Canada has become a laboratory for the automobile industry's experiment with selling cars to consumers over the Internet.
Published:
30 June 2000 y., Friday
The Canadian subsidiaries of Ford Motor and Toyota Motor have established test Web sites to let consumers in three regions of the country log onto the Internet to buy vehicles -- tests that could foreshadow the parent companies' global strategies. Though all automakers maintain Web pages for product and other information, car buyers in Canada can use the Toyota site to compare competitive brands, pick the model and options they want, get a price for their trade-in vehicle, arrange financing and place an order through a participating dealer.
Although car manufacturers are venturing into Internet sales slowly, the idea is nothing new. E-commerce car-dealer specialists like CarsDirect.com and carOrder.com have expanded quickly in the United States, and cars4u.com is about to begin operations in Canada.
Online sales of new and used cars in the United States amounted to $19 billion last year, about 3 percent of the total market, according to Gomez Advisors, a research firm in Lincoln, Mass. But it says that by 2002, Internet auto purchases will exceed $140 billion annually, almost a 20 percent share.
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Software company announced new structure_ of it_s business.
more »
An £8 million (U.S. $14.5 million) campaign by Switch/Maestro that features a pair of adventurous penguins on holiday in Venice and Paris has helped to drive a massive upsurge in the number of consumers using their Switch-branded bank cards overseas
more »
Microsoft officials launched a last-minute reminder to Windows users Monday afternoon to prevent the spread of the MyDoom
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
Communicating Visions - Exhibition and Symposium
more »
Diebold, Incorporated has earned the Central Station Alarm Association's (CSAA) "Five Diamond 100 percent Operator Certified Central Station" designation
more »
Sun Microsystems Inc. says its Jxta technology for peer-to-peer computing is gathering steam and may soon make its way into some of its own products
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
Ten years ago when the first ATMs appeared in Lithuania maybe someone was intimidated with the bank’s payment card. Today a small piece of plastic gives a consumer the unlimited possibilities. What are they?
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
Police find 3,000 forged copies of XP Pro along with forged certificates of authentication
more »