Toyota and Scion are targeting young consumers with a new car-buying program that will enable customers to start both the shopping experience and financing process online.
“Customers want the transparency of costs associated with their specific deal, so we’d like to provide them with as much detail as possible,” a spokeswoman for Scion told Automotive News this week.
Scion began a pilot of its online transaction program, Pure Process Plus, in May with seven dealers. The program now has about 60 participating U.S. dealers, with 30 more expected to join by year end. About 150 dealers are expected to join by the end of 2016, out of about 1,000 Scion dealers total.
The Toyota brand plans to launch its online shopping tool in six to 12 months, Bill Fay, general manager of Toyota Division, told Automotive News this month at a media event in Seattle. Toyota dealers will get a preview of the online service at a national dealer meeting in September, he said.
“Millennials are starting to express the fact that they'd like to do more shopping online,” Fay said. “They’d like to connect that shopping to a buying experience ... that needs to be quicker and more transparent.”