CarGurus launches its used-car online platform in Germany
14 June 2017
14 June 2017
US car market website CarGurus has launched its platform in Germany as it looks to develop the European market for online used car sales.
Whereas Amazon may be introducing a new car sales platform, with a launch in the UK market before expanding to the continent, CarGurus believes the German market is ready for its own service based around used vehicles, giving consumers more choice and more control over the purchase of a car.
The website has actually been live since May but has only now been made public. CarGurus is planning ′aggressive growth’ in order to gain market share from leading players such as mobile.de and AutoScout24.
Diego Sanson, vice president of international business development at CarGurus, said: ′[Our platform] is already working with many car dealers from all over Germany. We can therefore present a wide range of vehicles from the start in Germany and the number of cars on our website will continue to grow over the coming weeks.’
The site allows consumers to filter their search by brand, model and location, and can display suitable used cars from dealers. For comparison purposes to help customers get the best price, the website shows the current market value as well as dealer vaulations in addition to the price of the car, making any offer clear and transparent.
CarGurus arranges the search results in such a way that the best offers are displayed first. The ordering of results is down to a combination of price and dealer rating. A specially developed algorithm analyses the vehicle’s current market value. In addition, the site shows buyers how long a vehicle has been at a particular dealership.
There is no news yet on which route Amazon will take with its own platform; however, the company does have an agreement with a number of manufacturers, including FCA (Fiat Chrysler) to sell new vehicles through its web portal. Fiat has seen in its survey that despite finding that young customers want the choice of being able to buy online, 97% of consumers still want to pick their vehicle up from a dealership, suggesting concerns that online purchases threatening the current dealer model is as yet unfounded.