Online used car seller Carma has completed its first year of trading with over 1,000 cars delivered and 750+ used cars currently featured in its online showroom. Its fleet of single car carriers have driven 100,000 kilometres delivering quality used cars throughout Greater Sydney, and it has now opened a dedicated pickup point for car collection at its site in Alexandria.
At the 1st birthday celebration we spoke to Peter Willis, Head of Buying at Carma, to get some insights into the wholesale and retail markets for second hand fleet vehicles.
Willis and the team look for used cars that are less than seven years old and work on having a mix of stock to make sure they have SUV, utes and passenger vehicles in each of the key price brackets.
“Our product and tech guys are all over that,” explains Willis. “That dynamic, and that mix of the stock to make sure we have good SUVs, good hatchbacks and all the different price brackets. You want to be able to have something that caters to everyone in each price bracket.”
“Average price is about $35k, that’s what people are looking for. They’re generally not looking to pay $70-$80,000 on a used car unless it’s something hard to find or unique.”
With more than 750 cars in stock and plans to reach 2,000, Willis has to keep his eyes on the market and ensure they are buying right. We asked him about the reports of a decline in prices last year.
“If you go back to August/September last year, we definitely started to see a softening, I wouldn’t say it was a dramatic drop. There was definitely that adjustment across the board. It wasn’t in any particular segment, but in that sub $25k bracket, there was no movement.”
“When we got through Christmas, there’s always a jump early in the year, people come back from holidays and think about buying a new car. There was a three or four week period where there was an acceleration, the market was hot, it was harder for us to buy cars. We didn’t buy as many as we normally do, just because we could see the market spiking. I feel like now, it’s come back to a more manageable level.”
“That’s from a wholesale level which doesn’t really dictate what retail does. All the way through January we had strong retail leads, a huge amount of enquiry. In February, there was still a huge amount of enquiry but conversion was a little bit harder. Into this month we actually had a slower start but we’re right on target now.”
According to Willis, interest rates stop the enquiries for a day or two either side of the monthly announcement, then people realise they still need a new car and the website traffic increases again.
In line with its mission to provide the best used car buying experience in Australia, Carma is continuing to expand its services. Customers are now able to digitally submit details about their existing vehicles via the platform and receive purchase and trade-in offers from Carma.
“Carma is disrupting the local used car market, and with customer excellence at the heart of our operations we hope to transform the way Australians feel about buying a used car. Carma has already made a significant impact in the local industry, and we’re looking forward to the brand becoming more prominent and recognisable across the Australian market,” said Carma Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Yosuke Hall.
Carma Co-founder and CEO, Lachlan MacGregor said, “Carma is transforming the way Australians buy cars, winning the trust of our customers and solving real pain points in the buying process. Since the launch of our bespoke online platform we have continued to expand our business and are committed to becoming the recognised leader in used cars in Australia.”
