Can You Return a Car Online?

Each year the residents of Chez Carlino pledge to perform roughly 90 percent of holiday shopping online.

And in each season, although rising, our e-commerce percentage vs. traditional shopping still hasn’t quite approached 40 percent. While my neighbor, who averages 10 packages a week – holiday season or not – invites the local UPS and FedEx drivers in for coffee and Danish, I get a brief knock at the door and a gruff acknowledgement during a delivery.

But while one can sing the praises of avoiding throngs of bargain hunters and road rage duels over an available parking space, there are just some things that I cannot and will not buy online.

Take cars for example. 

Just this week, Volvo announced that it would begin offering its vehicles online as a competitive charge against luxury automakers such as BMW and Mercedes. Being a firm believer in having several members of the family test drive a vehicle before purchase or lease, it wouldn’t make sense to me to say, test drive a Volvo at a dealership and then purchase it online.

And the dealers themselves can’t be happy.

I mean how soon would it be before you can get Volvo’s XC90 crossover model at Amazon.com? And I imagine  it would sort of be a lot to put on a credit card.

Shoes are another item – however that’s more due to having a foot width roughly the size of the George Washington Bridge. Unless its AAA or wider, athletic or dress footwear in my size does its best impression of a 10-pound Virginia ham in a 5-pound bag.

And finally since we’re rounding third with regard to Christmas and New Year’s, my last category is food. While a steak or lobster might stoke any appetite when photo shopped for an online circular, I fear ordering a hefty porterhouse or tender rib eye online and in turn getting something more suitable for field rations. And I’m sure the post office staff would frown on repacking all that dry ice for a return.

But to be fair, I did avail myself of some wonderful online deals, but how often can you go wrong with a scarf or a pair of driving gloves?

But I draw the line at matching the driving gloves with a Volvo.