“We think of car buying and car selling in a completely different way,” said Alejandro Resnik, CEO of Beepi. Yet startup Beepi, a licensed online dealer of used cars, has been operating its alternative auto business, a competitor to Shift, in San Diego since March and insists the test drive is a thing of the past. “Our experience at (Kelley Blue Book) is that people still want to see the car they want to buy,” said Jack Nerad, an executive market analyst with Kelley Blue Book. The test drive, however, turns out to be divisive detail in the debate as to whether online used car players can effectively sell direct to consumers. The idea is to keep cars in close proximity to local buyers, as part of Shift’s twist is to deliver a car, on demand, to a prospective buyer’s home or office, leaving one of the core tenets of old-fashioned car-buying intact: the test drive. Shift’s buying component, however, won’t arrive in San Diego until the company establishes a warehouse locally, which it plans to do early next year.Ĭurrently, Shift operates warehouses in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and uses the locations to house and prep its for-sale inventory. Shift operates a two-sided marketplace, meaning the company offers a similar, hands-off experience for would-be buyers who also want to avoid the dealership experience.
The selling process, Ingersoll said, generally takes less than 30 days, and, if Shift can’t find a buyer, the seller is paid after 60 days.
Plus, no matter what, the seller will always receive at least the amount originally offered. And, if Shift sells the car for more than the original offer, it will split the extra proceeds, 50-50, with the customer.
#SHIFT USED CARS SAN DIEGO PROFESSIONAL#
Should the seller accept the deal, Shift takes the car into its possession, puts it through a rigorous inspection and detailing process, snaps professional photos and uses its founders’ Google-prowess to intelligently list the vehicle across a variety of sites. “We use an algorithm, and it’s based on how fast we think we can sell your car, or demand from markets,” Ingersoll said. The price is calculated by dissecting car sales data in local markets. The company then dispatches an employee, called a “car enthusiast,” to the seller’s location to perform a 15-minute evaluation of the car and make a firm offer. With Shift, interested sellers need only visit the company’s website and enter some basic information about their vehicle to receive a quote.
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