Anyone who has ever traded in a car to an automobile dealer wonders: Could I have made more money, if I‘d sold it myself?
Dealers know that new-car buyers usually lack the time to market their used cars, or dread the chore of showing them to potential buyers — and make their trade-in offers accordingly. A variety of start-ups are emerging, however, aiming to make it easier and more lucrative for car owners to sell their vehicles privately.
“Consumers are fed up and they’re looking for different models,” said Tracey Trachta, chief marketing officer of Houston-based Carphoria, which solicits bids for used cars from multiple dealers in different markets, and takes a fee of $149 when they sell. Another, CarLotz, with locations in Virginia, and soon in North Carolina and Georgia, uses a consignment model; owners can drop the car off at the lot, and pay a fee (about $900) for the company to market and sell it. Now another start-up, Carlypso, is trying an approach that seeks to use technology to take the hassle out of marketing the car and scheduling test drives.