Web is Essential to the Automotive Customer Lifecycle

My Tire Blew Out
I had a pretty bad day on Saturday, while driving on the freeway 880 in my TL, a geek car with many toys, I felt the pressure go out in my tires –I wasn’t sure which one it is, but took the next possible exit (almost 1.5 miles away) and parked at a gas station. When I got out of the car, I found out that my rear left tire was flat, and was in bad shape. We called AAA and a tow truck came, a nice gent and I put sealant in the tire and he inflated it –we were hoping it was still drivable.

A drove about a half a mile later and at a slow turn I heard a very loud POP noise, the tire blew out. Dang, we called the tow truck driver back –and he replaced it with my spare. The tire blew out and there was a huge rip in the tire. (thanks Alex Muse for the concern and tips)

Sorry Alex…
I’m most disappointed that I missed my baby nephew’s party in San Mateo –I had to call and apologize to his father my cousin –we simply ran out of time and we’re too frazzled to rush over –Sorry Alex and family.

Buying Tires online –shipping direct to dealer for install
I’m in the process of buying new tires now, and have a few car buddies that always direct me to Tirerack. (they own the online market in this space) Even the local dealership suggested I use tirerack as the prices are lower, and I have specific tires that are not commonly found at the average tire shop. I ordered the tires online, and it’s being shipped direct to the dealership (not my house) and the website even had a listing of recommended installers, the local dealer (who I trust) was listed –great service, great web strategy. Hopefully this will all get fixed by mid week so I can go back to work (as Tuesday is a holiday, being July 4th)

I found the user experience of tirerack to be pretty good –I did get hung up around the registration vs instant payment area, but other than that, there was a huge inventory, lots of research available, and I know I saved money.

Web is important for Automotive Customer Lifecycle
So here’s where I tie this back to Web Strategy. My friend James Tran is a Car Broker here in the bay area, his side busieness (he works in the Financial industry during day) is called Pacific Rim Motors — last week we discussed the needs of low touch and high touch experiences for the car buying process.

We both concluded that having a web presence to be in the auto industry is important, if not essential for many buying and selling processes.

1. Web is used in Research and Buying phase
   People who by cars do Research, Comparison, Price Checking, Realibity, Consumer Reports, read forums, ask questions, take pictures, look at pictures, calculate costs, TCO, get loan rates, call dealers, look for internet deals before they actually test drive a car. Sometimes when I see an interesting car on the road, I’ll look it up on the web when I get home and do some research.
2. Test Drive Car (ummm not using web) however they could purchase the car either online or offline.
3. Web is used during Ownership phase
   I’m just getting started, once someone buys a car, they use the web to support the car, determine, look up maintenance issues, find a repair guy or dealer, find insurance, passionate car users join forums (like BMW, Acura, Audi, Suburu owners are known for doing this) and then participate in these online communities (and sometimes offline like Acurazine). Often individuals add modifications to their cars –it can be quite an expensive hobby.
4. Web is used during Selling phase
   Almost done — when it’s time to sell a car, folks use Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds, craigslist, or ebay, or other service to figure out how much a car is worth, and if they could sell it online.

Web is a big part of the Automotive Customer lifecycle, and it will continue to be a big part going forward –it’s just part of the experience that’s sometimes overlooked.

Back to James, the bay area Car Broker and my friend –essentially he takes the work, research, and time out of buying (he can reduce time spend in first, second and fourth phase) cars for busy folks here in the bay area. He’s mentioned that he’s had some executive clients that have purchased luxury vehicles from him, or used him to sell vehicles. He’ll do the online and offline research. I recommend you consider contacting James if you’re looking to sell your car, or want to buy a specific used vehicle –he’ll come through.

I’m not being paid by Tirerack, or James from Pacific Rim Motors, although he’s a friend and I will use James to sell my next car, and probably to buy my next car (although I like to be very involved in the car research and buying process). I think my wife is interested in using James for her next car.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 2nd, 2006 at 7:46 pm and is filed under Web Usage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.