When you’re in the tax bracket to splurge more than $100,000 on a car, you’d expect the full presidential treatment throughout the buying process. Unless you’re in Singapore.
Autobahn Motors – a used car dealership in Singapore – has come up with a unique way to sell its fleet of second-hand luxury and exotic models.
Rather than impress customers with top-end service as one might expect, the dealer has transformed a 15-storey building into a supercar vending machine.
Yes, you heard that correctly. Instead of a Snickers bar or an energy drink, customers have the option to inspect and purchase numerous luxury vehicles through a tablet before their choice is sent to the show floor within approximately two minutes.
The 15-storey supercar vending machine – built in 2017 – can store up to 60 cars and utilises an Automotive Inventory Management System (AIMS), which features fishbone-style automatic elevators to dispense the vehicles.
In a 2017 report by global news outlet Reuters, the director of Autobahn Motors, Gary Hong, said the supercar vending machine was the result of necessity and wanting to push the boundaries of the traditional retail experience.
“We needed to meet our requirements of storing a lot of cars. At the same time, we wanted to be creative and innovative,” Hong told Reuters.
According to the used car dealer’s website, local buyers can expect to see a range of classic sports cars spanning different years and brands.
If that isn’t to your taste, Autobahn Motor’s supercar vending machine also dispenses multiple SUVs, including a plethora of Range Rovers, a Land Rover Defender, as well as the Porsche Cayenne and Macan.
But there’s also a little something for the motoring historians, including two models from Morris Minor – a defunct British brand that produced cars from 1948 to 1971 – as well as Morgan Motor Company, a UK marque specialising in bespoke cars.
Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.
