Walmart to Start Selling Cars in Stores

CarSaver will team up with Walmart to sell cars in stores. (Credit: © CarSaver)

Retail giant, Walmart, sells almost everything: food, clothes, guns, knives, tires, oil, electronics and more. Now, it wants to sell cars…

I know what you’re thinking: “Walmart and cars??” Yup, Walmart has teamed up with online automotive retail platform CarSaver to get its foot in this lucrative market. Now, Walmart won’t be selling these cars itself. Instead, the big-box store will do like it does with its in-store tax services and vision centers, and have CarSaver fronts across from the checkout registers.

Now, If you planning to roll to your nearest Wally World today and pickup up your new set of wheels, you may want to curb your excitement a bit. This program will not kick off until April 1, 2017 and only four markets will have CarSaver locations: Houston, Dallas, Pheonix, and Oklahoma City.

At the CarSaver kiosks, buyers can browse cars from various dealership networks, including AutoNation, to find the new, used or preowned car of their dreams. Once they find one, buyers can purchase, insure and finance it right there. To accomplish the latter, CarSaver will team up with Ally Financial.

Once the deal is done, CarSaver sets up an appointment for the buyer at the dealership to finalize everything and take delivery.

So, how does CarSaver make money on this? The dealership pays a “success fee” of $350 in most states.

What do you think: is buying a car at Walmart more convenient or a major waste of time? Let us know in the comments.