It's worth some googling if you guys are interested but Vroom and Carvana are venture-backed. They're running like Facebook and Amazon. They can run operating at a loss for years backed by interest free venture backed 'loans' and focus on growth and economies of scale.
The problem with this model is it destroys the classic agency model of used cars. It's causing a huge hole in the traditional way that used cars would end up on lots via auctions and because they only need to make $500 profit on every car they sell because they're also offering HUGE in-house financing then selling those pools of financed vehicles off to traditional banks in lots, they can undercut the used car dealer or auction house by a few percent per vehicle sold but Carvana is moving 100,000 cars a quarter so $500 profit up front and $1500 in interest over the 5 year loan. They're making huge amount of money yet still operating at a loss thanks to their venture financing.
An expert used car salesperson uses the market, the people they talk to, the latest auction data & their gut to offer you a price for your truck then their only job is to sell that car for a profit in-house or at auction.
Vroom is using thousands of data points. Site traffic, searches, trends, KBB/NADA/Auctions and the update their figures every second on every car out there BUT, they're willing to get very little profit on each transaction which undercuts the guy / dealer down the street.
Amazon's model worked for customers, for delivery carriers and for merchants who chose to sell on Amazon but it created this black hole in the in the e-commerce market where if you weren't with Amazon, you were out of business.
the pandemic and global supply market and low interest rates have made this perfect storm for these national venture backed used car companies to completely black-hole their way into market dominance at the expense of the used car market as we know it.
https://ir.vroom.com/static-files/b283c754-994b-49e9-86d7-5a746dd57a9e
Vroom is an innovative, end-to-end ecommerce platform designed to offer a better way to buy and sell used vehicles.
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