After a successful pilot program involving 14 dealerships, Ford Motor Co. is transitioning away from desktop computers and replacing them with iPads at more than 100 dealerships.
Ford expanded its tablet experiment at the beginning of the month. So far, 140 of its 3,300 dealerships have signed up to participate, according to Automotive News. Sales associates who use Apple’s tablet computer will work through an application called Showcase, specially designed for Ford dealerships by a company called Razorfish.
Source: Automotive News
For now, the iPad remains just a sales tool — as in, not a payments tool. Rich Savino, a Ford dealer located in New Jersey, laments that distinction in his comments to Automotive News’ Bradford Wernie.
“It’s got to be expanded into a pricing tool,” Savino says. It may be a while before customers are signing contracts on iPad screens, but Savino sees that as an inevitability: “Everything is going to come to an iPad,” he says.
The Showcase app can keep track of consumer preferences, however, and save model types to a list for future visits to the dealership. And Savino says the app does improve the quality of his employees’ sales pitches.
Savino is likely among Ford’s most aggressive dealers in terms of converting his office technology from desktop computers to iPads. He plans on replacing 20 machines with Apple tablets by the beginning of October.
“The PC is over,” Savino says.
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