GM launches used car website
CarBravo to compete with Carvana
Motorists interested in buying will soon have access to hundreds of thousands of used cars on a new digital sales platform from General Motors.
On Tuesday, GM unveiled CarBravo, a website that will list the entire used vehicle inventory of participating GM dealerships, as well as the used vehicles owned by GM and its financial division, GM Financial.
According to the company, there are always 400,000 used vehicles in the dealerships. The dealers sell around 2.5 million used cars a year. GM and GM Financial have an additional 500,000 used vehicles in stock each year.
"CarBravo gives customers more choice and access to a significantly expanded inventory of both dealer and national GM used vehicles," said Steve Carlisle, GM executive vice president and president of GM North America. "It is important that the program functions are also offered for non-GM used vehicles."
GM will enroll its 3,800 US dealerships in CarBravo over the next few months and then roll out the program to consumers in a regional rollout this spring.
Consumers can order a car online from participating GM dealerships or find a local GM dealer to shop in person. GM expects most of its 3,800 dealers to attend.
CarMax and Carvana are currently the largest used car dealers. However, CarBravo sets itself apart by offering used car buyers a number of benefits, according to Carlisle.
Customers have the option to choose from a greater number of used car dealers than CarMax, he said.
Carvana said in a statement to Free Press that it was the fastest organic growth auto dealer company in US history "and that it had pioneered online car purchases. It was the fastest retailer to sell a million vehicles online have sold.
Carvana did not respond to GM's announcement, simply saying that it would continue to focus on serving customers, delivering value and leveraging new technologies.
CarMax responded to the news by stating that the company is the nation's largest buyer and seller of used cars, offering full online service and 220 stores where customers can shop. According to its own information, CarMax also has the country's largest inventory of used cars of almost all brands and models.
"While we're still learning about GM's newly announced service, what they set out to do is tough," said Jim Lyski, CarMax executive vice president and chief marketing officer responsible for strategy, product and marketing. "They need to build capacity to provide the seamless link between online and physical stores that customers demand, across all of their dealerships. As we've seen at CarMax, it will be worth it if they can do that."
Lyski said he was confident that CarMax would lead the industry through continuous innovation.
GMs CarBravo will provide customers with:
A standard six month or 6,000 mile warranty on most vehicles Clear dealer prices and virtual 360-degree views of the vehicle Vehicle history reports All vehicles are inspected and prepared according to the standards set by GM Guaranteed online offers for the purchase of customer vehicles, even if they do not buy a vehicle through CarBravo Access to GM's nationwide dealer network for service and maintenance. Breakdown service, special trips, OnStar and SiriusXM test drives for registered vehicles. Customers can also take test drives at home and make home deliveries if this is possible at participating dealerships.
GM has worked with dealers to develop CarBravo over the past 18 months, said Todd Ingersoll, manager of Ingersoll Auto's Danbury, Connecticut dealership, whose dealership was participating in the CarBravo pilot.
"We worked together on the CarBravo suite of benefits, the customer experience and the dealer process," said Ingersoll. "The most successful new car dealers have a good used car business".
According to Ingersoll, around 10% of car buyers shop online. Some customers have the vehicle delivered by a dealer, while others want to receive the car at a dealership.
"(CarBravo) gives the customer the choice of how to handle the purchase," said Ingersoll.
GM started CarBravo because almost 70% of the vehicles sold today are used, according to Carlisle. He said the used car market has grown over the past five years and is less prone to market fluctuations than the new car market. "We know that used vehicles are incredibly important in building customer loyalty to our brands," Carlisle said at a press conference. "In order to continue building loyalty and business opportunities for us and our dealers, CarBravo is a whole new portal to reach new customers."
Carlisle said GM sees potential additional revenue streams from registering OnStar and using dealers for service.
"We also expect all the income we generate after selling a new car from the used car," said Carlisle. "The GM part of the inventory that dealers will have access to, customers will have what are called GM units ... off-lease vehicles ... gives us the ability to improve residual values, which is directly on affects the bottom line. "
However, Carlisle said GM will ultimately use the platform to offer new cars and electric vehicles.
"We're rolling out the digital retail platform starting with our EV programs, all of which run on the DRP platform. What we're talking about today is extending the use of that platform to CarBravo, to include used cars," said Carlisle.