If you happen to be in the market for a new automobile, don’t be surprised if the salesman whips out an iPad in an effort to answer your questions next time. That’s the latest nationwide effort from automaker Mazda, who is using a specialized iPad app to help push cars out the door.
USA Today is reporting that major automaker Mazda has undertaken “a nationwide effort to arm dealers with an Apple iPad or similar tablet computers” to aid their salespeople in selling cars to consumers -- and that’s just the beginning of the plans the auto industry has for the thin tablets.
“Can't figure out how the air conditioning controls work? How do you attach those child seats? The iPad can be used to demonstrate features through videos and illustrations,” USA Today describes, claiming that 50 Mazda dealers are currently using them to help sell automobiles.
"Our goal is every single dealer will have this application," says Mazda spokesman Jeremy Barnes, citing the iPad as an "educational tool that dealers can use in describing to customers what makes a Mazda a Mazda."
The Mazda iPad movement began with a single dealer, Joe Shaker, who owns Wellesley Mazda in Massachusetts. "We're taking the car-buying experience online and saying, 'You have a lot of freedom and transparency,'" explains Shaker.
Among the practical uses for the iPad are showing customers how different feature packages might enhance their auto purchase, or to visually demonstrate how certain features on a particular model stack up to rival automakers.
"I'd like to take the whole sales process and circle areas where we are weak and use the iPad for (those areas)," Shaker says. "People have told us in surveys that they want to make better use of their time at dealerships."
Mazda isn’t alone in adopting the iPad -- Hyundai recently used the iPad in place of a printed owner’s manual in the $58,900 Equus, a practice they plan to end with the 2012 model. BMW offers an iPad mount for rear-seat movie or game playing with its X3, and car repair manual maker Haynes Publishing will start offering their do-it-yourself guides via tablet this fall, complete with video demonstrations to aid the printed text.
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(Image courtesy of Russ Darrow Mazda)
