Steamrolling discount supermarket chain Lidl looks to have branched out into the new-car selling business, with Fiats for sale from €89 a month, but there’s a catch.
Actually, there are four catches.
Firstly, it’s starting its toe-in-the-water car-discounting sideline with just 1000 cars.
Secondly, they’re all in Germany on four-year leases.
Thirdly, they’re all Fiat 500s, which are 12 years old now.
Fourthly, they’re all the same spec and trim level.
Other car-makers have moved to an online-sales strategy, with Subaru one of the early adopters in Australia, but car sales from supermarket chain is a new thing, even for Germany.
Entering the car business has long been part of Lidl’s plans and it started as a lease deal at its online shop where customers can raise their monthly repayments to €165 to cover insurance, maintenance and seasonal tyre swaps twice a year.
Lidl seems to be the shop-front for AutDenn, a start-up between the giant Spanish bank Santander and eastern German car dealership, König (King), which has dabbled in online sales with Renault Clios on Amazon.
The breakthrough part is that Lidl promises a 15-minute sign-up process, complete with ID and credit checks.
But leasing cars at discounts on the internet can be expensive if things go wrong, as even experienced hand PSA found out in 2017. It offered the Peugeot 208 at a €99-a-month flat rate and failed to cap the volume, costing it a fortune and leading to the sacking of four sales and marketing executives.