8.15.2011

Auto dealers using iPads to instantly aid car buyers

One big automaker, Mazda, is behind a nationwide effort to arm dealers with an Apple
similar tablet computers that sales consultants can haul out whenever a customer raises an issue or wants to know more about a model.
Can't figure out how the air conditioning controls work? How do you attach those child seats?
can be used to demonstrate features through videos and illustrations.
About 50 Mazda dealers are using them as sales aids, so far. "Our goal is every single dealer will have this application," Mazda spokesman Jeremy Barnes. The initiative is considered important by the company because it's an "educational tool that dealers can use in describing to customers what makes a Mazda a Mazda."effort was spurred by dealer Joe Shaker, owner ofWellesley Mazda, who sees it as a way both to help customers and to make the sales process more efficient. "We're taking the car-buying experience online and'You have a lot of freedom and transparency,'
The
can be used to show customers instantly how different features packages can enhance a car. Or it can demonstrate graphically how a car's features stack up to rivals'.
"I'd like to take the whole sales process and circle areas where we are weak and use the
"People havetold us in surveys that they want to make better use of their time at dealerships."Wellesley sales consultant Wayne Xides,simplifies educating buyers. " Customers who are skeptical about a sales claim can get proof, right there on the tablet. "We can pull it up instantaneously,
Other ways the industry is using tablets:

Hyundai putin its $58,900 Equus in place of the owners manual. The practice will end with the 2012 model, but an interactive manual still will be offered for download to owners with tablets, and others are expanding digital manuals.BMW offers a mount so ancan be used as a rear-seat movie or game player in its X3 crossover. It replaces a pricey entertainment system.Haynes Publishing, which makes car repair manuals for do-it-yourselfers, will offer them for tablets this fall, adding video demonstrations to the typical print illustrations.

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