HYUNDAI STEPPING TOWARDS A CAR-DEALER-FREE FUTURE
While everyone loves getting their dream car, the act of actually purchasing one from a car dealership can be an absolute pain. So, Hyundai Assurance Shopper wants to ease that pain.
The company's new Shopper Assurance program, which began yesterday (10 October 2017) in select cities, aims to bring customers transparent pricing, flexible test drives, streamlined purchasing and a three-day money back guarantee.
The term Assurance is a play on Hyundai's current Assurance Plan that includes various warranties, car care, roadside assistance and Connected Car – like OnStar.
"For nearly a decade, the word 'Assurance' has been synonymous with Hyundai and represents our efforts in redefining the car ownership experience," said Dean Evans, chief marketing officer at Hyundai Motor America. "Shopper Assurance is the next step in that tradition and is car buying made simple. We expect this to be a differentiator, as our research showed that 84 percent of people would visit a dealership that offered all four features over one that did not."
If you don't know what transparent pricing is, it's what it sounds like. Participating dealers will post the fairest price (excluding incentives) on their websites so that customers know exactly what they'll pay.
According to Hyundai, this will "eliminate the frustration of widely advertised incentives not being available on dealer websites."
When it comes to flexible test drives, customers will be able to schedule a vehicle through Hyundai Drive, "a platform that allows the test drive to be scheduled by contacting the dealer on their website, by phone or by using a custom-built app (in available markets)." The drive will be conducted wherever the customer chooses, within reason, we're guessing.
Streamlined purchasing reduces the number of time customers spend in dealerships by doing most of the paperwork online – including financing, credit approvals and calculating payments.
Lastly, the three-day money back guarantee means that any customer who isn't satisfied within three days or 300 miles will be able to get a full refund.