New Program to Help Consumers Find Right Car, Right Price

DETROIT – Dealers may not be going away anytime soon, but the process of selling new cars and trucks clearly is continuing to evolve.

Edmunds.com says it is on the verge of launching a new service that will help U.S. consumers find the exact vehicle they want in stock and tell them precisely what they will have to pay for it, as the car-pricing-and-sales website transitions into what it believes is the next stage in linking dealers with customers.

Ultimately it could allow the customer to shop more online, cutting down on the time required visiting showrooms.

“We are entering the ‛Age of Convenience,’” notes Edmunds President Seth Berkowitz.

The new service, called Build and Locate, allows shoppers to quickly find vehicles in inventory that are equipped the way they want them and see the out-the-door price guaranteed by dealers participating in Edmunds’ Price Promise program.

Berkowitz says buyers currently can see vehicles in inventory and pricing information, but a complete listing of the optional equipment on each vehicle has been missing. That makes it impossible to compare the price of a car at one dealer with another at a different retailer on apples-to-apples basis.

To make searching simple, the site will show inventory for each vehicle’s six most popular configurations available in the consumer’s market area.

Edmunds says it has 10 brands up and running under the Build and Locate program and will have 85% of the market covered (missing are the German import brands) by the end of the year.

In testing the system, the service says the ability to find the exact vehicle in color, equipment and price has increased the odds of closing a sale 250% under the Price Promise program, in which 10,000 U.S. dealers participate.

Later this year, Build and Locate also will indicate what incentive offers are available nationwide on vehicles of interest, furthering pricing transparency for consumers.

The program is part of a wider initiative by Edmunds to take its website portal mobile, so that vehicle buyers can access relevant data on the fly using their smartphones or tablets more easily.

Dubbed “Lot Buddy,” it presents more frequently accessed features of Edmunds’ full website in a more accessible format for use with a mobile device. It also makes use of a smartphones tracking ability, detecting when a consumer is physically on a dealer’s lot and automatically unlocking pricing information for all the vehicles in inventory there.

Edmunds says there’s been a 39% growth in use of its mobile site in the past year, and overall mobile now accounts for 36% of its traffic. Users age 18-24 account for 53% of its mobile-site traffic.

About 15% of users are accessing Edmunds over their smartphone while at the dealership, making them prime candidates for Lot Buddy.

An expansion of services is planned, including a used-car version of Price Promise that will be beta tested in January. It will offer buyers a 30-day/1,000-mile (1,600-km) warranty and 12-month roadside assistance.

Edmunds also plans to offer mobile-accessible vehicle-trade-in appraisal tools and the ability to apply for financing.

Executives say the pricing tools aren’t intended to allow consumers to end-run dealers.

“I’m not one of the people who think dealers will disappear,” CEO Avi Steinlauf says from the California-based company’s new 17^th-floor downtown regional office overlooking the Detroit River.

“There’s still a lot of selling going on (in the showroom),” says Berkowitz, claiming the tools Edmunds offers makes things easier on dealers as well as consumers.

Dealers and buyers used to go back-and-forth on pricing an average of seven times before closing the deal, he says. “Now it’s three. That’s more efficient for dealers, too.”

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