Cars and home shopping

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Fri 29 Aug 2003 12:21
Cars and home shopping - top turkey
As I was casually flicking through the mryiad of home shopping channels the other morning, the thought crossed my mind as to whether any car manufacturers would ever consider selling new cars by one of these channels?

Could you argue that manufacturers could offer cars at a lower rate than dealers, due to few overheads? Granted, it could cheapen the brand image of some of the luxury marques and would perhaps only be of interest to the more budget end of the market, but would it work? It could certainly be a marketing opportunity for those car brands that do not have an immediate presence on the high street (e.g. KIAs, Protons, Daewoos etc).

I know. I know. I must get out more!

Cheers,

TT.
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Fri 29 Aug 2003 12:29
Cars and home shopping - DavidHM
I like the thinking... but can you imagine the finance risk profiles? And the APRs? Probably delivery would have to be done through a dealer unless a very long term contract was envisaged. Even jamjar and the like have some main dealer involvement at some stage.

Also, most people want to part exchange their existing car and have little or no idea of its value, so that kind of negotiation (and upselling of things like mats, paint protection, and so on) almost has to be done face to face.

This will sound unbelievably snobbish, but... the kind of person who researches a purchase on the net, knows about finance and the like, wants a good price and a convenient solution, probably has the means to follow through with the transaction, plus a half decent p/x and not a K-reg Proton they want £2500 for. This simplifies the whole negotiation process immensely.

Also, home shopping people are not known for selling goods cheap. A computer I heard about would sell in PC World for about £699 or £799; online maybe £600-£650; guide price was £1600 and it sold for £1k on the shopping channel. Their marketing is all about opportunism and high mark up, not long term infrastructure and regular goods.

I think it could work, as long as the manufacturer found the right partner who could work around all those objections.
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