Amazon Will Drive Ford’s Online Used Car Sales

Ford has teamed with Amazon Autos to expand the reach of its used vehicle offerings.

Car buyers can now search for, finance and buy Ford Blue Advantage certified pre-owned (CPO) Ford vehicles using Amazon’s automotive market, Wendy Lane, senior manager of Ford Blue Advantage vehicles, wrote on the automaker’s website Monday (Nov. 17).

“This new collaboration allows customers to browse a participating local dealer’s inventory directly through Amazon’s website, complete most of the paperwork online, and then schedule a convenient time to pick up the selected vehicle,” Lane added.

Every vehicle is backed by a Ford Blue Advantage warranty, meaning it has passed a “thorough” inspection and comes with roadside assistance.

“This program combines the trust and quality of a Ford-certified vehicle with the familiar, convenient shopping experience of Amazon,” Lane said.

According to Ford’s announcement, the program is rolling out in Los Angeles, Seattle and Dallas, with plans to expand to other markets.

Amazon began the launch of the Amazon Autos car-buying experience in December of last year, allowing shoppers in 48 U.S. cities to purchase new Hyundai vehicles from local participating dealers on Amazon.

The company expanded the program to include used cars in August, again working with Hyundai. Weeks later, the company formed a similar partnership with Hertz.

More recently, Amazon added embedded financing options from Chase, Santander and Wells Fargo to the car-buying platform.

In other automotive news, PYMNTS spoke earlier this week with Jessica Stafford, senior vice president of consumer solutions at Cox Automotive, about the difficulties consumers face when searching for a new car.

“People go to a lot of different channels when buying a car,” Stafford told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster. “They might research online, check multiple sites, and then go into the dealership.”

Once they walk in the door, however, that entire digital journey tends to reset, the report added. Cox aims to fix that via its new omnichannel retailing platform, designed to serve as a single digital backbone that follows the car buyer wherever they go, online or in person.

“We are connecting all of those channels because on the back end we’re operating a transaction infrastructure that allows all the data and information to follow the shopper wherever they go,” Stafford said.