YouTuber looks to expand his influence to car auction website
Making the most important pitch of his career, Doug DeMuro stood in cargo shorts in front of a camera, unwavering in his giddy demeanor. He was about to unveil his new car auction website to his 3.7 million YouTube subscribers. The site would feature cars “that I like most,” he said.
DeMuro had dreamed up his perfect car auction website during a flight without Wi-Fi in spring last year. It would feature cars from the 1980s on up, like a pristine 1984 Honda CRX or a manual transmission 1991 BMW 325i. And it wouldhave integrated chat.
Leading up to the introduction in June, DeMuro, 32, from San Diego, was hoping for 100 submissions from sellers in the first week. He played down his optimism, telling his team to expect around 30 cars.
Cars& Bids received 720 submissions on the first day.
“There’s two bad things that can happen when you launch a business,” DeMuro said. “The first is that no one cares and it fails. But the other one that people don’t think about all that much is that it’s more successful than you expected, because you’re not prepared.”
DeMuro’s career had taken a number of turns before reaching this point. While working a corporate job at Porsche Cars North America in Atlanta, he discovered that writing snarky car columns was more compelling. In 2013, DeMuro left Porsche to pursue his passion. He also started creating supplemental YouTube videos. Three years later, he became editor of Autotrader’s blog, Oversteer, before stepping away to pursue Cars& Bids.
DeMuro’s deep knowledge and genuine enthusi-
asm have made him one of the most popular car reviewers on the platform. He’s edging out channels like Jay Leno’s Garage by a good 700,000 subscribers.
“Sometimes it’s not about the numbers — it’s about the engagement,” said Joe Gagliese, a cofounder and the chief executive of Viral Nation, an influencer marketing and talent agency. “There’s guys on YouTube with 3.7 million followers that get 100,000 to 300,000 views, whereas he’s averaging anywhere from 700,000 to 1.5 million. That’s over 35% of his audience.”
That audience helped propel the introduction of Cars& Bids.
With the flood of submissions, DeMuro quickly got towork on his backyard patio with his co-founder, Blake Machado, and the four other members of the team, dealing with the onslaught while trying to socially distance.
DeMuro has built this audience with a personal touch. He comes off like a buddy telling you about a cool car. He rarely advertises products, and avoids gimmicks.
“I chose Cars & Bids because I follow Doug DeMuro’s channel,” said An
drew Johnson, who works at Authentic Motorcars in Redmond, Washington. Johnson, 31, sold his 2002 lifted BMWX5 for $12,700 on the site.
Bring a Trailer is Cars & Bids’ closest competition. Both sites mix online auctioning with a Facebook comments section. Sellers, potential buyers and onlookers will often have vibrant discussions for each car, which adds to the fun of seeing bids scuttle upward.
That community, transparency and dialogue around cars helped push Bring a Trailer’s sales to $230million in 2019. Andof the roughly 275 cars listed weekly, 70% sell. Since its introduction in June, Cars & Bids has sold 450 cars, bringing in $8.5 million in sales, with a 75% sellthrough pace.
But behind this simplicity is DeMuro’s obsession with making things perfect. And if Cars & Bids holds firm, it may be his least stressful project to date.
“The first few days I woke up terrified,” he said. “Iwould go on the internet on my phone. Is it still on? OK. Yes. Are there bids coming in? OK, yes, there are — I don’t have that fear anymore.”