3 ms·

After a year in stealth, CarWoo (YC S09) launches today

40 points by tommy_mcclung 16y ago

After a year in stealth, we finally launched our company today. CarWoo! is an online new car buying market place, where buyers can come and say what they want and get dealers to compete for their business. Essentially this is a reverse auction for car buying. We waited over a year to launch so we could build our dealer network to over 3000 dealers nationwide. Let us know what you think... lots of posts coming about our YC experience and how we stayed under the radar for over a year, how we raised money, all the good stuff.

mc32 16y ago
The team pictures have obvious heavy shadows from a single flash. Otherwise, looks promising, I might give them a try next time round.
WesleyJohnson 16y ago
Seems like a pretty cool service and the intro video was pretty informative. I'd use it to buy my next car, because I'm terrible at negotiating face to face. A minor nitpick on the intro: I found it odd that they said "Follow us on twitter dot com slash carwoo". If the end user is savy enough to know what twitter is and want to use it, is the "dot com" necessary? It seems the phrase "follow us on twitter at [company name]" is used almost universally. Congrats to the CarWoo team for launching!
jonpaul 16y ago
Your other CarWoo business partner already submitted a link about CarWoo to HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1787451 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1787451
- hussong 16y ago
  FWIW, I don't think that was a Carwoo business partner.
aidenn0 16y ago
A couple of comments: 1) I know there are other companies that do something somewhat like this. My auto insurance company has a car buying service and I'm pretty sure it is run by a 3rd party. The business model is presumably different though (sell to auto clubs, etc). 2) The dealers it lists for me are mostly really far away. And I mean "I've never heard of that town, let's google maps it, wow, it's 5 hours of driving away!" far away.
scottkrager 16y ago
Neat service. Something I would use. Has some similarities to http://truecar.com http://truecar.com I'd like to see the specific options package listed (checkbox form maybe?) vs. having to write the features I'd like. That way there is really no negotiation that could go on.
tickle_me_elmo 16y ago
If the site has been running for over a year, how can it be said to "launch" today?
guynamedloren 16y ago
I will admit that I did not do any research beyond reading the article, but have you thought about how you will tackle the problem of the customer not test-driving the vehicle before purchase? The article makes me think the entire streamlined process can result in a signed contract in a relatively short period of time, without the customer ever seeing the vehicle that s/he had already into a legally binding agreement for. This could obviously result in all kinds of problems. Perhaps the article has simply left out a few steps...?
- fletchowns 16y ago
  Maybe it's supposed to be like buying snowboard boots online - go try on a few pairs, figure out exactly what you want, and then go and find the best price for it.
jonknee 16y ago
It's like CarsDirect, but paid for by the buyer instead of seller. Hard to judge its usefulness without buying a car, but there's room for a lot of players in this space.
karzeem 16y ago
I've never bought a car, but why do dealers keep inventory at all? Seems like it's the cause of all their headaches. Just have one of each model for test drives, then let people custom-order. I know people like to be able to drive off the lot with a new car, but we're talking about the biggest non-home purchase of their life. They're not willing to wait a few weeks to optimize it? Especially if the inventoryless dealer's lower costs mean they get a much better deal?
- brc 16y ago
  There are many people who need to buy a car there - now, that day or the next. Maybe their old one just died, maybe they are about to go away for work, whatever. Some people just want things right away. Spend some time around a car dealership and you'll find buyer behaviour that seems very unrational to a careful person, but then the spread of car buyer is pretty much the spread of the population. As such, dealers need a certain amount of inventory to keep the showroom full and satisfy buyer demands. Finally, you'd be surprised how many people can be upsold on expensive features (sunroof, leather, alloy wheels) with high margins because the car they are intending to buy is sitting right there, on the floor, ready to go, with just a teensy-weensy few more features on it. You wouldn't get upsold at McDonalds if you had to wait for the bigger fries, the same at dealers. Having the up-sell sitting right there, in front of the buyer, sometimes works with getting them to buy more. The flip side of this is that certain franchised dealers are forced to carry inventory by the manufacturer. The manufacturer helps out with the inventory costs by giving better finance on the inventory, but as a flip side they basically force-feed the dealer with stock. It's up to the dealer to move that stock. I guess from the manufacturers point of view, it gives them a certain level of predictability with their month-to-month sales and keeps the dealers working hard to move cars.
parfe 16y ago
Closed your website the second I saw I needed an account to continue. edit: I'll expand so you don't get confused by my comment. I drop by auto sites every now and again and customize a car to my liking, as a game. The idea of getting a car is playful. Most of the time I'm not seriously thinking of buying the vehicle. Now on your site, I can't customize a car. I can't even see what your site does. I could see myself playing around with models and brands and see a button at the end "We'll have 5 auto dealers bid on your dream car, $50. You'll save way more than $50 thanks to our competitive bidding process." Or you can alienate all the random drop-ins forcing them to sign in, or associate their real life facebook profiles with some random site on the nets. The value of your site appears to be in the bidding process. Not the customization process.
ja27 16y ago
It certainly seems like an easy to understand value prop. I've done ok on negotiating cars, but only after a lot of research and through a lot of frustration. I've told a friend of mine (an aggressive attorney) that I'd gladly pay her to go negotiate a car for me. One of my worst experiences was trying to play the "let dealers compete" game online. I'd get 4 to 24 hour turnaround times on emails, which just wasn't going to work. As a bonus, I still get several emails a week from dealers still trying to get my business. (Thankfully on my semi-throwaway account.)

40 points by tommy_mcclung 16y ago

mc32 16y ago

The team pictures have obvious heavy shadows from a single flash. Otherwise, looks promising, I might give them a try next time round.

WesleyJohnson 16y ago

Seems like a pretty cool service and the intro video was pretty informative. I'd use it to buy my next car, because I'm terrible at negotiating face to face. A minor nitpick on the intro: I found it odd that they said "Follow us on twitter dot com slash carwoo". If the end user is savy enough to know what twitter is and want to use it, is the "dot com" necessary? It seems the phrase "follow us on twitter at [company name]" is used almost universally. Congrats to the CarWoo team for launching!

jonpaul 16y ago

Your other CarWoo business partner already submitted a link about CarWoo to HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1787451 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1787451

hussong 16y ago
FWIW, I don't think that was a Carwoo business partner.

aidenn0 16y ago

A couple of comments: 1) I know there are other companies that do something somewhat like this. My auto insurance company has a car buying service and I'm pretty sure it is run by a 3rd party. The business model is presumably different though (sell to auto clubs, etc). 2) The dealers it lists for me are mostly really far away. And I mean "I've never heard of that town, let's google maps it, wow, it's 5 hours of driving away!" far away.

scottkrager 16y ago

Neat service. Something I would use. Has some similarities to http://truecar.com http://truecar.com I'd like to see the specific options package listed (checkbox form maybe?) vs. having to write the features I'd like. That way there is really no negotiation that could go on.

tickle_me_elmo 16y ago

If the site has been running for over a year, how can it be said to "launch" today?

guynamedloren 16y ago

I will admit that I did not do any research beyond reading the article, but have you thought about how you will tackle the problem of the customer not test-driving the vehicle before purchase? The article makes me think the entire streamlined process can result in a signed contract in a relatively short period of time, without the customer ever seeing the vehicle that s/he had already into a legally binding agreement for. This could obviously result in all kinds of problems. Perhaps the article has simply left out a few steps...?

fletchowns 16y ago
Maybe it's supposed to be like buying snowboard boots online - go try on a few pairs, figure out exactly what you want, and then go and find the best price for it.

jonknee 16y ago

It's like CarsDirect, but paid for by the buyer instead of seller. Hard to judge its usefulness without buying a car, but there's room for a lot of players in this space.

karzeem 16y ago

I've never bought a car, but why do dealers keep inventory at all? Seems like it's the cause of all their headaches. Just have one of each model for test drives, then let people custom-order. I know people like to be able to drive off the lot with a new car, but we're talking about the biggest non-home purchase of their life. They're not willing to wait a few weeks to optimize it? Especially if the inventoryless dealer's lower costs mean they get a much better deal?

brc 16y ago
There are many people who need to buy a car there - now, that day or the next. Maybe their old one just died, maybe they are about to go away for work, whatever. Some people just want things right away. Spend some time around a car dealership and you'll find buyer behaviour that seems very unrational to a careful person, but then the spread of car buyer is pretty much the spread of the population. As such, dealers need a certain amount of inventory to keep the showroom full and satisfy buyer demands. Finally, you'd be surprised how many people can be upsold on expensive features (sunroof, leather, alloy wheels) with high margins because the car they are intending to buy is sitting right there, on the floor, ready to go, with just a teensy-weensy few more features on it. You wouldn't get upsold at McDonalds if you had to wait for the bigger fries, the same at dealers. Having the up-sell sitting right there, in front of the buyer, sometimes works with getting them to buy more. The flip side of this is that certain franchised dealers are forced to carry inventory by the manufacturer. The manufacturer helps out with the inventory costs by giving better finance on the inventory, but as a flip side they basically force-feed the dealer with stock. It's up to the dealer to move that stock. I guess from the manufacturers point of view, it gives them a certain level of predictability with their month-to-month sales and keeps the dealers working hard to move cars.

parfe 16y ago

Closed your website the second I saw I needed an account to continue. edit: I'll expand so you don't get confused by my comment. I drop by auto sites every now and again and customize a car to my liking, as a game. The idea of getting a car is playful. Most of the time I'm not seriously thinking of buying the vehicle. Now on your site, I can't customize a car. I can't even see what your site does. I could see myself playing around with models and brands and see a button at the end "We'll have 5 auto dealers bid on your dream car, $50. You'll save way more than $50 thanks to our competitive bidding process." Or you can alienate all the random drop-ins forcing them to sign in, or associate their real life facebook profiles with some random site on the nets. The value of your site appears to be in the bidding process. Not the customization process.

ja27 16y ago

It certainly seems like an easy to understand value prop. I've done ok on negotiating cars, but only after a lot of research and through a lot of frustration. I've told a friend of mine (an aggressive attorney) that I'd gladly pay her to go negotiate a car for me. One of my worst experiences was trying to play the "let dealers compete" game online. I'd get 4 to 24 hour turnaround times on emails, which just wasn't going to work. As a bonus, I still get several emails a week from dealers still trying to get my business. (Thankfully on my semi-throwaway account.)