[Gannu_1]

Yesterday, a Reddit user posted an image of a rather huge consignment on a flatbed truck, from Amazon.com awaiting delivery to his neighbour:



A Twitter user posted this snap:



Turns out it was a Nissan Versa Note hatchback being home delivered to one of the customers:





Nissan had indeed promised (link) that they would be trying out some new PR stunts and that the first three buyers (out of the 100) of the Nissan Versa would receive their shipments in an Amazon box. Plus, a 1000$ gift card from Amazon for the first 100 buyers who buy the car through an Amazon.com link to a Nissan dealer.

Looks like the first consignment has been delivered!

Sources: Re/code, Reddit, Twitter

[mints21]

Unbelievable but true, Can we think of buying a car in India like this? In India, the online sale of cars from Nissan has not been able to generate any interest in the market.

Forget Nissan, we in India are still not confident of buying cars from the dealers as most of us will not trust them selling us something that we have not seen. I haven't met anyone who would call a dealer to place an order on phone. Eg: Can you please send me one Maruti Swift ZDI variant in white colour. Payment can be collected at the time

[tanstaafl]

Originally Posted by mints21

Unbelievable but true, Can we think of buying a car in India like this? In India, the online sale of cars from Nissan has not been able to generate any interest in the market.

Forget Nissan, we in India are still not confident of buying cars from the dealers as most of us will not trust them selling us something that we have not seen. I haven't met anyone who would call a dealer to place an order on phone. Eg: Can you please send me one Maruti Swift ZDI variant in white colour. Payment can be collected at the time

That's how I bought my car! Talked to the dealer over the phone. Paperwork over FedEx. Car got shipped to me in a truck like this. I even got to arrange a convenient delivery time after work.

[shankar.balan]

Only a matter of time before someone buys a car of some kind through flipkart or similar.

[mints21]

Originally Posted by tanstaafl

That's how I bought my car! Talked to the dealer over the phone. Paperwork over FedEx. Car got shipped to me in a truck like this. I even got to arrange a convenient delivery time after work.

Nice and interesting to hear this. I am actually coming across someone like you for the first time. Can you also share which car and city was this. How it all initiated and what made you consider buying a car using this route. In case you have photographs, it will be very interesting for all of us to see them. At least, now we can say for sure that we have a BHPian who has brought a car this way.
Best wishes

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Only a matter of time before someone buys a car from flipkart or similar.

Right ! and when that day comes. I open the box and find a big scratch on the front door.
Call up Flipkart and they say : Oh no problem sir, just pack it up as it was shipped and send it back. Oh btw, this was shipped from Delhi, so please ship it back from Blr to Delhi for a replacement

Btw jokes aside, there may be takes for it in India as well.
Not everyone is as picky as we folks on T-BHP. A person who uses a chauffeur and never drives would not care about minor things. As long as the car does not have any scratches and starts they should be fine if they are getting a good deal on the online purchase.

[1100D]

Originally Posted by tanstaafl

That's how I bought my car! Talked to the dealer over the phone. Paperwork over FedEx. Car got shipped to me in a truck like this. I even got to arrange a convenient delivery time after work.

+1 to that!!

I also bought my Mahindra Scorpio mHawk 4wd in Rocky Beige colour, only through phone calls and e-mails. Although I did collect it from a dealer showroom on their insistence! (Otherwise that too would have been delivered at my doorstep)

[abirnale]

Although it is a Nissan's PR gimmick for now, it seems very much soon to be reality. Many manufacturer, at least in the developed countries, offer you online customization and ordering to their websites. If someone like Amazon gets in this business to broker the deals, good for customers as they can compare and shop! this would fall mostly under luxury retail online shopping

And hey, by the way, just last week I got bTwin RockRider 5.1 bike purchased online and delivered to my home by Decathlon with my list of custom accessories - all in one box! And it wasn't the regular bluedart delivery boy on bike. Instead it was a small pickup truck with my rather large box of delivery!

So let me dare to say the good times are ahead when we can get a car home delivered soon, in a box

[srishiva]

I had configured my 325 online and picked it up at a local dealer. It was done a lot about 10 years back for lot of different cars.

But this delivery to home is different, what if there is a problem with colour mismatch or something? Cant ask them to take it back

[scopriobharath]

It CAN be a hit in india, if the customer protection laws are as strong as US or UK. Secondly, the gift card should be of substantial value (At least 25,000/- INR) and not some peanuts like 500 off on next purchase et all.

Even if the Amazon return policy offers 100% payment reimbursement no questions asked, if the product is NOT as stated, I will still buy a car online. In most online portals, return shipping & insurance has to be borne by the customer

[Gannu_1]

Snapdeal.com has a tie-up with M&M to retail gearless two-wheelers through select cities. None of the models seem to be in stock though.

Snapdeal - Mahindra

Related news - Business Standard

They also retail Hero electric two-wheelers which do not require registration: Snapdeal - Hero Electric Two-wheelers

Originally Posted by tanstaafl

That's how I bought my car!

Originally Posted by mints21

Can you also share which car and city was this.

He should have been a bit more specific w.r.t the city.

A Subaru BRZ in the US (Michigan IINM). We know each other from another forum.

[navin]

Originally Posted by 1100D

+1 to that!!

I also bought my Mahindra Scorpio mHawk 4wd in Rocky Beige colour, only through phone calls and e-mails. Although I did collect it from a dealer showroom on their insistence! (Otherwise that too would have been delivered at my doorstep)

I agree, I never test drove my car before purchase, other than making a advance check (which the dealer picked up) I never met or communicated with the dealer before delivery. But I believe in India, the dealer often insists you pick up the car yourself.

I called Shinrai Toyota and booked mine on the 25th of August even before Jaggu finished his sentence. I did not test drive the car. That is the value of the TBHP brotherhood. Shinrai was a bit shocked. But sir "Don't you want a test drive?" the sales man asked.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ip-review.html

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by mints21

Unbelievable but true, Can we think of buying a car in India like this? In India, the online sale of cars from Nissan has not been able to generate any interest in the market.

Forget Nissan, we in India are still not confident of buying cars from the dealers as most of us will not trust them selling us something that we have not seen. I haven't met anyone who would call a dealer to place an order on phone. Eg: Can you please send me one Maruti Swift ZDI variant in white colour. Payment can be collected at the time

Actually this is exactly how E commerce was envisaged in the early days of the Internet. It was forecast that people would transact online and eliminate the middlemen and dealers and thereby derive the benefits of lower costs and better service.

I agree with you that its a little hard to imagine this succeeding in India where the consumer protection laws are lax and the judicial process time consuming, but I think it is becoming a trend these days. People are slowly coming around to buying online and atleast for standardized branded products its quite easy to realize the benefits of buying directly. I mean, how difficult it is to ensure delivery of a standard Maruti Swift Zdi variant in white colour to an individual customer? The transaction value is sufficently high and the margins that are saved by eliminating a dealer are significant, plus the efficencies in having a single company stockyard for a major city rather than multiple dealer stockyards is tremendous.

I personally would think buying shoes/clothes etc would not be so easy due to the differing fits/sizes etc, but hey look at the market response. These items are flying off the e-commerce shelves, so I guess my fears are baseless, and online sales are a new age reality.

[mmxylorider]

Slightly OT. A colleague of mine bought a used INfiniti over ebay in the US. The dealer had put it up for auction and my friend won it. The paperwork was available for view at the dealer shop and even external inspection was possible. Everything else was 'as-is' basis.

It served him well for the 2 years he had it and was a fully loaded version.

I could never do that - especially used car purchase online.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by mints21

call a dealer to place an order on phone. Eg: Can you please send me one Maruti Swift ZDI variant in white colour. Payment can be collected at the time

That's how I bought my car.

Called couple of dealers for quotes, finalized one of the dealers and asked the car to be delivered at home (with tank full). Payment + registration etc took about a week, never had to visit showroom.

Dealer was Spectra (Goregaon Mumbai).