The Internet may revolutionize car sales

By Mike Kable

THE days of trawling through car dealers hunting for your new car may soon be over.

According to Chrysler boss Bob Eaton, car buying habits are being revolutionized by the Internet.

He said buyers in the United States could already choose a new car via the Internet and may soon be able to complete the entire purchase electronically.

He said transactions of this type could account for 25 percent of sales in the United States by 2000.

Eaton is in favor of people ordering their new vehicles via home and office personal computers, believing electronically transmitted orders save time, effort and last but not least, money.

"There's a huge change coming overall in the way cars are sold," Eaton said during a visit to Australia last month.

"The traditional system is largely unchanged from the Henry Ford days of 75 years ago.

"It's not very efficient and adds about US$3,000 to the buying and selling process.

"The motor industry is being overtaken by technology and pure competition."

Chrysler is keen to benefit as far as possible from this swing to electronic purchasing.

"We're heavily into the Internet, although we're not suggesting that we know exactly how far the trend is going to go," Eaton said.

"We do know, though, that the consumer has all the power. We have a very willing audience out there, who are ready for change."

Eaton said Internet buying, with all the information it provided, would be to a customer's advantage compared with a showroom sale.

"Customers who usually don't know much about a car-buying transaction won't walk away wondering if they've been screwed," he said.

However, not all carmakers are convinced that the electronic revolution is going to have such a strong impact on the way people buy cars.

Jaguar will not be rushing to sell cars via the Internet.

"We have a site, but we believe customers want to buy a Jaguar from a real showroom," said Roger Putnam, Jaguar's sales and marketing director.

"There has been a lot of talk about the shape of car selling in the future. We are working with our dealers to try to work out where retailing will go.

"There are many questions, will showrooms be showrooms as we know them today? Will they be boutiques, with nothing on display but virtual systems?

"I don't think so, not in the luxury sector.

"However, I think it is possible the Internet may play a big role in selling cars to fleets in the volume sector."