Scion is attempting to lure more younger buyers to its vehicles by offering an easier online buying process.
Let’s say you’re a stereotypical millennial and you need to buy something, where will you go? Your computer, tablet or smartphone, of course.
Buy your music? Internet. Buy a Christmas sweater? Internet. Buy a new Scion iM? Internet.
Toyota’s youth-oriented brand is looking to get those young buyers where they live: on the internet with its new Pure Process Plus internet buying system.
Scion's Pure Process Plus is looking to cut the time necessary to buy a car down to an hour.
Automakers have been looking for ways to sell vehicles online, without upsetting dealers, for more than a decade now. The Pure Process system allows potential buyers to use the system to pick the car they want, get a final price, arrange financing and, where it’s legal to do so, get the car delivered.
The company has been testing the system for several months. It started with 10 dealers and is now up 60, according to Doug Murtha, Scion group vice president. The system is an upgraded version of its Pure Process, which basically eliminates the haggling over the price of Scion vehicles.
Buyers pick from a few options that are available on Scion vehicles, the vehicles are pretty highly contented already. In the case of the new iA and iM, you can pick the exterior color, a manual or automatic transmission and whether or not you want navigation. Once those options are set, the price is set.
With Pure Process Plus, you can do all of that online. The average time in the pilot was about four hours, but in more than 50% of cases, it was about two hours.
(TDB takes its first drive in the new Scion iA sedan. For details, Click Here.)
Feedback gleaned from users want to see that cut to about an hour, Murtha said. , “I don’t know that we’re going to issue any one-hour guarantees,” Murtha joked, adding that some dealers are offering buyers a kiosk where they can sit down away from other and tackle the process after having a look at a vehicle in person.
(Click Here to see more about Scion’s plans to reconnect with young buyers.)
Adding time to the equation are customers who take longer than normal to build a vehicle as well as those with less-than-ideal credit histories.
(To get TDB’s first impressions of the new Scion iA, Click Here.)
The program is currently in place in Phoenix and San Diego, but is expected to be made available to the brand’s 1,000 dealers nationwide by the middle of 2016. The portal can be used to order any Scion model.