People are still not interested in buying cars online

In the United States, Automotive trails only housing as the most expensive purchase consumers make. So it makes sense that according to recent surveys of buyers, very few of them want the Amazon-style, one-click to get a new set of wheels.

“People want to see, feel and touch the car,” says Erin Lomax, vice president of consumer marketing at Cox Automotive, a research firm that also makes digital car sales products that allow dealers to initiate online transactions. (This gives Cox a lot of insight into buying patterns, but he also has a stake here.)

Not to mention test driving the expensive thing they likely use every day. Data released by Cox this month shows that while 28% of car buyers go into the deal thinking they want to do the whole thing online, only 7% end up closing the deal. More than half of buyers make their entire purchase in person.

Another consumer survey, published in the fall, found that just over half of car buyers want to actually sign paper copies of important documents. In another report released in December, 86% of buyers surveyed said they wanted to see the car in person before completing the purchase.

This is despite what appears to be an industry-wide push to bring car buying online, a push that began out of necessity when the Covid-19 pandemic and related lockdowns limited in-person interactions. The success of direct sales to automakers including Tesla and Rivian, and online used car dealers including CarMax and Carvana, has also given the practice some momentum. Car dealerships and used car websites have rolled out waves of technology in recent years — including crucial back-end communications between financial institutions — allowing more and more transactions to be done through a series of taps or taps.

Last summer, Hertz launched an entire online car-buying platform, allowing customers to pre-qualify for loans, evaluate trade-ins, choose collateral, and ultimately arrange pickups online.

However, it turns out that the entire process of buying cars online is meticulous. This does not mean that people avoid the Internet completely. In interviews, buyers told Cox they were happy to be able to do so much of the process — especially applying for and getting loan approvals — online. One described the “seamless” transition between researching and selecting a car online, then going to the dealership to complete the deal.

Lomax says Cox finds that motivated Internet buyers tend to make their way to brick-and-mortar dealerships when they get to the financing part of the deal. “They’ve really discovered offering inventory online,” she says. “Money and finance steps – that’s where the anxiety comes in.”

The auto industry sees major potential upside in allaying this concern, especially for Americans who are uncomfortable with the shifting and handling process being reduced at some dealerships. Amazon’s auto division, which launched in 2024, allows consumers to research and sometimes finance vehicles online, then pass them on to local dealerships for work to be done. The company declined to share numbers, but spokeswoman Jessica Faison said in a written statement that Amazon is “very encouraged by the strong positive response.” (The company notes that customers often browse Amazon Cars during evening hours, when merchants are closed.)

Automakers are getting online, too. In the fall, Ford joined Hyundai in allowing car buyers in select US cities to buy certified used cars on Amazon’s online sales giant. Ford CEO Jim Farley has expressed his desire to follow Tesla’s direct sales approach, which bypasses the middle-man dealership altogether. “We have to go to non-negotiated price. We have to go to 100 percent online price,” he said at the 2022 event, referring to electric vehicle sales strategies specifically.