I first saw Grant Feek, Tred’s CEO, present his idea for an on-line auto buying startup at General Assembly’s Demo Night last month. The breakthrough concept, from what I could tell at the time, was that customers could configure their automobile options and then let dealers directly bid on their business in reverse-auction fashion. Purchasers get the new car they want rather than settling for current inventory, and dealers are given access to serious buyers–Tred requires a down payment.
With my Tred alpha invite in hand, I was able to take a tour of this high-end service recently. Feek said that Tred will initially connect with Audi and BMW dealers in the New York metropolitan area. Visiting Tred’s site is perhaps as close as I’ll get to get to the non-virtual equivalent–buying a sporty number in a tweedy showroom in Westchester.
My favorite part of my visit was gazing at the high-def pictures, especially the 360-view of the interiors. I could almost smell the leather and feel the manual transmission stick.
Tred offers a 360-viewer for car interiors”
After checking my virtual banking account in Farmville, I decided on an Audi A3. Tred will eventually offer more makes, but for now it’s Audis in the alpha site, and presumably Beemers will be introduced in short order. I chose for my dream-mobile a “Brilliant Red” exterior, beige leather seats, and three packages, Cold Weather ($1400), Sports ($600), and Blue Tooth ($500).
I racked up an MSRP of $29,770.
NYC-based Tred has competitors in the form of carsdirect.com and cars.com. But neither quite performs the same market-making function, nor do they bespeak up-scale as well as Tred.
For comparison purposes, I payed a visit to cars.com and configured the same options, arriving at a slightly higher MSRP of $30,645. Maybe that has something to with a destination charge, which I didn’t see listed on Tred’s bill.
MSRP is not nearly as useful as dealer price, which is the wholesale cost. Cars.com provides that as well as a baseline “Smart Target Price”, which is a consumer’s negotiating price calculated, according to Cars.com, from market data and a “complex proprietary formula”.
In its alpha phase, Tred is still tweaking features, so I expect to more data points and useful stats. In any case, its major differentiator is delivering the car that you want. Presumably Tred’s well-feathered, type-A customers won’t mind paying a few bucks more for that convenience.
However, for popular models and choices–I swear I’ve seen a lot of red Audis on the road–the other sites serve a valuable service without forcing customers to fork over a down payment.