Ford said on Monday that it would join forces with software developer AutoFi, Inc. to allow customers the freedom to purchase a Ford or a Lincoln automobile and obtain financing for it online without forcing them to endure the usual three- to five-hour long sales pitch in one of its showrooms.
The software will allow shoppers to compare models, prices as delivered, available options, and choices of financing among different lenders. Once the sale and financing are completed, the customer stops by the dealership to pick up his car. Nice and easy.
AutoFi’s CEO Kevin Singerman said he really wasn’t trying to disrupt the sales process: “Our approach from the beginning was not to be, ‘We’re a Silicon Valley disrupter that’s come to take out the manufacturers and the dealers.’” But when fully implemented across the land, online buying may in fact all but end the “showroom sales” process that used to...
