Story by Brody Hilgenkamp // Photography by Bill Sitzmann
Onyx Automotive is Nebraska’s premier luxury vehicle destination
The future of car buying is underway at ONYX Automotive. It plays out like this: a customer walks into ONYX Automotive’s store at 150th Street and West Dodge Road looking for a new vehicle. Staff will welcome the customer and ask what car they are looking for. The second question staff ask is if the customer is aware that ONYX Automotive is a BMW Future Retail Facility, which means the consultants at ONYX Automotive will help the customer order a vehicle with the exact features, colors, and other characteristics they want.
Custom ordering is where ONYX Automotive General Manager Drew Friesen believes the future is heading. He said around half of the dealer’s car sales in a given month are custom orders, but in a year or two it might be the only way ONYX Automotive sells its cars, because once someone buys a car that way, he or she will likely do it again.
“It’s most likely that when these people are entering their next buying cycle, and they have to buy from us, they’ll probably go through the process of ordering again,” he said.
Ordering a vehicle is a smooth and pressure-free process. If someone doesn’t find the exact car they want on ONYX Automotive’s lot, the consultant will sit down with the customer at a station that has a 55” screen and guide them through the custom ordering process on the website of one of the four brands at ONYX Automotive—BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, and MINI. The customer gets to choose all the features and colors they want and gets a virtual tour of what the car will look and feel like. The BMW X7 SAV, for example, has 10 options for upholstery and six options for interior trim. Customers typically receive their vehicles in four to six weeks, Friesen said, but some cars, particularly Sport Activity Vehicles from BMW, can be delivered in as few as two. “Literally, next month you could have this vehicle,” Friesen said. “Most people are willing to wait 30 days for something they are really excited about.”
The day the customer takes their car home is just as smooth. They have an appointment so the financing paperwork is already done and the car is clean and in a special delivery bay. ONYX Automotive staff show the customer the features of the car and how they work, and the buyer leaves familiar with their new vehicle and in a shorter amount of time.
It’s a very different process from the traditional car-buying experience, when a salesman creates pressure to buy a car that day.
“If you like this car and you came with the expectation of wanting to take it home, then we will gladly sell that to you,” Freisen said. “However, most people want the experience of how fun would it be ordering a car that you got to pick out the color, you got to pick out the features, and you can have it as early as four to six weeks; there’s no pressure.”
Car buyers can start the custom order process in one of two ways: they can choose the features on their own at home through the automaker’s website and set ONYX Automotive as their local dealer, or go to ONYX Automotive and use the expertise of its consultants to help choose the features. Depending on the part of the car, buyers can choose 2-3, or more than a dozen, options. The BMW X7 SAV, for example, has 10 options for upholstery and six options for interior trim.
Buying a custom car may seem like a luxury purchase, but anyone can do it, Friesen said. ONYX Automotive has a full range of cars available for anyone, regardless of income level. A 2022 MINI Hardtop starts around $23,000 while a MINI Cooper S Countryman All4 can run close to $40,000. BMWs start around $40,000 and run up to $80,000 while Land Rover and Jaguar can cost up to $180,000. “You could order any one of those vehicles and have the same experience as someone that’s buying a $200,000 car would get,” Friesen said. “The difference is that a lot of people don’t know that you can do it, so we’re here trying to educate people and let them know.”
Friesen went on to say, “What if we promote, and encourage, and let people know that you can come in and build the car how you want it? So instead of trying to force someone to buy something that is 75% of all their needs and wants, why don’t you come in and give 100% of their needs and wants?”
Customers who preorder a vehicle get the best of both worlds when it comes to pricing. If they want to save money by not paying for, say, heated seats, they don’t have to. And ONYX Automotive is able to do financing applications on the spot when it takes orders. The terms of those applications are locked in for 90 days and if there is a better deal when the car comes in, the customer can take advantage of those as well. The same goes for loyalty and financing incentives through BMW.
In addition to a quality vehicle with all the features the buyer wants, all of the vehicles come with warranties up to 50,000 miles, and BMW and MINI come with maintenance included for the first three years. “A lot of times when people are thinking about luxury, a lot of times they think of the expense of what it’s going to cost to maintain it, but those vehicles come with maintenance at no cost.”
Quality service of the vehicles is extremely important for ONYX Automotive customers’ experience because of the hassle car maintenance can be for car owners. That’s why ONYX Automotive keeps 90 loaner vehicles on hand. “If you were to come in with a flat tire, we could give you a vehicle on the spot, take yours and fix it and not inconvenience you,” Friesen said.
A car buyer need not scour the country looking for a car with all the exact features they want, because by the time the searching, phone calls, and paperwork are done, the car could’ve been custom ordered and in their driveway. “The idea is not to give you pressure but to be more informative, and then obviously provide options that give you what you’re looking for,” Friesen said.
Visit onyxautomotive.com for more information.
