This is the year you can finally buy a car on Amazon. Well, one kind. Eventually.

On Nov. 16, 2023, at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Amazon and Hyundai made a big announcement: Starting sometime in 2024, a new pilot program would let shoppers not only browse Hyundai cars on Amazon.com but pay for them, too.

As a professor of marketing, I followed this story closely. “Customers will be able to buy new vehicles directly on Amazon,” an executive for the online retail giant said during the announcement, drawing cheers from the audience.

But that framing may be just a tiny bit too simplistic, I feel. The real story is more complex – and more interesting.

It’s still not yet possible for a regular person to buy a car on Amazon – I know, because I’ve tried. Amazon and Hyundai have not publicly announced the date the pilot will start, and they haven’t responded to my inquiries.

But in the meantime, you can still go some way toward getting your new hybrid via the online store.

Since 2018,........

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