You can now buy a car on Amazon. But it must be a Hyundai (at least for now), and it’s only available in major metros in 48 states, Seattle included.
Amazon Autos also allows buyers to trade in their existing cars and secure financing. It sounds odd, but consumers have bought cars online for years through sites such as Carvana and Carmax. Many dealerships themselves also offer online buying options.
The difference, of course, is that those companies restrict sales to automobiles, while Amazon and its third-party sellers offer more than 350 million products. Amazon says it’s merely offering dealers a new way to sell cars to a broader audience.
“It’s still early for us and we welcome customer and dealer feedback,” says Fan Jin, global head of Amazon Autos.
Amazon Autos pledges to add more Hyundai dealerships, and next year, you’ll be able to shop for other brands in more cities, too.
The Seattle retail giant is seemingly on a quest to sell virtually everything — recall that years ago it had plans to dramatically disrupt the health care industry, but a couple of key ventures failed (think Haven and Amazon Care). But it seems strange to add an automobile worth tens of thousands of dollars to your cart alongside Q-tips, kitchen gadgets and mouthwash.
But, come to think of it, you can buy all kinds of unusual items from the e-commerce giant, including a waffle iron that doubles as a keyboard, a battery-operated pickle that yodels, an inflatable unicorn horn meant for a cat, and a stapler dressed up as a hot dog. There are many more. Buying a car was seemingly inevitable.
What’s next? Real estate or specialized industrial machinery? Don’t count it out.
