The program will start in Italy and be limited to three models, the Fiat 500, Fiat Panda, and Fiat 500L. According to Fiat, the Panda is the company’s largest selling car in Italy. The Fiat 500 and 500L are included in the Amazon launch program because the young and adventurous buyer demographic of current buyers matches the group the program is reaching for on Amazon.
“The time has arrived to give consumers a new, more efficient and transparent way to choose a new vehicle,” said Gianluca Italia, a Fiat Chrysler executive in Italy. The company wants to take advantage of the shift to online purchases and the wide availability of online deals in this initial partnership.
Italia said prospective buyers who prefer to search for deals at home will be drawn to Amazon as a new car marketplace, particularly because FCA is going to increase any existing promotions by as much as 33 percent for Amazon Fiat purchases.
In researching the partnership with Amazon, however, FCA found that while half of the Italians surveyed were fine with buying a vehicle online, almost all (97 percent) still wanted to pick up their new vehicle at a conventional dealer. Therefore, after buyers have clicked through the purchase transaction, Amazon will contact them to have buyers choose a regular dealership where buyers will complete their purchase and pick up their new car. In most cases, cars sold via Amazon should be available within two weeks of online purchase.
If the Amazon and FCA program works out favorably for all parties, it could be just the beginning of yet another market disruption by the U.S. internet giant.
