Honda Makes Buying Used Easier With New Pre-Owned Program

Going online to buy a used car can be an overwhelming experience. Dedicated car-buying websites, online classifieds, and even social media are today’s go-to places when looking to purchased something used. But digging through all those websites can be arduous. Honda is making that process a bit easier by including non-certified used Hondas on HondaCertified.com, which is part of the company’s HondaTrue Certified certified pre-owned program.

Honda pointed to rising used car prices as its reason to begin including non-certified used vehicles alongside its certified ones. According to Dan Rodriguez, American Honda’s manager of auto remarketing, many young and first-time car buyers will purchase from the used market, and Honda’s move “makes this process more simple and enjoyably.” The initiative will include vehicles up to 10 years old, expanding the number of offerings and the price range while ensuring all the used vehicles have had their recalls addressed before being sold. 

The next few months will see Honda flesh out the service and its features. The automaker says that customers will eventually complete most of the purchase process digitally thanks to its Shop Simply by Honda online buying tool. According to Honda, it’s the “first mass-market automaker to offered used vehicles on its website,” though it may not be the last to do so.

Aggregation is a massive online business – Google does it with the web, Amazon with e-commerce, Uber with ride-sharing services, and etc. – but there isn’t an automotive equivalent where a person can search for every new or used make and model that’s for sale in the US. Instead, it’s a fractured and fragmented industry that hurts the customer experience, which has been noted as vital to the tech giants’ success mentioned above.

The likelihood of one true car-buying aggregator feels unlikely. Instead, automakers are much more likely to follow Honda’s footsteps by offering a unified car-buying experience for both used and new cars.