Tip: Buying a car online in times of the corona pandemic?

Recently updated on December 9, 2021 at 06:45 am

There are quite a few things that were bought online before the pandemic. However, buying a car was less of an issue here. Most of them preferred to go to the dealership for this. This has only changed slowly so far, but the current pandemic could accelerate change. Digitization has been one of the big issues in the automotive world for some time. But the way to a new car in Germany almost always leads to the dealership itself. You can look at cars on a number of websites, but do you conclude a sales contract online? Rather nil. While online trading is booming in all industries, especially during the pandemic, car purchases are mostly still made in the same way and at times when car dealerships would have to be closed for health reasons. It should now be all the more important to expand digital offerings even further.

Byton or Nio are at the start

Above all, new brands such as Byton or Nio are planning innovative sales models with virtual showrooms and contracts on the Internet. YesAuto already placed itself on the market last year: On this online marketplace for cars, you can view the desired vehicle in a 360-degree view.

This allows you to look at your dream vehicle from all perspectives and see model highlights up close. On websites such as Porsche, for example, new cars are often offered and there is intensive and innovative advice for customers in chats and video conferences, but before the purchase is made, you end up back at the local dealer.

But many providers are already active

Even if the deal is still the same as before, the car buyers usually first go online. You probably know it from yourself. Before making a purchase that is a bit more expensive, you research the Internet beforehand. And it is the same with cars. Almost every car bought is researched in advance on the Internet. Meanwhile, however, every eighth car in Germany is bought online. However, this is not really a boom yet, but the digital sales channel is gaining in importance.

Often discounts of up to 20 percent can be expected

Buying on the internet is easy and transparent. As a customer, you use the configurator on the website to put together your own individual vehicle, and at the same time you receive all information about discounts. The order ends up with the brand dealer via the intermediary. He sends the customer his purchase contract and, after signing and paying, the vehicle, including papers and registration. And as you often find it on the Internet: Here you can save. The discounts that can be found online are around 20 percent. So if you want a car but don't want to go to the dealership, you can find a way to buy from a conventional dealer without physical contact. Corona and, above all, the forced closings could exacerbate this.

Always compare prices online

If you are already doing research, research and compare the prices at the same time. So you can come across new car offers. The number of providers is increasing. Most of the offers on the various websites are almost identical, but if you search you will find it. Usually there are only differences in details such as the digital drawing or the door-to-door delivery of the registered vehicle. But this is exactly where many providers differ. Because additional fees are often charged for this. So the comparison is worthwhile in the end. Some providers also take the old car in payment and sometimes make the discount amount dependent on it. It is therefore worthwhile to take a closer look and obtain various offers. "

Don't be too gullible

On the Internet, you run the risk of overlooking hidden fees. The online platforms on which you are looking for your new car are intermediaries and not dealers. In the event of success, the platform pays the dealer through a commission. If you as a customer receive an invoice for this, your alarm bells should ring. The following applies here: "Beware of rip-offs and therefore hands off!" If you did not notice this immediately, no problem. As with all digital or retail stores, you can withdraw from the contract for up to 14 days. It's best to get multiple quotes and read the fine print. Also evaluate the total costs including all fees.

Do without unusual colors, that saves money

Do you want your new car later to be wrapped in a matt metallic black? Do you want your BMW Coupe to have a coating that makes it shimmer between black and red gold, depending on the angle of view? No matter what your wishes are, as soon as you even have the desire to change something on the paintwork or on the car in general, or to install add-on parts that need to be painted, the price skyrockets. Basic colors save a lot of money. So think about it. Maybe it is not even necessary to order your new car with an elaborate paintwork. If you have a choice, you should go for white. You are probably wondering why. White simply has a good resale value because it is mostly still a popular color. It can easily be painted over with any color and is also comparatively easy to adapt.

Choose inexpensive alloy wheels and change them later

Especially if you look at the upper levels of the engine shelf in the vehicle catalog, aluminum rims will usually be one of them. However, you should think about beforehand whether you want to change your car anyway. This means that if you plan to tune certain components immediately after buying the car, you shouldn't spend any money on factory alloy rims, no matter how good it works in the configurator.

Do not use emblems

Do you know the situation in which you have ever tormented yourself with a foil eraser on the drill, because you wanted to remove the adhesive traces from the manufacturer's lettering. If not, then know that this can be quite sweaty. So make a note of this for your car purchase. In the meantime, practically all manufacturers offer the option of “no nameplate”. In any case, you should check the box there. You save yourself an annoying work step and also certain risks for the car paint. Because the rotating eraser is not really "healthy" for the paint, and neither is chemical solvents.

Of course, that wasn't the end of it!

tuningblog has countless other articles on the subject of car and auto tuning in stock. Do you want to see them all? Just click HERE and look around. In part, we would like to provide you with news but also off the tuning. In our category Tips, products, information & Co We have reviews of car or accessories manufacturers, new ones Tuning Wiki Terms or one or the other Leak veröffentlicht. Following an excerpt of the last articles:

"Tuningblog.eu" - we keep you up to date on the subject of car tuning and car styling with our tuning magazine and we present you the latest tuned vehicles from all over the world every day. It's best to subscribe to ours Feed and will automatically be informed as soon as there is something new about this post, and of course also to all other contributions.