Death of the salesman
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but there are a couple of new kids in town who are going to revolutionise the way we buy our used cars. I can’t say I’ve heard that claim since the last dozen attempts – there have been so many who were going to do away with pesky salesmen and showrooms.
One is called Carzoo and it’s brought to you by the successful entrepreneur who has created Zoopla, Lovefilm and Uswitch among other online businesses. He’s got £80 million in financial backing and 1500 cars in stock – most from British Car Auctions (BCA). In fact, BCA supply, refurbish and photograph all stock. They even do the logistics. Carzoo claim there is no salesman – hello Daewoo. You buy the car online and it’s delivered to your door in a couple of days. You then have seven days to love it or return it. Carzoo’s intention is to ‘Amonzon-ise’ the used car trade (groan).
You can trade your car in with them too; that’s collected as your new one is delivered. BCA take care of its disposal.
But the trouble with used cars is just that; they are used. Rare is the car that doesn’t show signs of the life they’ve just had. The other fact is that nobody buys a used car out of choice. When you sell a used car you are managing expectations of a shattered dream. So, selling them blind and giving a seven-day window of rejection is incredibly ballsy. Human interaction at the point of sale ‘smooths’ this transition and garners a relationship. It’ll be interesting to see if it lasts the course, which no other firm has.
Their rival for size and availability is heycar. This is a distinctly more traditional approach, in that sales staff and showrooms are still employed. This company is jointly owned by Mercedes-benz and Volkswagen – so, again, big backers.
Why the dash to invest in used cars? Well the market is worth a staggering £50 billion per year. And while there is uncertainty in new cars, used cars are on fire right now.
‘Why the dash to invest in used cars? The market is worth £50 billion per year’