Amazon has added used and certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicles to its U.S. online car-sales site, the ecommerce giant has announced.
At the moment, used and CPO listings appear in Los Angeles only, but they’ll roll out in other markets in the coming months, the company said.
“We look forward to bringing the convenience of Amazon Autos to used vehicle sales,” global leader of Amazon Autos Fan Jin told Auto Remarketing.
“This expansion is driven by strong interest from our dealer partners,” Jin said. “By including certified pre-owned and used vehicles, we’re meeting dealer demand for broader online reach while offering customers a wider selection of high-quality vehicles to fit your budget and unique lifestyle needs. This move continues our commitment to support local dealerships, now connecting dealers with more prospective customers online across new, certified pre-owned, and used vehicle categories.”
The Amazon Autos used / CPO program includes a three-day / 300-mile return policy and a minimum 30-day / 1,000-mile limited warranty. That’s on top of warranties provided by the participating dealerships — which til now have been limited to branded Hyundai stores.
Until recently, the program featured new Hyundai stock only. The addition of used gets Amazon into a market that’s twice as big as new, and it means listed cars can come from other manufacturers. However, CPO listings will still be confined to Hyundais.
Amazon Autos allows users to discover and purchase cars online, though the customer needs to go to a physical dealership for pickup. For this reason, shoppers on the site see only those vehicles at car lots within 75 miles.
This is just the latest update for the evolving digital sales program. In April, the company added a lease option, and the program has since incorporated appointments for trade-ins and test drives.
A roadblock for some dealers is finance. Customers wanting to arrange a car loan on Amazon Autos can do so with Hyundai’s in-house lender only. That limits the finance options dealers can offer, which cuts into their profits.
Jin said in April that Amazon was seeking ways to boost dealership profits and that adding lenders and credit unions to the program would help.
“We have a whole list of experiments queued up to see how we can improve attach rates for service and protection products because that’s such a valuable area of profitability for dealers,” Jin said.
After a year-long pilot test, Amazon Autos debuted nationwide in December with cars from 48 participating Hyundai-branded dealerships. The program is now available in 130 metros nationwide, but the company didn’t specify the number of dealerships.
In March, the company admitted service was thin in some markets; the 7 million residents of Houston, for example, were served by a single participating dealer.
Jin recently told Automotive News that Amazon was working on some operational kinks in dealer onboarding.
“The technical configuration required for dealerships to enable a full ecommerce experience on Amazon involves integrating live inventory, real-time pricing and transaction processing with dealer software systems,” Jin said.
“While dealer training and turnover are also factors,” she said, “they are considered more manageable compared to the technical challenges of onboarding.”
