VW pokes, winks, smooches its way to new car sales

Volkswagen launched its revamped consumer website on Thursday. It looks more like OK Cupid or Plenty of Fish or Match.com.

Yeah, we’ve used a few, so what?

VW says the new site lets consumers shop for cars based on desired features, color, price and turn-ons. Actually, we’re not sure about that last one. It points buyers to local dealerships with cars in stock. It’s a cool twist on the usual configurator setup. It has sliders for payment range, options and sticker price. Buyers can select a few cars to look at, at the same time. VW says the site has more than 80,000 cars to look through, each with their own profile page. That doesn’t quite equal Match.com’s 1.8 million members, but we guarantee there are a lot fewer creeps.

“With the new VW.com experience, consumers don’t need to know our product lineup to find a car that's right for them,” said Vinay Shahani, vice president, brand marketing, Volkswagen of America. “Consumers simply select the features they want, and VW.com instantly connects them to a range of options based on both their needs and available inventory in their area.”

Sounds simple, really. Each car has its own page with photos, specs, features, awards and dealer info. We expect they make full use of the “MySpace angles.” Kidding. Buyers can nudge a door to let the car know they’re interested. If the car nudges back, it’s down to meet IRL. Still kidding. But seriously buyers can “favorite” cars they want to keep their eyes on.

The site also has a feature called Dealer Match, which streamlines the buying process for dealers. This way VW dealers can buy and sell cars among themselves.

By Jake Lingeman