The next time you see a Hyundai online, you may just be able to hit Add to Cart.
Assuming you want a new Hyundai specifically, you can now buy the car on Amazon. The online retailer has launched its long-awaited automotive service called Amazon Autos. Amazon announced the service in late 2023, saying it would come sometime in 2024. The service is available today, just in time to slide right under the deadline.
The Korean automaker is the only manufacturer working with Amazon Autos, though Amazon says it will “roll out” (pun almost certainly intended) services with additional dealerships and manufacturers in 2025.
Customers can hop on to Amazon Autos and search for the Hyundai make and model they want, then find vehicles at nearby dealerships with the combination of features they want. Shoppers can select trim, color, and interior features, then get a valuation on their current vehicle to estimate a trade-in price. (Amazon says it is working with an “independent third party” to determine trade-in values.)
The checkout process gives options to pay in full or to find help securing financing—though interest rates may vary. Finally, shoppers can e-sign most of the paperwork on Amazon, then schedule a time to pick up their new ride at the Hyundai dealer. There are also the familiar features that have come to feel like the stalwarts of buying stuff on Amazon: user reviews, star ratings, and an add-to-cart button. (Throw some soap in there too while you’re buying that $66,000 Ioniq 5.)
Unlike with everything else Amazon sells on its website, it will not offer shipping service for the vehicles, so you’ll still have to go pick them up from a dealership. There are also some stipulations that make the service not quite as simple as shopping on Amazon usually is. The service is available in 48 US states. (Sorry Alaska and Hawaii.) It will allow buyers to purchase only new Hyundai vehicles for now, so no used vehicles yet.
Amazon’s move makes sense in an always-online world where cars are full of software and riddled with subscription fees. It is also illustrative of the changing consumer behaviors that are leading to, well, the Amazonification of car buying. Manufacturers like Tesla and Rivian sell their vehicles to customers almost exclusively online. Other automakers will surely follow, and it is clear that Amazon wants to not just get in on that trend but also be at the center of it. Still, some dealers are skeptical that the service will really work in Amazon’s favor long-term. Buying cars is a complicated business, compounded by rules in the US that prevent retailers like Amazon from selling cars directly.
The service Amazon is providing here is not actually that of a seller—you still have to go to the dealership to get the thing—but a facilitator of the deal between the buyer and a dealership. The company is acting as a middleman of sorts, hoping that if it makes the process of buying a car more simple than the haggling and negotiating of going direct to a dealer, it will be enough to entice buyers to click the buy button.
