In finding content for this blog I revisited many of our old articles and I had a quick flick through ones written at the end of the last Millenium (1999 to be exact). I just think the debates in those were fascinating, but were they right? Which brings us to cars - will the Internet change the way dealers do business? Will it supersede dealers in a few years time? Sales will inevitably be made through the Net, but not perhaps as many as are being predicted. Cars are still very difficult things to sell, and people only part with their cash reluctantly, and rarely before they have tried the end product. The Internet is establishing itself as a useful way of gathering information, and the best dealers maximise upon the leads it generates. A percentage will always buy on price, but if everybody did so, then no one could try before they bought, as all dealers would go out of existence. So, given that dealers are not yet prepared to declare themselves non-profit making organisations (asides from many operating in the late 90's that is), dealers will not disappear. Internet dealing will not become all-ppowerful just as brokers have never succeeded in selling cars in big numbers through the post. But it will become increasingly important, simply because it is becoming so easy to access sophisticated information. Advertising will also become inter-reactive in a way that current media simply cannot compete with. E-mail and voice mail will revolutionise the way we communicate. When the telephone, the video or the mobile phone first started it was a trickle that turned into a flood. They are now parts of our life, as indispensable as the car itself. But they haven't changed us, our doubts, our insecurities or our need to trust the person we are dealing with. Although other factors may well be changing the way dealers operate, the future of the dealer is safe. I am convinced that just as people will always be happiest working with people, they will also always want to buy from people.
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