4:08 pm, September 28, 2020
The new car market is starting to open up again and this September could be the biggest plate-change month ever.
Helping consumers work their way through the huge amount of options available are some brilliant websites, rightfully recognised by our readers, but heycar really stood out.
It was only launched for the UK market in August 2019, having been established in Germany by Daimler and Volkswagen in 2016, but over the past year and despite the pandemic it’s now driving £40m-worth of sales a month to its 3,700 dealer partners.
It’s also attracted some 20m website visits, firmly establishing itself as a serious player in a crowded market.
Chief commercial officer Karen Hilton told us how delighted they were to win the award.
‘It’s made 12 months of really hard work absolutely worthwhile,’ she said.
‘We came out of the blocks this year with some really big ambitions, and one of the things we talked about was within a year we wanted to be a really credible threat within the industry.
‘It’s a clustered space, there’s lots going on, and 2020 has been a year like no other, so to win this award, it’s more than an award to go in the box, it means all the late nights were worth it.’
Hilton told how heycar had adapted to meet the challenges of the pandemic, working closely with dealers since ‘the world changed in March’, as they were its eyes and ears on what was going on, with developments it had made during the second and third quarters being the result of dealers’ ideas.
What makes heycar so different, would she say?
‘We’re all about quality, so we’re about providing franchise dealers with quality leads but also about giving consumers confidence that they are buying a quality vehicle that is within certain parameters and they’re going to be dealing with a quality dealership with fantastic physical facilities and great aftersales service.’
Looking ahead, Hilton said dealers could expect heycar to continue growing as fast as it could, as well as being an innovation partner.
‘I think particularly with the next six months and whatever they may hold, the more that we can do to help dealers really grab hold of that digital transformation opportunity, that’s certainly where all of our efforts are going to be focused.’
Car Dealer readers particularly highlighted heycar’s work with nearly new cars as a main reason for its win this year.
You can find out more in our special winners video above.
For more Car Dealer Power winners visit the dedicated section here.
