CHEYENNE — Keri McClanahan and James Chacon were out shopping for new vehicles last week, chasing hail damage discounts at Ken Garff Hyundai.
They didn’t know it, but that also was the first day that the Cheyenne dealership appeared on a new online sales platform for car buyers.
All the cars on the Cheyenne lot, as well as Stevenson Hyundai in Frederick, Colorado, are now listed online with Amazon Autos.
The addition of cars to Amazon rounds out the online seller’s inventory, giving it everything from A to Z, with the kitchen sink in between, at the press of a few buttons online. Hertz Car Rental has also recently signed up to sell its used vehicles through the online platform as well, starting in metropolitan areas like Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
Amazon Autos' platform is detailed and complete. Account-holders can browse a complete list of cars available at any Hyundai dealership that’s within 75 miles of their ZIP code.
A menu of selections on the lefthand side of the online platform allows consumers to choose a variety of search parameters, from interior colors and mileage to fuel type, towing capacity, and driver assist features. Dealer fees and out-the-door prices are listed, along with different purchasing options.
There’s also the option to test-drive the vehicle before signing the final paperwork for the car at the dealership and taking said car home.
McClanahan hadn’t really heard about the Amazon Autos platform and didn’t know Hyundai cars in Cheyenne were listed there, but thought it sounded kind of cool. She wasn’t sure, however, that it would make any real difference in her car-buying habits.
“We’re waiting for like, the right car,” she said. “The one within our budget.”
Being able to choose certain options, looking at all the bells and whistles, seeing side-by-side comparisons of cars on different lots only go so far for her. Value is still king in her book — getting the best possible deal.
“I’m holding onto Trusty Rusty, and she is falling apart,” McClanahan said. “So, I’m just looking for now, because I think she’s going to go to the big junkyard in the sky pretty quick.”
She noticed that the recent hailstorm in Cheyenne has many dealers knocking a few thousand dollars off of the list price for hail-damaged cars. That’s what drew McClanahan to the Hyundai dealership in Cheyenne on Tuesday.
“I’m not sold on anything specific,” she said. “I was just like, I saw that one vehicle, and I’m like, let’s go look at it, because it’s really cheap right now because of the hail damage. We’re just like, hail hunting, right now.”
Chacon was also unsure how Amazon Auto might help them in their search for a new, affordable vehicle. There are already plenty of online platforms listing cars, he pointed out. In his experience, most of them are out of date. But they also don’t satisfy his needs.
“I want to test-drive it, I want to see it, I want to feel it,” he said.
And he wants to negotiate the best possible deal, from the trade-in value to the final price of the new vehicle.
Just Another Online Platform
Dallas Tyrrell, manager of Tyrrell Chevrolet in Cheyenne, has many of the same questions as Chacon and McClanahan about Amazon’s new online car sales platform, particularly when it comes to selling used cars, like Hertz.
“We’re still in the early stages of finding out more about it,” he said. “But I can tell you that you can’t sell cars in Wyoming without a brick-and-mortar store and a service department, so I find it interesting.”
Tyrrell questions how useful the service will be when it comes to used cars.
“When you buy used cars, especially, you’ve gotta go kick the tires,” he said. “You’ve gotta go see the car to know what it’s all about, and you can’t do that over a computer. You can’t tell how it runs, or how it operates over the computer.”
Online used car sales is a model that’s already been explored. So far it’s proven to be neither customer-oriented nor money saving, Tyrrell added.
“There’s a company called Carvana that does similar sales and Carvana has been a total disaster,” he said. “They’re not even allowed to operate in some states.”
Illinois, Michigan, and Connecticut are among states where Carvana has faced problems. Most recently, in Connecticut, Carvana agreed to establish a $1 million restitution fund to resolve problems with lot or delayed registration, missing paperwork, and wrong or missing payments. In addition, Carvana agreed to pay up to $500,000 in penalties for failing to comply with that state’s laws.
As far as selling new cars like those from Hyundai, Tyrrell wonders what Amazon Autos will offer that other online platforms don’t already have.
“There’s been sites like that already for years,” he said. “You’ve got cars.com, you’ve got car gurus, you’ve got auto traders. To me, (Amazon Autos) isn’t any different than any of those other sources.”
That doesn’t mean Tyrrell won’t list cars on the platform eventually. He just doesn’t see it as all that earth shattering.
Shopping Around
One thing that won’t change for car buyers, regardless of new online platforms, is the continual need to do your homework and shop around.
Much has been changing in the car-buying world, Tyrrell acknowledged, and alert buyers who are keeping up with the changes are in the best position to benefit from those changes, whether it’s the explosion in technology or brand-new tax deductions for American vehicles.
The tax deduction was part of the One Big Beautiful Act. It offers a tax deduction of up to $10,000 annually for the interest paid on an auto loan for cars, SUVs, pickups and motorcycles assembled in America and purchased from 2025 to 2028.
People making $100,000 or less annually or joint tax filers making $200,000 or less qualify for the full deduction. Above that, the deduction begins to diminish by $200 for every additional $1,000 until it phases out completely.
The vehicles must be new, for personal use only, and weigh less than 14,000 pounds.
There’s no official list yet as to which makes and models will qualify for the tax deduction, but buyers who have purchased a qualifying vehicle stand to gain substantially.
Average new car prices in March 2025 were close to $48,000 according to Kelley Blue Book, while interest rates averaged around 6.73%, according to Experian. That works out to almost $2,000 in interest per year on a five-year loan.
So far, Tyrrell hasn’t seen any official correspondence on the new federal tax deductions for American-made vehicles, but he has already had customers asking about it.
One way to get an idea which vehicle are most likely to qualify for the deduction is to look for the window sticker, called a Monroney sticker, which should include the percentage of the car that is American made.
Just A Different Option
Hyundai Sales Manager Brandie Bryant told Cowboy State Daily that so far, she hasn’t had a lot of customer inquiries about the new sales platform on Amazon Autos. In fact, as of Tuesday afternoon, Cowboy State Daily was the only inquiry. No customers had used it yet.
She sees it as just a different option for customers to streamline their buying experience, particularly useful if they already know exactly what they want and don’t want to haggle over it.
“As soon as you put the information in, it comes to my side,” she said. “I send you the documentation to sign, or any additional information you might need. You sign it and then you come in and we sign whatever documentation is needed in person.”
That in-person visit also includes the opportunity to test drive the vehicle before signing the paperwork. There are also options to request contact with the sales department to review pricing — aka haggle a bit.
“But the whole point of Amazon Autos is to do everything remotely,” she added.
That includes trade-ins, which are also possible through the online platform. A customer with a trade-in would do a walk-around video of the vehicle they want to trade in, as well as answer some questions about the vehicle’s condition. That gets sent to the Amazon corporate team.
“They put in an offer on it,” Bryant said. “And if you were to trade in a vehicle, you would drop it off here.”
Hyundai would either match Amazon’s offer, keeping it for themselves, or send it to Amazon, which would buy it instead.
Bryant wasn’t sure if Hyundai will eventually add its own used cars to the Amazon Autos platform in the future. Right now, she feels they are in a wait-and-see mode, to find out whether customers like this new option.
Only time will tell if it’s really the wave of the future.
“That’s what I’ve been hearing, but it’s kind of hard to wrap my mind around,” she said. “I’m so used to in-person and the personal touch with customers.”
One thing that Hertz does have going for it, as far as used cars being sold online, is their reputation, Bryant added.
“Hertz takes really good care of their cars,” she said. “They’re all rentals. So, they’re all under certain mileage preferences for the most part. So, I think it kind of just depends on how a customer prefers to shop.”
Like Tyrrell, Bryant also believes used cars really should be test-driven first. It’s not clear yet how all that will function with used cars from Hertz sold through Amazon Autos.
“(Hyundai customers) are always open to either option,” she added. “If you see it on Amazon and you still want to come test drive it, that’s always an option.”
Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
