Amazon Sells Cars Now. But Who Helps You Choose One?

This holiday season, while you fill your virtual Amazon cart with gifts (including the myriad algorithmic toy recommendations in the catalog that magically and agonizingly appeared in the mail a few weeks back), you can also go ahead and buy your very own certified pre-owned Ford. That’s right. A whole car or truck. From the same place that manages your toilet paper subscription. And when it arrives, will a driver park it nonchalantly on your porch, push your Ring doorbell, and just go about the rest of their day?

Seriously, though, this is a thing that exists. And for good reason: 76% of consumers don’t trust dealerships to be honest about pricing. Unsurprisingly, Cox Automotive found that only about 8% of car shoppers plan to go about it the traditional way on their next purchase: going to dealerships, test driving vehicles, and negotiating in person. On the other end of the spectrum, some 21% want to complete the entire process online. 

Buying certified a pre-owned car on Amazon is awesome for folks who know exactly what they want. Maybe they’re buying their fourth consecutive F-150 pickup, finally getting serious about the Mustang they’ve always wanted, upsizing from an Explorer to an Expedition as their family grows, or (in true Lanekeep style) snapping up a lightly-used Mach-E EV. 

But if you’re among the other 70-ish percent of buyers — like the average millennial, who apparently spends 4+ months researching before making a purchase decision (JD Power) — a listing of vehicles displayed in two-dimensions isn’t likely to inspire excitement or even deliver useful information. On its own, at least.

More like…decision paralysis. It reminds me of my wife and I looking at wallpaper samples for this one room in our house that’s remained bare-walled for four years now, despite our deep desire to decorate it. Between Pinterest, Instagram, emails, and websites, there are ideas, but I routinely reach a point where I feel entirely unqualified to meld the wallpaper choice with the furniture and the exposed beams and the western exposure. Do I go to Home Depot? Do I browse Wallpaper Direct? Will I leave either of those experiences any closer to covered walls? Hell no. I need a human being to cut the deck, recommend options for us to consider, and help us move forward with confidence and pace. 

Now I am certain there are lay people who could go to Home Depot and would browse Wallpaper Direct and come up with Rock The Block-level decor, but most of us can’t, no matter how much HGTV we watch. 

It’s the same thing with cars, but the automotive equivalent of an interior designer hasn’t been as much of a thing — apart from, you know, a parent or a buddy. But buying a car has never been as broken as it is today. When closing the deal on their car, more than half of shoppers feel they’re being taken advantage of, and a little less than half say the experience generates unwanted stress and anxiety. The industry laments how fewer young Americans are actually driving — the amount of 18 year olds getting their licenses, for example, has dropped 20% since the ‘80s — and while there are dozens of reasons why, is it fair to say that perceptions of the car buying process aren’t helping?

That's not to say there aren't plenty of exceptional shops, salespeople, and finance leads who you can trust — I work with them every day — but these numbers indicate a big gap in trust between customers and the traditional car dealership experience.

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For the two-thirds of Americans who want some human guidance but not the full dealership circus, car shopping isn't meeting their needs. So how do we fix it? Car culture has flourished online, from robust auto search websites to YouTube, where truly fantastic content creators explore every type of vehicle, in their own particular styles. But as good as they are, and as much as you might find that one reviewer who seems the most like yourself, it’s not going to be personalized; there’s no Spotify Discover Weekly for cars.

Over half of car buyers value a personal recommendation above all else, and that number isn't just holding steady — it's evolving. Help from friends now gets supplemented by trusted online reviews, both anonymous and established. What's still missing? Personalized guidance for your specific situation, delivered objectively by someone without a sales quota.

That’s where I come in. My job is to know your situation, then translate the overwhelming amount of market insight into "here are the 3-5 vehicles you should look at." See, information isn't the problem. Knowing what to do with it is. 

This weekend, I got a flurry of notes from a client who was out doing test drives that I helped him schedule, and he was armed with detailed notes from me about each car he checked out. So, before he set foot in a dealership, we’d gone through five great choices for him, explored the pros and cons of each, and aligned on targets for “out the door” pricing. 

I had a hunch from our first conversation that he would like the Honda HR-V, though, with its blend of reliability and surprisingly upscale style. Also, he expressed fondness for the VW Golf he owned as a college guy, and I knew the HR-V would give him a bit more driving dynamism than some of the other crossovers in the segment. 

Even though we hadn’t scheduled Honda for that day, he drove and loved the Honda, and we quickly moved towards pricing and purchase strategies. A young guy in the midst of a busy career and life changes — he didn’t have 16 weeks to dig into 16 vehicles. We did it all in 3 weeks. “Can't express how grateful I am for your help,” he said. 

Now, he could go online and buy this car tomorrow. Maybe that would be easier or preferable, and if it was the best pricing scenario, I’d endorse it wholeheartedly. If he did, I know he would be choosing with confidence — exactly the feeling that today's car buying establishment, both old school and newfangled, isn't inspiring in shoppers. But it's exactly what I do.

Ask me about wallpaper? Forget about it.