A few months ago Toyota Australia made a fuss about being the first car manufacturer to sell a car over the Internet in Australia. Now it's the first to drop the idea. Senior Executive VP John Conomos, speaking at the launch of the new Toyota Echo, said that the new model would not be sold online like its predecessor, the Starlet. Toyota General Manager of Marketing Matthew Callachor told PC Week that the exercise had been of the nature of an experiment.
"We'd set ourselves a target of selling 18 cars over the 'net in three months. In fact we sold seven. It was a way of finding out if Australians were ready to buy big-ticket items electronically, and they obviously aren't ready yet."
Callochor said dealer resentment had nothing to do with the decision to shut the service. "After all, the actual sale and collection of the cars was done through the dealer the customer designated." He added that this decision had no bearing on Toyota's continued use of its website. "We'll continue to do bigger and better things there, serving the customer in any way we can."
