Edmund's recently released this ad that highlights how ridiculous it would be to shop for your groceries the same way you shop for a car. Many dealerships lost their collective shit and pressured Edmund's to take the ad down... and they did.
Automotive News, initially reported that the ads were supposed to "portray a buying experience so far from the way modern dealerships operate that company executives were surprised that some dealerships were offended." It seems they underestimated how deep this struck a chord with dealerships, especially considering their recent campaign to tout the benefits of their current system. Edmund's now admits they "missed the mark," and pulled the ad.
"Some of our partners were deeply insulted, expressing that our attempt at humor reinforced outdated stereotypes. That was obviously never our intent."
The interesting thing about all this outrage is that Edmund's is using the ad to promote their Price Promise program that allows car shoppers to "lock in haggle free pricing" then take that certificate to a dealer and purchase their car. This is very similar to how True Car operates. To see exactly how Price Promise worked I tried it out for myself. I put in an inquiry for a Honda Accord Sport in my area.
Here is what Edmund's gave me -
Now here is what the same dealer gave me independent of Edmund's -
As you can Edmund's the "no haggle" price leaves some money on the table. So if you just printed out that certificate and rolled on in to the dealer, they made an extra $717 dollars because you chose the "no haggle" route. But despite the fact that dealers may be benefiting more from Edmund's Price Promise system, the site can't afford to anger their customers. That commercial was meant to send the message that Edmund's is on your side as a car-buyer, now that it has been pulled, it does make you wonder whose side they are really on.
If you have a question, a tip, or something you would like to to share about car-buying, drop me a line at AutomatchConsulting@gmail.com and be sure to include your Kinja handle.