9:01 am, May 6, 2026
Online used car business Cinch ‘rasied the bar for everybody’ in the automotive industry when it first burst onto the scene back in 2020.
That is according to one former insider, who says that online only used car sales still have a part to play, five years on from his departure from the firm.
Jason Cranswick worked as the company’s retail director between 2020 and 2021, seeing first hand how the operation was looking to shake up the motor trade.
And while high profile rivals like Cazoo may have fallen by the wayside in the years since, Cranswick believes a purely digital model could still work.
After departing Cinch, Cranswick took up the role of chief executive officer at Marubeni Auto Investment and he now runs his own firm – Cranswick Consulting – which works with a number of firms, including within the motor trade.
He appeared on the most recent episode of the Car Dealer Podcast, where he reflected on what it was like working for Cinch back in its earliest days.
He told hosts James Baggott and Jon Reay: ‘I think what Cinch did do was it raised the bar for everybody.
‘There aren’t many dealers now that don’t have great imagery. There aren’t many dealers now that don’t have price transparency. There aren’t many dealers that haven’t got some form of reservation or route transaction.
‘Now even with the AI, there’s a lot of people that first contact is being done by an agent because it’s just what some customers want – not everyone – but some customers want that.’
He added: ‘Is there a place [for an online only used car business]? Yes, I think there is.
‘Is it going to be the dominant, most disruptive channel? No, it’s not, but there is a place for it.
‘I bought a car end to end online six months ago, but I was pretty clear on what I wanted, and I was quite comfortable with it as a process.
‘But I also think, unless I’ve completely mistaken, the only people that buy cars are humans, the only people that drive cars are humans. And in the majority of cases, humans are centre to the sale of cars.
‘It is that non-linear, omni-channel, you choose how you want it, when you want it kind of world we live in, so I think there is a massive place for online.’
Since leaving the front line of the motor trade, Cranswick has focussed on his own consultancy company.
Cranswick Consultancy provided executive coaching, advisory services, non-executive directorships and business transformation consultancy to a number of firms from different sectors.
It is a journey which saw Cranswick go back to school to go through the ILM Executive Coaching and Mentoring Programme before also passing a non-exec director programme at Cranfield School.
Explaining what his work life looks like now, after more than three decades in the automotive industry, he added: ‘I entered the world of working as a coach and advisor. Initially I thought it’d be interesting to see how many clients I could pick up, and I got three or four early days.
‘Now I work across a portfolio of about 10 retained clients across the ecosystem. One dealer, a couple of OEMs, some finance businesses, some startup businesses, and a big US tech business.
‘I coach about a dozen leaders. Some of them are from within those client bases, and some of them are individuals – usually C-suite somewhere – either trying to work out how they’re changing their businesses, or candidly trying to work out how they change their jobs.
‘That’s kind of where I come in as a coach and it’s good fun’
