TORONTO -- During the pandemic, many of us have become used to shopping online and with some purchases you can have items arrive at your door within a day or two.
Now, a car company is doing that with certified used vehicles.
Canada Drives just launched in Ontario and allows you to order a car online and have it delivered to your home as quickly as the same day.
You search for a used vehicle online, purchase it, and have it shipped to your door. The company is already seeing brisk sales due, in part, to a seven-day money-back guarantee.
“When you have seven days, you can drive a car to work, you can load up your supplies and let your dog get in the back. You get to see how the vehicle will fit into your lifestyle and that's important to a lot of shoppers,” Canada Drives Founder Cody Green told CTV News Toronto.
The online car shopping platform launched in British Columbia last fall, starting selling vehicles in Ontario last week and hopes to sell cars to 80 per cent of Canada by the end of the year.
Shanice Robinson of Brampton has a growing family of five children, including triplets, and said she was finding it difficult to buy a vehicle during the pandemic.
When she saw a Chrysler Pacifica van online that could be delivered to her door she bought it, partially because she knew she had a week to try it out.
“We had it four days and we drove it to the Niagara region, and we just drove it around and we loved it. After that we said we are going to keep it and that was it" Robinson said.
Green said vehicles are carefully inspected, come with a car history report, and customers can choose to pay for a vehicle in full or go with competitive financing rates.
Because buying a vehicle is such a large purchase, Green said the seven-day “love it or return it” money back guarantee was the best way to put customers’ minds at ease.
“When you are in Ontario, you're going to be looking at Ontario vehicles. The advantage to the consumer is we can do same-day delivery in the greater Toronto area, so people can order a car in the morning and have it delivered when they get home from work" Green said.
Green said about 90 per cent of customers keep the vehicle they ordered, although some may send it back for a different model.
“It may be because people didn’t like the shade of blue or their golf clubs didn’t fit. It’s a feature that people like, but they are not abusing” Green said.
Robinson said buying a vehicle this way worked for her.
“I honestly believe this is something that should have been done long ago," Robinson said.
