Putting up with unctuous, commission-crazed salespeople when buying a new car could become a relic. Seattle-based startup Tred brings new cars to your home or office for test-drives and online purchase, without ever visiting a dealership showroom. Think of it as Uber, but you can buy the car that comes to fetch you.
Though online car shopping is nothing new, you still have to go to the dealership or used car lot to test drive the car and sign the papers. Tred makes it so that you can research, choose, and test drive from the comfort of your couch.
Here's how it works. You go to Tred's website or iPad app to research and select several cars you want to test drive at a place of your choosing. Tred staffers, not car dealership salespeople, then deliver your pick of cars. For now it's a limited variety of makes and models from which you can pick. "At launch, we're focused on five brands of Minivans, Compact SUVs and Midsize SUVs that are extremely popular in the Pacific Northwest," says Feek.
If Tred comes to your house, you can see how the cars fit in your garage, handle on the roads you drive every day, and if they can easily accommodate your twins' car seats. You can also do side-by-side comparisons of different manufacturers' cars, something most car dealerships aren't set up to handle.
After all the driving and soul searching, even if you don't decide to ultimately buy a car through Tred, the delivery folks still get paid a fee for the delivery of the vehicle.
Feek isn't trying to freeze out car dealerships, in fact, he knows they are a necessary part of the new car buying process and to Tred's success. "One of our missions is to leverage the Internet to help dealers sell cars in a way that makes them as happy as our shoppers, and we're doing just that," he says.
This week the company announced a $1.7 million seed round from former General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, automotive investment firm Fraser McCombs Capital, venture capital firm Maveron Capital, angels Chris Sacca and David Cohen, and other investors.
Young iPhone-touting 20 and 30-somethings, who schedule Uber rides to take them home from the bar and make all their purchases online are the target Tred customers. They are always running around, constantly connected and expect instant-gratification, the company reasons, so why not more of the same when it comes to buying a car? The startup is also appealing to young families who would rather do anything else but spend all Saturday at a car dealership, or who want to make sure all their kid's gear can fit in the back of a new SUV.
Tred says it has already signed up several major dealerships in the Seattle area to deliver the first cars. The first Tred test drives will be available in the Seattle area starting in Spring 2013.
