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Post by ChrisM on Feb 27, 2023 21:26:26 GMT
Anyone remember the "catchy" jingle that Cazoo used to use? They are in severe financial problems, shedding businesses and sites left, right and centre as they attempt to stay solvent. They have spent a small fortune on advertising and sponsorship/marketing. I do wonder how they over-estimated by such a huge factor the number of used cars they thought they could sell the public off the internet without giving you a chance to see or test-dive the car, but still charging almost full retail price and offering fairly low trade-ins, non-negotiable and without viewing the car.
Well, it looks like the result is that they got it wrong (not much of a surprise to me) but somehow they convinced a whole load of lenders to part with a whole load of money and they may be going down the pan. Is buying used without seeing the car you'd like really the way to go?
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Post by michael on Feb 27, 2023 21:32:25 GMT
A lot of their trucks have private Cazoo themed registration plates which I always thought demonstrated a lack of priority.
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Post by PetrolEd on Feb 27, 2023 22:36:24 GMT
A lot of their trucks have private Cazoo themed registration plates which I always thought demonstrated a lack of priority. Marketin innit |
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Post by michael on Feb 27, 2023 22:46:12 GMT
Not sure it’s the registration that’s markets the brand here…  |
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Post by Alex on Feb 28, 2023 6:40:31 GMT
Didn't realise they were in the shit but you're right about how much money they've been splashing on advertising. Putting their names on the shirts of two prem teams (and a few European ones) doesn't come cheap. Evidently they've been riding thr wave of high used car prices but with a lack of stock in the used car industry and high lending costs reducing customer buying power the party might be over for these start up car websites.
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Post by Tim on Feb 28, 2023 8:34:06 GMT
Not just riding the wave of used car prices but also the recent tech bubble (if only there was some lesson from recent history about that!).
Weren't they valued at something ridiculous like £10 Billion last year?
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Post by bryan on Feb 28, 2023 10:27:37 GMT
I always thought they were the online arm of an established player or am I thinking of Cinch?
One is part of British Car Auctions, and WBAC I think
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Post by PG on Feb 28, 2023 10:55:02 GMT
It's like so many of these "good ideas". It may well be a good idea to market cars over the internet and done right and built well it might have worked. But like all things that get noticed, the founders get greedy, investors pile in, they get given a shit load of money and are told to expand far and wide really quickly and that they see huge losses as "investment". And then when the investment does not pay back they go bust. Cazoo have completely pulled out of Europe (always a great idea to pile into a load of foreign places really quickly.....) and are still losing money it seems.
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Post by ChrisM on Feb 28, 2023 17:21:25 GMT
Their business plan called for something like a quarter of a million used car sales in the UK in 2023. Last year they sold around 60,000 and their revised forecast for this year is, from memory, about 45,000 so they're having to get rid of preparation centres and sales/handover sites PDQ to stem the losses. No mention of management jobs being cut.....
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Post by Alex on Mar 1, 2023 19:28:22 GMT
I wonder if the boom was caused by Covid and everyone moving to buying online during lockdown making their business model look like a great idea that went big at just the right time. Perhaps they failed to anticipate how much of an appetite there was among the public to try to revert to business as usual ie. physically going to a dealer who you can haggle with as opposed to the click and collect model that offers no wriggle room on pricing.
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Post by ChrisM on Mar 1, 2023 19:51:47 GMT
I'm amazed that so many people would buy a used car without seeing it or test-driving it. Just over a year ago when I was looking at buying a car to see younger daughter through after her accident, I test-drove a VW Polo at a dealer near where she lives. It had the same engine as the one I ended up buying a few hours later but had done half the miles. Trouble is, it just didn't pull as well.... didn't run as smoothly and the car generally felt worse on the road. The one I bought I test drove after driving straight to the garage having made a phone call after the earlier disappointment, and the car just felt "right" from the off. On paper, newer car, lower mileage, better colour .... should have been the winner but in practice it wasn't
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Post by LandieMark on Mar 1, 2023 20:59:49 GMT
I bought my truck sight unseen without driving it. A pickup is pretty much of a muchness IMO and it was cheap.
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Post by PG on Mar 3, 2023 9:07:01 GMT
Looks like Purple Bricks is another internet sensation company that's about to go flop too. Shares down 92% from their peak. Expensive expansion into US and Australia a complete disaster. Loss making in main market. Redundancies all round etc etc.
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Post by LandieMark on Mar 3, 2023 10:24:50 GMT
I've hear Purple Bricks are an absolute nightmare - especially if you go for their conveyancing package as well. I've always used a local agent for our stuff - they get results and know their market.
Just sold a property that had come to the end of its useful life with us in two months through them.
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Post by Big Blue on Mar 3, 2023 12:18:46 GMT
Only ever seen one Purple Bricks board round our way in a decade. Local agents rule the roost: even Foxtons never got a look in.
I made money on Purple Bricks back when they were in vogue. Wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole now.
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Post by Tim on Mar 3, 2023 12:52:34 GMT
The folk we bought from used Purple Bricks.
I had the impression they had to do a lot of the normal estate agent work themselves.
Didn't really seem worth the hassle for a relatively minor cost saving.
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Post by Roadrunner on Mar 3, 2023 15:25:54 GMT
From what I have seen of the Purple Bricks way of working, it involves putting an overly-optimistic price on the property to tempt the seller to instruct, taking a listing fee, then doing next to bugger all afterwards. Much the same as all the other Internet based agents. There is no commission on the sale after the initial fee, so little incentive to work a sale through to completion.
Always best to use a good, local agent who knows his market and where his buyers are coming from; and who's own income is dependent upon seeing the deal through to a successful conclusion.
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Post by michael on Mar 3, 2023 18:17:48 GMT
We were looking to move before lockdown and had Purple Bricks out. They valued the house £100k over everyone else. When we subsequently looked for a house for the outlaws we realised that Purple Bricks houses were all overpriced and generally not worth looking at as the owners were convinced their house was worth a fortune.
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Post by Grampa on Mar 6, 2023 17:06:59 GMT
I'm amazed that so many people would buy a used car without seeing it or test-driving it. My daughter and son-in-law did this with their Fiat, but it was direct from a dealer 230 miles away rather than through one these selling sites. They drove it down, she drove it (and asked me to as well) and could send it back with the driver if she didn't like it. Any issues were recorded (as I recall there was a chip in the windscreen) which the dealer paid to have sorted locally. |
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Post by PG on Mar 6, 2023 17:37:14 GMT
I'm pretty sure (can't be bothered to read all the regs) that in some ways you have more consumer protection if you buy a car sight unseen over the web because then the regulations allow you to return the goods up to 14 days after receipt, even if they are satisfactory. But then of you keep it longer than 14 days, getting any warranty work done could turn out to be a nightmare if the garage become difficult.
I bought my first Jag X Type unseen from a Jag dealer 200 miles away. Car was as described except that it had terrible stone chips all over the front bumper and bonnet. Whether they happened on the transporter on that way to me or were there already I don't know. But they paid for the paint work to be done and so it was all OK.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Mar 6, 2023 18:09:48 GMT
I'm amazed that so many people would buy a used car without seeing it or test-driving it. My daughter and son-in-law did this with their Fiat, but it was direct from a dealer 230 miles away rather than through one these selling sites. They drove it down, she drove it (and asked me to as well) and could send it back with the driver if she didn't like it. Any issues were recorded (as I recall there was a chip in the windscreen) which the dealer paid to have sorted locally. Yeah, I bought my 320d from a dealer in Edinburgh, 120 miles away. They sent a walk around video and I paid a deposit and they arranged finance. I drove up on the weekend, looked at it, drove it, and then signed the paperwork, driving it home. |
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Post by Tim on Mar 7, 2023 9:39:12 GMT
I bought a used Punto from the FIAT garage in Glasgow, drove it home and then a variety of problems came to light.
Took it to my local dealer (same group) in Dundee and while they were helpful they were unable to fix some of the problems as the selling branch wouldn't authorise them.
Should've known before I bought the car as had broken 2 self imposed rules - 1) buying used from that dealer group, and 2) buying a used car from Glasgow (sorry John!).
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Post by johnc on Mar 7, 2023 11:36:38 GMT
Should've known before I bought the car as had broken 2 self imposed rules - 1) buying used from that dealer group, and 2) buying a used car from Glasgow (sorry John!). I can take it! I think twice before buying anything in Glasgow. |
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Post by alf on Mar 7, 2023 15:52:48 GMT
I wonder if the boom was caused by Covid and everyone moving to buying online during lockdown making their business model look like a great idea that went big at just the right time. Perhaps they failed to anticipate how much of an appetite there was among the public to try to revert to business as usual ie. physically going to a dealer who you can haggle with as opposed to the click and collect model that offers no wriggle room on pricing. I suspect this is the case. It's funny how the advertising spend can make you think a company is doing well, but may mean the opposite... Such is the weird world of burning off other people's money with these startups! |
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Post by johnc on Mar 7, 2023 17:38:46 GMT
Mercedes and some other manufacturers seem to think they can now apply a no negotiate fixed price across all platforms including dealers. I can see this pushing us back to the days when fleets were the only ones to get discounts and very few private buyers bought new.
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