Certain Things Should Never Go Virtual

More years ago than I want to remember, my father and I walked into an automobile dealership that showcased cars of the now defunct American Motors Corp.

I was all of six years old, but the sight of gleaming new automobiles of every color and size is something that is not easily erased, even in the aging memory crypts of yours truly.

That afternoon, pop plunked down $150 and we drove home in a new cherry red Rambler American, a boxy 4-door with what car enthusiasts often refer to as “three on the tree” – a three-speed manual transmission on the steering column.

Even today, I still tingle on a showroom floor while examining each model and often shuddering at the pricing stickers pasted to the window – especially considering that our Rambler cost all of $1,600.

But that feeling may gradually become a thing of the past.

Unless you’ve been a contestant on CBS’ Survivor show for the past 20 years, you know the traditional structure of the workplace has been changing almost exponentially. Remote workers as well as shared and virtual offices are rapidly replacing the traditional worker tethered to their desks or workstations from 9-5.

According to an article last week in the Wall Street Journal, the virtual concept is wending its way to car dealerships as well. Cadillac, the marquee brand of General Motors has unveiled plan to convert a portion of their 925 dealerships across the country into virtual dealerships, where potential customers can learn about the new models via VR headsets. There will be no inventory per se, so forget about that test drive.

This is similar to a strategy current employed by the fast-rising carmaker Tesla, which enjoys a similar virtual reality retail concept in shopping malls.

But while I can see the benefits of virtual offices in say the accounting profession, a car purchase is very much a tactile sensation, as opposed to preparing a client’s 1040 in the cloud.

To me it’s akin to purchasing shoes online – and since I take a Triple-A width, you can imagine the problems I have with a purchase sight unseen.

Facets of any automobile such as seat comfort, blind spots and of course pick-up, would be largely discovered when the car is delivered - unless one is intimately familiar with that brand.

Far be it from me to impede progress, but I think back to that summer day in 1961 and as advanced as technology is, there are just some things you can’t replicate virtually.