing. The seller's agent, however, could probably go away without causing too much trouble.
The realtor ... I mean Realtor(tm) ... cartel leams without a seller's agent, you won't have buyers agents coming through, and essentially no visibility because you won't be in MLS. Some agent services will do an MLS listing for you without full representation, although I don't think they're supposed to be doing that. Without a buyer's agent, you're not getting into a house that isn't having an open house because seller's agents don't do that. Its a scam.
The real problem is that you, as a buyer or seller, a
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It sounds to me like there could be money in developing an independant MLS type system.
Personally I have nothing against realtors, having only had pleasant experiences with them. I realize that they don't do anything that I can't, but that is true for a huge number of other occupations. I could change my own oil, cook all my own food, hell I could grow my own food much of the time. I don't do those things though because I already have one job and it pays well enough that I value my free time more than savin
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can we get rid of realtors next? And the general class of human cancers known as middlemen?
Here's the unfortunate problem -- efficiency has gotten so high in most industries, half the people in the world would be unemployed without middlemen (ie, stores, resellers, distributers, online retail, etc)... and you'll end up paying just as much money in taxes to support their social welfare programs.
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What the article failed to mention was the scumbag dealer switch, which is a lot closer the dealership experience in real life: it even holds your car keys hostage while he goes away and "talks to his manager" to see if it sounds "do-able". Even the beta testers decided to "forgetabout it promised to return".
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There are good realtors that provide a service (note that I say good -- it's important to research realtors like anything else). If I'm buying a home in a new town that I don't know anything about, I want to work with a realtor. I can give them a list of what I'm looking for (price, safety, convenience, features, etc), and they're going to be much more efficient about finding possible matches than I would. As for selling homes, most people only do that a handful of times in their lives. A realtor is going t
Car salesmen (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm not living in the american cultural sphere. Around here carsalesmen never go to their managers, they are also not aggressively pushy. They are actually pretty much the best salesmen a normal consumer will ever meet. (Seen B2B salesmen too, the really good ones usually end up there). Aggressively pushy ones end up in hospitals or unemployed. Are american carsales man really as bad as the stereotype suggests? If so, why do you think they end up being like that?
Re:Car salesmen (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not living in the american cultural sphere. Around here carsalesmen never go to their managers, they are also not aggressively pushy.
Eh? I didn't know they had car salesmen in Narnia!
Based on my last experience, we don't have car salesmen in England, either - we have financial product salesmen who push loans, hare-brained leasing deals and dubious extended warranty schemes to people who have already decided to buy the car and are (figuratively, at least) waving the cash in their face. Its pretty clear that actually selling cars has little to do with their business model.
Oh, and I have it on good authority that (as I always suspected) the "consulting my manager" theatre means "putting the kettle on in preparation for a celebratory brew" (maybe in the US it is more likely to be turning on the coffee machine)... or maybe headbutting the wall a few times if the stubborn customer has insisted on actually paying for the car, thus depriving you of the finance company commission.
Re:Car salesmen (Score:5, Funny)
Based on my last experience, we don't have car salesmen in England, either - we have financial product salesmen who push loans, hare-brained leasing deals and dubious extended warranty schemes to people who have already decided to buy the car and are (figuratively, at least) waving the cash in their face. Its pretty clear that actually selling cars has little to do with their business model.
But .. but .. but .. you have totally awesome car leasing places like Ling's Cars [lingscars.com]
(Pro tip .. check out the ASCII art in the source. Yes .. ASCII art!)
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Thanks for the early morning chuckle.
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The most surprising thing I found on the website is that Ling's a woman.
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But .. but .. but .. you have totally awesome car leasing places like Ling's Cars
Warning: NSFW. At least not unless you turn down the volume.
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Pretty funny that it costs more to lease a Reliant Robin than the Skoda or VW.
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Wow. Just wow. That has got to be the most ridiculous bit of epic I have ever seen.
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Do ya'll negotiate the car prices over there like we do here...or is the price on the sticker the price you pay over there?
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Do ya'll negotiate the car prices over there like we do here...or is the price on the sticker the price you pay over there?
There's usually some room for negotiation - especially if you're trading in your old car, the value of which is heavily dependent on how badly the dealer wants to sell you the new car. Not a nation of great hagglers (anyway, a haggling culture only means that dealers inflate the initial price).
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Oh, and I have it on good authority that (as I always suspected) the "consulting my manager" theatre means "putting the kettle on in preparation for a celebratory brew" (maybe in the US it is more likely to be turning on the coffee machine)... or maybe headbutting the wall a few times if the stubborn customer has insisted on actually paying for the car, thus depriving you of the finance company commission.
Pretty much. When I bought my car, I did two things that help change the pressure of the situation immensely. I brought a friend and a book. The book came out when the guy pulled the whole "let me talk with my manager" bit, so that it was obvious he wasn't going to get me to stew in my juices in isolation, and the friend came in handy by letting me know the guy was just talking about sports to another salesperson after wandering around a bit and spotting him.
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... or maybe headbutting the wall a few times if the stubborn customer has insisted on actually paying for the car, thus depriving you of the finance company commission.
lol :) Airline miles reward card too of course on a nearly 30k car ;)
My dad found out how to frustrate the dealership, pick out a car and plop down a credit card. Salesman is frustrated, clerk is baffled, accounting is pissed(all of a sudden that 3% fee seems to matter...) He'll pay it off when the bill comes I imagine and the only one paying finance fees are the dealer. That probably wasn't their goal
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Yes, they are as bad as you've heard. They'll do stuff like insist a used car is a cream puff even though it has worse dents than door dings, and will keep insisting it's a cream puff even after you point out the dents. Or if there's a big puddle of transmission fluid or oil under the car, they'll suggest it's just a leaky seal, and not a sign that the transmission or engine is shot. You also have to check carefully for water damage. You could try to visually examine the car, but it's better to run a ch
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Even a cracked windscreen gets you pulled over, let alone missing bodywork.
It seems you unfortunately suffer from the delusion that UK police actually patrol the nation's highways, instead of filling out endless reams of paperwork, or holding random people for nine hours by abusing anti-terror legislation.
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Obviously they don't patrol the highways much, that's what all the cameras are for. And yes, they do target any and every motorist they can -- for anything. It's easy money. Like shooting fish.
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What's a MOT?
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What's a MOT?
Statutory annual basic safety & emissions check for any car over 3 years old. There's absolutely no guarantee that a car with a current MOT certificate hasn't developed a fault since it was tested, though - "But Officer, it has a MOT certificate" won't get you anywhere if you're pulled over with a fault.
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Ok, yeah..some states in the US require inspections, but not all of them.
I have a rudimentary inspection in my current state of residence, but thankfully, nothing with emissions...so, I can mod my car
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I have never bothered to look up his past, but Eric Cantor looks and acts EXACTLY like my mental schema of "used car salesman."
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I guess that would cast Obama as the slimy garage grease monkey, working in conjunction with said dirty sales force to cheat the consumer..er...citizen...er...
What were we talking about? The allegory got a bit too tangled with such similar entities' behaviors.
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When you are grinding up people for biofuels don't forget the bankers and other financial people! They can not be left out of a deal like that! :)
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"nothing but a low-down, double-dealing, backstabbing, larcenous perverted worm! Hanging's too good for him. Burning's too good for him! He should be torn into little bitsy pieces and buried alive! "
Hanover Fist lives!
The answer is not the answer (Score:3)
For me, the content of the answer is part of what I want. I pay equal attention to the way the salesman is giving the answer too. If I have the feeling he is bullshitting his way into a sale I know I have to ask more complex questions.
At least with robots you know in advance you are being bullshitted as they literally have no sense of ethics. For humans this requires effort and sometimes they slip up.
Re:The answer is not the answer (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but since the AI is not (or at least not yet) a culpable entity under the law. It means culpability falls on to BMW for anything the AI promises or says. So if it says yes you can drive the car from Alaska to Russia. BMW could be brought to court under the law for making false calms about it's car capabilities. Now, if a human where to say that you'd have to find some evidence to show that BMW had told it's salesmen or implied that they show make that calm. Otherwise, you could only go after the salesman for his actions.
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Wrong. BMW would still deny wrongdoing and blame the people who wrote the app. You'll end up in a lawsuit with 5-6 defendants and no end in sight. Would cost more than the car so you'll settle out of court (unless you have a list of damages a judge will get behind).
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So if it says yes you can drive the car from Alaska to Russia. BMW could be brought to court under the law for making false calms about it's car capabilities.
I'm pretty sure that the AI system won't be advanced enough to even let you ask such a question and get a meaningful response.
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For me, the content of the answer is part of what I want. I pay equal attention to the way the salesman is giving the answer too. If I have the feeling he is bullshitting his way into a sale I know I have to ask more complex questions.
So instead of buying a car you are buying VERY EXPENSIVE live performance? How about research the car instead of reading people and tea leaves?
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The robot isn't getting paid on commission though, so it has no reason to lie or mislead you (other than the parent company wanting to sell more vehicles in general)
Also, any questions and answers will be in writing, giving the customer a better recourse if promises turn out to be false. I'm sure BMW can make some boilerplate disclaimer to prevent legal action, but if word spreads of the AI blatantly lying about specs, it could seriously impact bottom line.
Lolwut (Score:5, Funny)
without the hassle of having to pick up the phone
How exactly am I supposed to use the app without picking up the phone?
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Ask to borrow one from a salesman.
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new cars are great but i dont know anyone stupid enough to buy one.
Obviously some people do, or there wouldn't be any used cars. Let's raise a glass to those fearless folk who break in new cars for the good of the used-car-buying public.
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Good luck trying to find a stick which hasn't been abused to the point that the clutch needs replaced but the dealer doesn't tell you.
Then of course there are the thousands of cars which were flooded in Sandy or other disasters which are cleaned and sold as "reconditioned" without telling you their insides are rusting away as you talk to the salesperson.
There are very good reasons to buy a car new IF you keep it long enough. Long enough being at least 10 years.
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Ahh...same thing happened after Katrina. Everyone in the area knew to be wary of buying used cars for a few years afterwards down here, wasn't that much of a shock.
As with anything used a little research and buyer beware is required.
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The problem is, since everyone in the area knows about the issue, the cars are sent to other parts of the country where people have no idea these cars may have been underwater.
A local tv station had a demonstration where they took a car which had been submerged and had it cleaned, top to bottom. They then put it with 3 other cars and asked random people to find the one car which had been underwater.
Not one person chose the car even though they knew one of the cars was the correct choice.
Unless you specific
Finally (Score:2)
I've always been annoyed that I can't just buy a car online (or house for that matter) - glad to see that change!
I also believe it will allow for better feedback to the manufacturer. People will ask for and select the features they like, not the ones the salesman convinced them to sign for because it helps his commission or allows him to sell a model from his inventory.
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Yeah, that's not what I want though. I just want to order the car online and have it delivered, just like any other packages. Typically I'll already know what the car drives like from driving rentals, trying friends' cars, etc. Maybe for a first-time car owner the dealer experience and walk-through can be beneficial, but for an experienced car owner it's really just a waste of time.
I see you are trying to buy an electric car. (Score:5, Funny)
Do you want some help?
(o) Take me to the Tesla web site
( ) Flounder around with this hunk of junk
[ Cancel ]
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Another reason why Tesla's stock price (Score:2)
is in the stratosphere.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=TSLA+Interactive#symbol=tsla;range=1y;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined [yahoo.com];
I don't want anything from the sales___, except.. (Score:3)
By the time I arrive at (or even call) the dealership, I have researched the car, know the invoice price for the model I want, and have picked out the color.
The only opinions I want about the car are from the mechanics who work on them.
It freaked out the last salesman I bought from when I said I didn't need to test drive the car.
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Why don't you want to test drive? Can you really establish how it feels to drive from online research?
Probably they don't care. If you follow traffic laws, any car on the market will do the job of getting you from point A to point B. None of them have handling so poor as to not get you there. Most people don't even apex turns, they don't plan out what the car will do when it hits a bump ahead of time, et cetera. They just point the wheel to keep them within the lines, and slow down if they can't otherwise manage. For them, handling is irrelevant, which is how Toyota remains in business.
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Yes, but some cars feel like you're driving a sofa down the street and others feel like you're plugged into the road. They can even have basically the same handling characteristics but totally different feel. Personally I prefer to feel the road, even though that gives a slightly rougher ride. My wife disagrees. It's a matter of opinion, not something you can read about in a review.
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Personally I prefer to feel the road, even though that gives a slightly rougher ride. My wife disagrees. It's a matter of opinion, not something you can read about in a review.
Well, I inhabit a middle position. My first car was a 1960 Dodge Dart Phoenix (2dr) with a 12:1 compression big-block 318 with a 4-bbl carter, my last+1 car was a 1989 240SX with 4x stock spring rate and koni yellows, my current car is a 1982 300SD which aside from minor boost pressure increase and some gauges is aggressively kept stock. Where I live, the roads are awful so it's important to be able to float over them, but I want the suspension to get down and get funky when I get into a turn so that I can
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Part of why I like to test drive any car I am purchasing is because the ergonomics of the seating, pedal positioning, arm rests and lines of sight are important to me. I suppose you could just sit in the car to determine most of that but you can also fool yourself into thinking something is fine until you are actually trying to use it.
This might be solving the wrong problem... (Score:2)
Dear BMW.... (Score:2, Insightful)
If you cant give me a 200 mile range (shortest range in worst conditions like -20 below heavy snow with the heater blasting full, or 120 degrees desert with AC blasting full blast) then you will not sell electric cars here in the use except for niche markets like large cities as short range commuter cars.
Most people that have the money for a BMW electric live 45 miles from work in the suburbs and will need at LEAST a comfort zone of charge. If I drive 90 miles plus 15 miles for lunch each day I need a 20
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Get your employer/community to provide a fueling station everywhere you stop. It doesn't have to be a FAST fuelling station - just realizing that your car is sitting ar
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It's almost like BMW didnt do 7 years of research of real driving habits, through MINI-E and then ACTIVE-E (1-series coupe), on peoples actual usage of their cars....
Oh wait, nope, they did. You're spreading FUD
Range extender if you have real anxiety.
19 year old? (Score:2)
Redundant middlemen in the age of information (Score:3)
The majority of "sales people" these days are redundant middlemen who provide negative value to the customer. Anyone who wants to, can be armed with way more information than a salesperson these days and would make a much more informed decision on their own, versus the bias from sales people towards whatever incentives and inventory they are keeping in mind.
Tesla is an example that breaks the mold, their sales people are very informed and are not there to push you into a particular model/options/upsells. In my interactions with Tesla salespeople, they are there to help you determine whether the vehicle is the right fit for your needs. If only all salesperson experiences were like this (including Realtors who are more interested in self-promotion than actually selling your home) then these middlemen would be less redundant.
Reminds me of an old near-future sci-fi story* (Score:2)
*Nature's End by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka. Don't you judge me.
.
"Salesman"? (Score:4, Interesting)
When was the last time you had to legitimately phone up a salesman to ask him a question anyways.
Last car I bought I knew the invoice price ahead of time. I picked two dealerships in different cities, emailed them my offer. When they both responded, I took the cheaper response and emailed the other dealership. Rinse and repeat. When one stopped negotiating, I then went to a third dealership with the lowest price so far.
In the end, I didn't even pick up the phone and talk to my salesman. I met him the day I picked up the car.
Reports of death greatly exaggerated (Score:2)
I don't think BMW salesmen will be losing too much sleep over this. According to the second linked article [carsuk.net] the "truly groundbreaking" AI is not actually that smart; certainly not Turing Test material.
Why Not a Watson? (Score:2)
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But will never be able to answer questions like: does a 29-er mtb fit the trunk without folding the back seats.
Vajk
No, but that's way better than lying to you by saying "Yes, of course, I do it all the time!"
(which is what a human car salesman would do).
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But will never be able to answer questions like: does a 29-er mtb fit the trunk without folding the back seats.
If you even wonder whether you can fit a mountain bike with 29 inch wheels into a BMW i3 (nicknamed Isetta 3), you have a bigger problem.
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But will never be able to answer questions like: does a 29-er mtb fit the trunk without folding the back seats.
So? The regular salesman won't know either.
(Just curious: is there any car out there that meets this criteria? And I mean car, not truck or van.)
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This is the sort of question that the expert system is good at. It may not be able to answer it NOW, but it can generate enough analytical data to see if it's an important question to ask or even design around. It's actually valuable feedback to the company to know what is important for the people who plan on buying the car.
Most salespeople won't be able to answer it either.
So today it might not be
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But will never be able to answer questions like: does a 29-er mtb fit the trunk without folding the back seats.
From the examples in TFA, this "AI App" appears to do nothing more than some keyword matching. The obviously canned answers are about as simplistic as those from ELIZA [wikipedia.org], and usually just as irrelevant to the actual question.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Lower prices? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
yeah except for tweo things:
1) I'd never buy a car without actually driving it. The last thing I want is a world where there aren't any showrooms so you have to buy your car off the internet, based only on what (no doubt bought-and-paid-for) reviewers say.
2) I always buy used cars anyway. Buying a new car is just like throwing half your money away. I leave that hit for someone else to take.