Business Idea: Car Swop

[Foxhound5366]

Something like this..?

So when I heard that there was a venture-backed start-up that sells used cars, I knew I’d found my oasis.

The company was Beepi, a three-year-old Bay Area start-up co-founded by Alejandro Resnik and Owen Savir, two MBAs (MIT and Stanford, respectively) who decided to try to simplify the process of buying a used car online. Beepi has raised nearly $70 million, some of which came from early Uber investor Shervin Pishevar’s Sherpa Ventures, and says it’s “committed to fixing the largest broken market in the world.” Pishevar has made the Uber connection explicit: “Much like Uber revolutionized personal transportation, Beepi is revolutionizing the way we think about buying and selling cars.”

Here’s how Beepi works, more or less: it’s a “peer-to-peer marketplace” where buyers and sellers of used cars can find each other. If you want to sell your car, Beepi sends someone out to inspect it, take photos, and — if it isn’t too old, and if it doesn’t have too many miles on it, and if it’s the right brand, and if it passes a rigorous inspection — list it on the site. (They’re very picky about which cars they agree to broker—”Beepi cherry-picks newer cars in good shape,” the San Francisco Chronicle wrote last year.) A buyer can then come along, look at the photos, read the inspection report, and lay claim to the car. When a sale is made, Beepi picks up the car from the seller, gives it a final touch-up, and delivers it to the buyer’s home or office wrapped in a large bow, like the ones you see in Mercedes commercials. Beepi takes 9 percent of the sale price, and gives the buyer a 10-day trial period in which to tool around and test the car out. (There are no test drives before you buy, and no haggling — the price on the site is what you pay.) If you hate the car, you return it and get your money back. And if you like it, it’s yours. Beepi takes care of the DMV paperwork, gets your license plates mailed to you, helps you finance the car through one of its banking partners, and gives you a three-month guarantee on top of whatever’s left of the manufacturer’s warranty.
https://www.google.co.za/amp/fusion...e-myself-for-it/amp/?client=ms-android-xiaomi

Nice one Milano. That's one possible version of the concept, except without the collective vehicle ownership side (it's really just an Uber-ised car dealership but still a great start).

 

[airborne]

Airborne, if we were all like you we'd still be riding around in oxcarts because making entire industries dedicated to supplying fuel and building the metal monsters to consume that fuel is dreadfully risky and needlessly complex and besides ... these people clearly have no appreciation for the majesty of oxcarts.

If we all had logic fail like Foxhound mankind would be doomed

 

[Milano]

Here's another startup:

A used car site backed by John Elway is on track to do $300 million in sales this year
Erin Griffith
Updated: Jun 16, 2015 6:01 PM SAST
Vroom, a New York used car sales startup, has raised $19 million in venture funding and $35 million in debt funding. The investment round purposely excluded institutional investors, instead relying on capital from 15 to 20 wealthy individuals including former pro football player John Elway and former Autonation and Blockbuster CEO Steve Berrard. The company, which launched in August 2013, says it sold $106 million worth of used cars last year and is on track to do $300 million in sales this year, according to CEO Allon Bloch.
Vroom differs from other used car sites in that it takes possession of the cars it lists for sale. Rather than function as a marketplace for people to sell cars to each other, Vroom provides a “white glove” service that spans the entire transaction. Anyone seeking to sell on Vroom can take a few photos of their car (including a scan of the VIN number) and get an exact appraisal based Vroom’s marketplace pricing system. If the seller agrees, Vroom sends the paperwork via FedEx, provides a voucher, picks up the car, and hauls it to its 22-acre reconditioning facility in Dallas, Texas.
http://fortune.com/2015/06/16/vroom-used-cars/

More at:
Vroom isn’t the only startup taking a swing at the used car market. Shift Technologies, backed by $24 million in venture backing, Beepi, backed by $79 million in venture backing, and Carlypso, backed by $2.2 million, have all launched with similar value propositions, but they’re focused on peer-to-peer sales rather than the high-touch service of Vroom.
Online Car Sales
How an unconventional startup plans to speed up online car sales
Vroom’s biggest challenge, Bloch says, is finding enough used cars to sell and ensuring quality control over the customer experience as it grows. “To do that and do that at scale is not trivial,” he says. It’s also critical that the company continue straddle the line between car expertise and technology know-how. “We need to have both of those skill sets.”

 

[Milano]

Nice one Milano. That's one possible version of the concept, except without the collective vehicle ownership side (it's really just an Uber-ised car dealership but still a great start).

But yeah I agree SA industries are not very innovative. The big guys like CMH, McCARTHY, Avis will likely sit on their massive profits until a disruptor arrives and blindsides them. This is definitely a market that needs disruption.