Buying a car from a car dealer can be a daunting prospect, even for hardened petrolheads. So how about starting the car buying process with a virtual test drive on your laptop instead?
Even if you’re knowledgeable about cars and know exactly what you want, buying from a car dealer can be an intimidating experience. For many people, car dealers rank just one rung above estate agents and lawyers as professions we love to hate. And some car salespeople can come across as both pushy and unhelpful to those browsing for a new car.
Fiat introduces its Live Store to Brazil
Fiat thinks it has a solution – Live Store. Its Brazilian arm has created a website dedicated to offering potential buyers virtual test drives, all without having to leave the comfort of their own homes.
Salespeople wearing special headsets fitted with high-resolution cameras and microphones can talk buyers around different models in a showroom studio. You can then interact with the car on your computer or tablet, where you can check out the car’s specifications, as well as different colours and accessories.
You can see how Fiat’s service works in this promotional video. The voiceover’s in Portuguese, but you’ll get the idea:
How do you like to buy cars?
The aim of this real-time service is to shorten the car purchasing process and help people quickly determine which model suits them, before visiting the showroom in person. And it avoids the scenario of overzealous salespeople bullying less car savvy browsers into buying an unsuitable model or spending more than they had planned.
Following a successful virtual tour, buyers can then decide whether any models take their fancy and, if so, they can book a test drive on the spot. All of this means that by the time potential buyers make their first visit to the dealership they already have a good idea of which model they’re most interested in.
Fiat’s Live Store service has just launched exclusively in Brazil, running between 10am and 7pm Monday to Saturday. Would you want it to make its way to the UK? Would you prefer to view new cars online via a virtual dealership, or would you rather spend time looking around real showrooms, touching potential purchases first-hand?
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