Jason had a FIT this weekend!
Technically, he bought a Fit this weekend. It’s a black 2007 Honda Fit Sport and he loves it.
It’s a pretty cool car and my wife and I got to see it when his fiancee Molly was driving it around this weekend. If you want to see what they look like, you can see some sample Honda Fit pictures here.
Internet Marketing and buying cars
The whole process of how Jason bought a new car is quite an experiment on the future of buying cars using the Internet (and other things).
He can elaborate in the comments of this post if he wants, but the short story is that he had some ideas of what he wanted in a car and started researching online.
Jason is an avid Internet shopper. He and my wife are probably the two most avid online shoppers I have ever met. Sandy specializes in finding unique items. Jason’s specialty is finding the best price and informative reviews.
His research led him to the Honda Fit. He then went out and test drove one. That got him hooked. The next step was to find the various local Honda dealerships online and check their inventories.
NOTE: He did not end up buying from the place he did the test drive at. In fact, it was another dealership that worked with him to get exactly what he wanted at the best deal.
The process of buying cars online
Both Jason and my wife have bought new cars in the last six months.
Both did it the same way. I’m sure many others are doing the same.
1. Research online
2. Test drive locally
3. Send online requests to local dealers
4. Communicate with the dealer with the best customer service and online “netiquette”.
5. Buy it from the dealer that is able to get you the exact car you want at a decent price. NOTE: Not necessarily the best price. Getting the car you want and good customer service are more important and almost always are.
The future of buying cars online
Time again for Corey’s predictions! (If you are tired of my opinions, stop reading now.)
It’s really not so much a prediction as an observation.
- As more and more of the public use the Internet to start their research, online reputation will be critically important.
- Local dealerships will be used for test drives only. Keeping a large stock of cars in house will not be that important.
- Customer service and online response time will become more and more important.
- The ability to get cars from other dealers and/or the factory in order to fill specific requests will be critically important for success.
The Best Honda Dealership in North Carolina?
Both Jason and my wife were extremely pleased with Morganton Honda. They both dealt with Ken Hall and he was very helpful and pleasant.
(They had quite the opposite experience with the local Asheville Honda dealership.)
Jason’s thoughts?
I’ll end this post now and leave it for Jason to post his additional comments below.
Popularity: 16% [?]
March 19th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Corey is correct, I did purchase a ‘07 Honda Fit Sport this weekend. My fiancées car was aging quickly and she needed an upgrade. My evenings for about a week went into researching online the Honda Fit and its competitors. I now know more than I ever thought I could about one car. It seems that they are pretty rare right now. Wikipedia says, “Honda hopes to sell 33,000 Fits in 2006 and 50,000 per year afterwards.â€
My experience:
We went to the “local Asheville Honda dealer” for a test drive, but didn’t make the purchase because of the customer service, or lack thereof. I’ll explain. We told them we wanted a different color than the one they had on their lot, and they wouldn’t even entertain the idea of a dealer transfer. After the test drive, we weren’t allowed to go inside the dealership, but told to stay outside and look at the car. Come to find out, they were inside preparing a sales sheet for us and that’s why we weren’t allowed in. Finally, when we were allowed in, we saw the sales sheet with many inflated prices. I had built many of these online with a variety of accessories, so I knew the actual prices. The best was the $99 for “nitrogen filled†tires. I have my own thoughts on that, since air is already 78% nitrogen. Unhappy, we left, and within the hour I received a (threatening in a way) phone call from the “local Asheville Honda dealer” telling me that if I didn’t buy the car within 24 hours, they were going to put $1700 wheels on it. Ouch!!
That night I fired up the laptop and began searching the online inventories of Honda dealers within a 200 mile radius of Asheville. I found some around Atlanta, a couple in Johnson City & Knoxville, and one at Morganton Honda. I requested a quote from those places, and the next morning I started receiving responses, via email or phone calls.
The first to respond was my new good friend Ken Hall at Morganton Honda. He didn’t have the exact one we were wanting. We wanted a Fit Sport with a manual transmission, preferably in Black or Silver. Ken offered to find us the model we wanted, and did just that. He said that they did dealer transfers everyday and if he could find the model we requested, he could get it. That was completely opposite of what the “local Asheville Honda dealer” told us. That same day, Ken (Internet Sales Manager) and Odie (GM) found our ‘07 Black Fit Sport with the manual transmission in Fayetteville, NC. Thursday it was dealer transferred to Morganton Honda and Friday we picked it up.
My fiancée and I thank Ken and everyone at Morganton Honda for their help and effort. We will definitely do business with them again and fully recommend them to anyone looking for a Honda.
I will post a picture of the Fit soon.
March 19th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Cool. Thanks for the extra info.
If you are an internet marketer, I think the lessons learned are pretty obvious.
Look for the automobile industry to change dramatically over the next few years.
March 20th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Way to go Jason! Power of the internet for sure. That sure is a nice looking car, I heard they are great on gas mileage too!
March 23rd, 2007 at 9:27 am
Here’s a picture of my Honda Fit from Morganton Honda, not the “local Asheville Honda dealer”.