Ford and Amazon just redefined the used-car marketplace

Beep, beep: Amazon is making a bigger move into the market for used vehicles. The retail giant and Ford Motor Company announced a partnership today which will mean car buyers in three major cities can shop for, finance, and purchase a certified pre-owned Ford vehicle on Amazon Autos.

This new partnership is initially launching in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Dallas, with plans to expand, and will allow customers to complete all steps of the car-buying process online before scheduling a pickup time at a participating dealer and signing the paperwork. 

“The addition of Ford certified pre-owned vehicles to Amazon Autos represents an exciting expansion of our store, giving customers access to thousands of quality vehicles backed by Ford’s comprehensive inspection and warranty programs,” Fan Jin, global leader of Amazon Autos, said in a statement. 

This marks the third major partnership that Amazon Autos has struck in the nearly two years since it launched in late 2023. It first began selling new vehicles from South Korean automaker Hyundai and partnered with car rental company Hertz earlier this year to sell used vehicles through Amazon Autos.

As is true with the Hyundai partnership, the Ford dealer is ultimately the seller and handles the pricing, vehicle pickup, and future servicing needs. Amazon Autos merely serves as the facilitator of the online transaction.

USED VEHICLE MARKET

So far, more than 160 Ford franchised dealers have expressed interest in the new Amazon Autos program and about 20 dealers in those three cities are in the process of getting fully onboarded and launched, according to Ford.

Expanding the number of places where consumers can buy a vehicle is also a savvy move for Ford at a time when used car sales have become a bit more sluggish.

An uptick in prices for used vehicles has meant it’s taken longer for these vehicles to move off a dealer’s lot. For three-year-old vehicles, selling at more than $31,000 during the third quarter, it took an average of 41 days for these cars to sell, which was the slowest pace for this quarter since 2017, according to data from Edmunds.com.

CARVANA, CARMAX COMPETITION

Now that Amazon Autos will be offering vehicles that are new, certified pre-owned, and from the Hertz rental market fleet, it clearly is making a pretty aggressive move into territory once dominated by Carvana and CarMax. In the first three quarters of the year, Carvana sold more than 433,000 vehicles, compared to a 2024 total of 416,000-plus, according to figures from its quarterly earnings.

Shares of Carvana fell nearly 3% in midday trading on Monday, while CarMax shares were down more than 2%. Meanwhile, Ford shares are trading about 0.7% lower.

This weekend, Ford hosted the grand opening of its new, 2.1 million-square-foot headquarters. The Detroit-based automaker has sought to embrace a new era of innovation after some struggles in recent years. Rather than opt for the direct-to-consumer sales path that Tesla has favored, partnering with Amazon Autos may offer advantages.

“Everyone has an Amazon account,” Wendy Lane, senior manager of Ford’s Blue Advantage unit, told Yahoo! Finance. “Knowing that it is a trusted source for consumers and having our vehicles listed there, we’re really excited to see how it works and how well consumers adopt it.”

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