1:32 pm, October 19, 2021
The cost of buyer’s fees when purchasing vehicles at auction has shot up in recent times, making it hard for dealers to make a reasonable margin.
It has led to a several within the industry looking for an alternative and online platform Cartotrade may well have the answer.
The platform is available for a monthly membership cost of just £40 and comes without contracts or hidden fees.
We spoke to the company to find out more.
Here is what they told us…
More and more dealers are telling us the amounts they are having to pay in buyer’s fees, quite often in excess of £500 per vehicle when purchasing through the auctions
At this moment in time, these fees are making expensive cars just too expensive to make a reasonable margin.
We’ve also been told that many of our dealers are trying to buy directly from the public, incurring no buyer’s fees.
Some dealer groups are heavily focusing on people that they have sold cars to previously as a good source of used cars, letting their customer bank know that they can compete with the car buying services as they don’t need to top up the price with a sellers fee further along the road.
We’re frequently asked why we don’t charge more for our service or take a transactional per-car fee and the simple answer is that we’re just not greedy!
We have a genuine desire to help our dealers buy and sell trade stock without burdening them with huge costs for the privilege.
This may sound a bit far-fetched but having been car dealers and also having worked within the corporate car industry arena, we know what we’re comfortable charging.
Our small monthly membership cost of £40 is without contracts or buying/selling fees and can easily be covered for a whole year just through buying one or two fewer units from the block.
All of this is, of course, backed up by our vetted membership base. Great care and attention is taken by us as an experienced team to verify anyone accessing Cartotrade – we know we are only as good as our dealer base.
We regularly turn business away if we are unable to satisfy ourselves that an individual or business is established and experienced in the motor trade.
We also pride ourselves on our customer service, we are available on both email and by phone (within three rings) and dealers will receive a warm welcome from our friendly team when calling us, without enduring millions of options in order to speak to an actual human!
Alan Tinker, from Crossroads Garage, said: ‘In my first month of using Cartotrade, I’ve already bought five cars and sold six.
‘Cartotrade is exactly how it should be – easy to use, proper people and a fantastic service.
‘It takes me back to the good old days of Autotrade-mail’
Cartotrade offer a two-week free trial of their service which can be arranged by calling 01243 772200 or by visiting cartotrade.com.
