CarBuyersNoteBook

Lidl, known for selling low-priced groceries and household goods expanded into new territory Monday by selling cars on its Web site. The German discount supermarket will reportedly offer the Opel Corsa for just under euro11,000 ($14,000) and the Volkswagen Cross Polo for euro14,000, ($17,700) — a discount of about 25 percent off the suggested retail price.

Germany’s economy is in recession and unemployment is at 8.3 percent, but Lidl believes it can turn a profit in an industry that is bucking the economic downturn. New car sales were up 21 percent in February year-on-year, largely because of a euro50 billion ($67 billion) government stimulus plan that pays citizens euro2,500 ($3,250) to replace cars at least nine years old with new ones.

But Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, the director of the Center for Automotive Research in Gelsenkirchen, said previous efforts to sell cars online and through supermarkets have faltered.

“I think it will be very difficult for Lidl,” Dudenhoeffer said. “People don’t want to buy high-value products from a discount grocery store.”

(Source) AP