

CarWoo (YC S09) promises car buyers hassle-free quotes, raises $4.2M - waderoush
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2010/10/13/carwoo-promises-car-buyers-hassle-free-quotes-online-raises-4-2-million/

======
johnnygood
Something I'd like to point out: <http://i.imgur.com/gNdLh.png>

Make sure you test your fonts on Windows both with and without Cleartype. A
few of the trendy new sites are using this font now and it's near unreadable
on Windows without Cleartype. The site looks awesome and I'm looking forward
to using it (excellent timing in my life). However, the font issue is going to
be a big pain for Windows users.

Even with Cleartype (<http://i.imgur.com/EQNr5.png>), the fonts look bad.
Anything that is rounded on the top (2, 0, 9, S, etc.) has an odd bump in the
center. While it's more readable (due to the darker rendering that Cleartype
is giving it), it's quite jagged.

I'm mostly posting this since I'm guessing someone from CarWoo will be reading
this thread. I've always wanted a service like CarWoo and I think you've got
something really great.

\--

I've found another thing: when you're selecting a style, you're only allowed
one. Rather than making it radio buttons, you've used checkboxes and popped up
a JS alert when I select two. It means I have to de-select the original before
changing my mind. You could keep the checkbox look while making it behave as
radio buttons would.

EDIT: During the process (I haven't paid yet), it didn't ask me what options I
wanted with the car. That means that if I get a quote for the car, it isn't
the quote I want.

The other problem I see is that I can't compare the deal I'd get on a Camry
and an Accord. Often times, people make decisions between two models based on
price rather than deciding between the two models and then looking for the
best price on that model. I was told by the chat help on your site that I'd
have to purchase two plans if I wanted to get a quote on two different cars.
During my car buying experience, I'm likely to narrow it down to 2 or 3 cars
in the same class and then want to see the price difference. If a dealership
is giving me $1,000 less on a Camry (which might have started out with the
same MSRP), that might sway me away from the Accord.

~~~
dolinsky
_I've found another thing: when you're selecting a style, you're only allowed
one. Rather than making it radio buttons, you've used checkboxes and popped up
a JS alert when I select two. It means I have to de-select the original before
changing my mind. You could keep the checkbox look while making it behave as
radio buttons would._

This is really bad advice, IMO. A radio button implies "choose 1 of" while a
checkbox implies "select 1 or more". That's a basic web design (and W3C)
principle. I would suggest changing the list of trims to radio buttons, or at
a minimum changing the span.checkbox background image to look like a radio
button if you have other reasons for hiding the actual input fields.

~~~
myoung8
Just FYI, this has been fixed, we're now using radio buttons. You can see my
response below as to why we were using checkboxes in the first place.

------
mikeryan
I'm actually in the market for a new car and this sounds promising.

So I'm actually looking at this as a new consumer and a few notes on the
experience (my first obviously)

1\. The site is too wide. Annoyingly so, I don't know why I'm so put off by
this but I literally have to widen my browser to get it to render correctly
and it makes me uncomfortable. Considering how much empty space there is I'm
not sure why its got to be over 1200px wide with no margins. YMMV I'm just one
data point

2\. I'm not comfortable with, what appears, to be the requirement to signup
right away. I'm not clear on the process here, but I'd like to browse a bit
without having to log in to anything. I also don't like not being to signup
using facebook without having to give an email. Here's the thing car buying is
one of those things where I _hate_ giving out my contact info they tend to
just be spam beacons. Let me do something without having to register my email
address. I'd prefer to choose my car and options etc.

I'd honestly prefer to get to the point in the process where the only thing
left to do is for me to pay you and you send my info to the dealers before I
need to sign up.

3\. Creating a log in without a password verification seems like a bad idea.
What if I screw this up (or worse screw this and my email up)? By the way
there's an issue with your reset password page.
<http://public.adifferentengine.com/files/badreset.png>

4\. I tried the car I want and I'm missing a bunch of option choices. I've got
a pretty exact idea of the car that I want and there's a bunch of options that
I can't choose. In my case I have a very exact idea of the car I want and I
just want the lowest price from the dealers. Having to deal with negotiations
based on price with varying options is a hassle I don't want to really deal
with.

Anyway I'm not buying today but I'll probably give it a try "For Real" in the
near future seems like something I'd want.

~~~
myoung8
Mike, thanks for your feedback. I'll respond to each of your points:

1\. We optimized for the majority of our users' browser resolutions. Your not
the first to give us this feedback, though, and if we get enough of it we'll
switch to a narrower layout.

2\. Understandable. There are 3 issues here:

a) Trying CarWoo! before signing up: unfortunately, there just isn't a way to
use the product without diving right in and getting in touch with dealers.
When that happens we need a way to notify the user of what's happening within
the app. Once we build features that have to do with research we won't require
a signup to use them.

b) Spam: you are exactly right, giving your email address to a dealer is
asking for spam. It's a big part of the reason we built CarWoo! The difference
is that we actually _prevent_ you from getting spammed because we serve as a
proxy, relaying all dealers' emails to your email address and vice-versa. To
do that, though, we need your email :)

We are very much anti-spam. The only emails you'll get from us have to do with
your use of the application.

c) Changing the signup funnel to have contact info at the end. We split-tested
different funnel variations (signup first, signup last, etc.) and what we've
got right now simply converted best to paying customers. At the end of the
day, that's what we have to make our decisions on, even though it might rub
some people the wrong way.

3\. Thanks for pointing out that issue, we'll fix it ASAP. Again, we split-
tested it with email-verification and password-verification and what we've got
now converts statistically significantly better (without a big increase in
support requests for lost passwords or emails)

4\. This is actually a big can of worms, but I'll try to explain briefly:
manufacturers (Honda, Ford, GM, etc.) only build cars certain ways. Even if
you can "configure" it on Edmunds or Cars.com a certain way, that doesn't mean
that you can actually buy a car with those options.

Letting users check off options is actually a nightmare for the buyer and for
dealers because it sets buyers' expectations too high at the start and makes
it seem like dealers are uncooperative.

To further complicate things, manufacturers refuse to release build
information and there's no easy way to get it from dealers. So were left with
being able to determine builds on an ad-hoc basis.

Finally, not all dealers get the same builds, and some add what are called
"Dealer-Installed Options." At the end of the day, even if you knew exactly
what you wanted, there's no way to guarantee anyone has it or that everyone
has it. The only way to find out is to ask. And CarWoo! makes asking
incredibly easy and noncommital, plus you won't get spammed just for asking
(and if you don't buy a car because it's not exactly what you wanted, then we
always give you your money back).

At the end of the day, we decided to architect our solution so it works really
well most of the time (a-la Pareto Principle). There will always be cases
where it doesn't, but we're not trying to please everybody.

To wrap it all up, a lot of the things we've done don't work well for people
who aren't ready to buy right now. But like I've mentioned elsewhere, we're
not in the business (yet) of helping people figure out what kind of car to
buy, we're in the business of making it really easy for them to negotiate with
dealers.

Hope that helps. Feel free to email me at michael@carwoo.com if you've got
further questions and let me know if you'd like a coupon when you do try
CarWoo!

~~~
daniel-cussen
Are you sure you're going to keep that ! at the end of CarWoo? Like Yahoo!?

------
stjarnljuset
I bought my first car a couple months ago through CarWoo (I found them through
HN) and had a pleasant experience compared to what I went through when
stopping by dealers in person, but then again, I'm not an aggressive haggler.

Carwoo was price testing at the time. (I saw $39-$59) I paid the $59 and think
it was completely worth it, although this is my opinion after trying the
service.

Something else that I found surprising was that I got better support through
Twitter than through email.

~~~
mcargian
If you don't mind me asking - what did you end up paying compared to the
sticker price? The problem with most services like Carwoo is that you can get
a much better deal yourself with a little bit of knowledge and some time.

~~~
stjarnljuset
I can't for the life of me remember which options I got. I didn't know much
about cars before this, so I didn't even realize that cars came with options.

This is pretty much the car that I bought:
[http://www.marinadelreytoyota.com/vehicle/specs/toyota/corol...](http://www.marinadelreytoyota.com/vehicle/specs/toyota/corolla/2010/vin/JTDBU4EE3A9110269)

One of the first dealers I visited in person told me the sticker price of
$18,050, and I didn't think much of it since I thought they would easily lower
it. At the desk, they quoted the sticker price and wouldn't budge until we
walked out and were already halfway down the driveway, then whispered a price
of $16,800.

Second in-person dealer, my dad called a friend and asked for a dealer
recommendation. He went up to him and talked about all their mutual contacts
and asked for his best price and was quoted $16,400 and that he couldn't go
lower than that.

I sent a counter offer to one of my Carwoo dealers and got my car for $16,200.
I also got a $1,000 college graduate rebate (which I would've gotten at other
dealers too).

To skip all that running around and haggling, I would feel more at ease
sitting at my computer and clicking "Accept deal" and paying the $49 for the
service.

Edit: Before using Carwoo, I tried to get a quote from a local dealer through
their website. I guess I skipped some fine print because they ended up leaving
me voicemails and emails for the next 2 months.

------
ahi
Maybe this will save people some googling.

7.6 million passenger cars sold in 2006 in the US * ~$30 per buyer = $228
million is pretty much the hard limit for yearly revenue at least without
going international. Maybe 10% of all sales is an ambitious yet attainable
goal so $23m in revenues?

I think it's a winner, but it could easily pull a digg and take too much vc
for its own good.

~~~
jon_dahl
I wouldn't worry about that. If they control 10% (or even 5%) of all car
purchases in the US, they're going to be well positioned to do a ton of other
interesting things.

~~~
InclinedPlane
This seems to fall victim to the classic "if we only get X tiny % of some big
market worth Y, then..." fallacy. The real question is how strong their
product offering is and what a realistic estimate of their popularity would
be.

~~~
jon_dahl
Sort of. X% of the market is a terrible growth strategy, but it's a decent
gut-check to size a market. The previous poster was complaining that this gut-
check wasn't big enough. The problem with that is thinking that a company is
stuck with today's business model forever. If that were true, Google would
still be selling search appliances.

------
tocomment
Won't the dealers still be sleazy when you go to pick up the car and pay the
agreed price? Won't they tack on extra things, say the price they quoted
doesn't include a warranty, or who knows what other tricks?

Also how does CarWoo handle trade-ins? What about financing?

I really hope this work out though. I swore off buying new cars after my last
terrible experience at a dealer. Hopefully something like this might let me
buy a new car yet.

~~~
myoung8
We've built a reputation system, which, in short, helps ward off a lot of bad
dealer behavior. I can get into more details if anyone's interested.

If you have a trade-in, you can describe it and the dealers will include a
quote for that in addition to the quote for the new car.

They can also give you an estimate for financing, although for the most part
that is still handled at the dealership. Financing is one of those last-mile
problems that we haven't totally solved yet, but we're working on it.

~~~
rsbrown
I really like the looks of your product so far. If you offered the option of
financing the purchase for the consumer, that would be a huge value
proposition. I imagine the dealerships would not like this, but I urge you to
consider it for the future.

------
Empedocles99
How to buy a car:

1) Do research, determine a reasonable price for the car.

The cost structure of car dealerships is complicated with incentives, to the
buyer and the dealership from the manufacturer (holdbacks, etc.) There are
spreadsheets and data available on the internet to compute fair pricing.

2) Call all the dealerships that you are willing to travel to. Tell them your
price, ask if they will sell the car to you for that price, "out the door,
including taxes and registration"

Many of them will say "we don't negotiate over the phone". That is fine, don't
buy from them, they want you to come in and give you a hard sale.

Eventually you will find one or more that are willing to sell to you.

3) If you need financing, get it from a credit union beforehand, unless the
dealership has a special deal going. One less thing to negotiate at the
dealership.

4) The basic takeaway is: Don't go to the dealership to buy a car without an
agreed price. Test drives in the days beforehand are fine. If you arrive, and
they don't want to honor the price, just leave. There are more dealerships,
dishonest people don't deserve your money.

------
ajju
Was signing up and realized I have a question on the very last page (choose a
plan). Now every time I try going to the FAQ, it redirects me back to the sign
up page. It's very irritating.

FWIW my question is: Can I switch from "need financing" to "don't need
financing" after signing up? It seems like I can't even go to the previous
page and switch it while I am signing up.

If not, can you add an option there which lets me get pricing for both
options, because whether or not I get a loan depends on what rates they offer
me.

~~~
myoung8
Yes, you can switch preferences once you finish signing up.

The "stuck-in-the-signup-loop" thing is also something we're working on. It's
a balance between increasing conversions and pissing some people off. We're
probably going to switch to a version where you aren't stuck, though, but
today we just went with the MVP :)

~~~
ajju
Fair enough, but IMHO not letting me access the FAQ (which I can access by
logging out anyway) won't help you increase conversions. Having a back button
to go to the preferences also wouldn't hurt, but that can be debated. At the
very least, stating prominently on the sign up page that users will be able to
switch preferences after signing up seems like a no brainer.

I respect the idea of shipping the MVP though, and Carwoo looks like a very
useful service!

------
vaksel
I don't see why they are charging the customer, instead of the dealer. It's
like I'm paying you to get the privilege to shell out 30 grand.

At the very least, I should get a list of all dealers currently in the
program.

The problem I see, is that if you only sell 250 cars per month, then the
dealers have no actual need to compete. 250 cars / 1 car per model(25 brands *
~10 cars), in the entire country. Most dealers won't compete for the privilege
to sell the one Honda Civic in the entire country.

\+ it seems like all they do is email the dealers saying "So and so is looking
to buy this car...what's your best price?" And then follow it up with "So and
so got the best offer of X...can you beat it?". With email, I can do the same
thing....and I can email all 20 dealers in my area with the car, instead of
having you limit my choice.

\+ there is no indication of what kind of deal someone gets. You need to show
your actual results "Linda R from X, bought a 2010 Honda Civic EX for
$14,950". For all I know the best deal I get on the service is $100 less than
MSRP.

~~~
mrkurt
Charging the buyer gets the incentives right. The whole story is that "CarWoo
is working for you, not the dealer like those lead generation sites".

~~~
vaksel
charging me up front, tells me the story that they already got their cut and
that they have no actual incentive to give me a good service.

~~~
mrkurt
Really? That's what paying money for something signals to you?

My guess is that happy customers will tell their friends and use the service
again when they buy another car. Those are both powerful incentives.

What incentive do they have to do a good job for you when they're just turning
your contact information over for lead generation money?

~~~
vaksel
it does when the service relies on the human element to get completed.

You pay up front for websites/apps, because you get access/product right away.

But any interaction where the human is involved(plumbers, tree service,
mechanics, body shops etc)...you pay only after the job is finished.

The reason is that when you pay someone they have no real incentive to give
you their best service...since they already got paid. And yes word of mouth
might work, but I'm not seeing awesome deals on there. The venture beat
article shows they got someone an Accord for $32K. Carsdirect has that same
top of the line trim for $28K.

And carsdirect has the same incentive, give good service to get word of mouth
so they can get more leads....the only difference is that you get to save a
bunch of money too.

~~~
ajju
Since we are focusing on incentives, if they charge the dealer - they are
working for the dealer. Who do you think they will be motivated to help
better? If the dealer pays them, they have to help the dealer maximize his
profit and the customer loses.

Carsdirect is a broker of used cars. They solve the problem of letting sellers
find buyers and vice versa, not the same as making the process of buying a new
car painless and shorter.

Most importantly though, their offer to refund your money for any reason makes
this entire argument pointless. If they didn't think they could make you
happier by saving you at least more than their fee, do you think they would
make that promise?

~~~
vaksel
they charge the dealer by providing sales, so yes they are working for the
dealer...but the only way they can provide sales is by getting the customer a
good price. So they are working for the customer.

and carsidrect is for new cars, I think you are confusing them with cars.com

actually your point that they have a refund policy led me to go look at that
page...and my opinion is now even worse. Apparently that money only gets you
one car. So you can't cross shop the best deal on a Civic and a Corolla to see
which is the best option, without paying even more money.

~~~
ajju
I think you are misunderstanding their target customer. They are not targeting
people who want to buy a car, but are not sure when or which one. They seem to
be intentionally targeting people who are ready to go to the dealer and buy a
specific car, but hate bargaining with car salesmen.

I happen to be at that specific point right now and if their service works as
described on the many testimonials on the site and one on HN, I think paying
$39 for it would be a great deal.

I do think you have a point in that, folks often come down to more than one
choice on a model and make their final decision based on price. I think it
would make sense for them to have a plan that supports this use case.

~~~
noglorp
Easy.

Carwoo for a Civic. Woops, wasn't happy, refund me.

Carwoo for a Carolla. Compare prices, get Carolla if you want, or get a refund
and repeat step 1.

------
KoZeN
This is a fantastic idea. Considering how hard dealers are fighting for
business at the moment, why not let them do all the work? I love it. I'd love
to see something like this hit the UK.

~~~
tomjen3
Considering how long it normally takes startups in the US to expand outside
the country, you are properly better of launching it yourself.

~~~
KoZeN
Valid point. Having read all of the feedback, there's plenty of info to create
something slightly different for the UK used car market.

------
anateus
There are some people who aren't really getting CarWoo, so I'm gonna try and
explain:

CarWoo is sort of a domain-specific CRM. It lets you manage communication with
dealers in terms of providing an RFQ interface and in terms of controlling the
conversation flow by serving as a middle man.

If you're fine locating and emailing all your regional dealers, accepting the
risk of spam, voicemail and general bother for the next couple of months,
collecting all responses in a spreadsheet and comparing to various market data
on your own... I don't think CarWoo's for you.

CarWoo seems to me to be aimed squarely at the _experience_ of buying a new
car. Part of the experience is getting a great price, of course, but if your
goal is to shave off every last dollar convenience-be-damned there are plenty
of more labor intensive processes available.

------
myoung8
This has been a long time coming. Feel free to ask us anything if you've got
questions about CarWoo!

~~~
ddlatham
How about giving an average price that recent buyers have gotten on that
car/trim/location?

~~~
myoung8
It's very difficult to give an average price on a car since there is so much
variation and there are so many nuances to each car.

What I can say is that, on average, we save buyers over $3000 off the sticker
price of the car. The range of savings is $-6101 to $16,205 (for a car that
was very difficult to find and one that the dealer clearly wanted to move,
respectively).

I can't knowledgeably comment on pricing by location right now, but we'll be
releasing some cool data around that in the near future.

------
sev
$19/month gets me 2-3 dealers competing, and $49/month gets me 3-5 dealers
competing. I think, at the very least, the 2 values should not have a chance
of being equal. The $19/month agreement gets a better deal even, because 1/2
the time they get to receive their maximum # of dealers (assuming equal
probabilities) and the $49/month one gets their max only 1/3 of the time. And
even they can receive their minimum which would be the max of the lower level
plan! That's annoying.

Changing it to something like: $19/month 2-4 dealers competing, and $49/month
5-7 dealers competing makes more sense.

~~~
myoung8
That's assuming that you can actually get 5-7 dealers to compete :)

There are few things to take into account:

1\. We're working with real dealers behind the scenes, calling them if we have
to. We don't use automated systems (not because it's impossible, but because
it leads to a poor consumer experience). So there's a cost aspect to it.

2\. Since dealers can see each others' offers, there's some competitive
dynamics at play here too. The nth dealer to join often thinks that s/he has a
worse chance of winning the deal because other dealers got there first. The
effect varies proportionally (possibly exponentially) with the number of
dealers participating. We don't want to promise 5-7 dealers if we can only
realistically get 3-5.

3\. We split-tested the value propositions for our plans, especially around #
of dealers. What we've got now seems to work pretty well in terms of driving
people to pick the plan we want them to pick (Plus).

4\. We've found that with 3-5 dealers, buyers generally reach the local (in
terms of geography) minimum w.r.t to the price of the car. Adding another 2
dealers doesn't get the buyer much and only wastes the dealers' time.

That said, we will continue to monitor this and test it. Thanks for your
feedback!

~~~
mhb
_The nth dealer to join often thinks that s/he has a worse chance of winning
the deal because other dealers got there first_

Maybe you do this, but would it work better if you told them that you wouldn't
provide the customer with the offers before some time (day or two?)?

------
VladRussian
is it only me who feels that this design style - picture on the left,
email/passwd sign-up on the right, a slogan with big font - seen everywhere
nowdays looks like a first book(s) very young children use to learn reading? I
can't transcend that feeling in me and type in my email to sign-up :)

------
zavulon
I'm just a data point, but it's something I would NEVER pay money for.

You're not guaranteeing that I get what I want - a car. All I'm getting for
shelling out money upfront is some quotes. I can get a million quotes any
time, anywhere. What if I won't like the quote after I pay? I would feel
robbed.

If this was free, and you'd get a cut from the dealer if I actually buy a car,
I'd sign up in a heartbeat.

~~~
myoung8
Unfortunately, you'd also:

\- get spammed by those dealers in a heartbeat, for 2-12 months after
submitting the lead, even if you end up buying a car!

\- have to manage the negotiations over email, with at least 3 dealers if you
want to be sure you're getting a good price (clearly possible, but not easy)

\- have to compare non-standardized "quotes", some of which are nothing more
than a one-liner to the effect of "I'll sell you a 2011 Honda Accord for
$22,390" with no mention of options

\- convince each dealer that another dealer gave you a better offer

\- go through a lot more back-and-forth than is necessary (to give each dealer
the same feedback, to get them to lower their prices, etc.)

If you've never used the lead system for buying a car, I encourage you to try
it with a fake email address and phone number so you can see how bad it is.

Some sites will sell your information not just to car dealers, but to mortgage
companies, insurance companies, etc. It's not a pleasant experience.

At the end of the day, though, some people prefer not to pay for convenience
and that's totally fine.

However, if you're hesitant because you think you might not get what you want,
I encourage you to check out our 100% Happiness Guarantee:

<http://carwoo.com/guarantee>

We're very serious about making sure each customer is happy at the end of the
day and if they're not, they get their money back. No questions asked. It's
only fair.

------
jmm
Based on the comments here, I think Carwoo will take a while to convince users
of its utility. But there are people out there for whom this will save time
and hassle. A friend of mine, for instance, recently decided on the exact car
he wanted and then faxed an offer sheet to various dealers in Northern
California. First responder got the deal. And he was able to pay a bit below
the price he would have had to haggle for showing up at a single dealership.

As this catches on, I think there will need to be some education regarding the
proposition itself as well as how financing might play into the service.

------
DevX101
Was it an uphill battle getting dealers?

A system like this cuts into the profits that they'd normally get from naiive
customers walking through the door.

How did you pitch them?>

~~~
myoung8
It wasn't really an uphill battle at all.

Due to the way dealers are compensated (i.e. on volume for the most part),
their first priority is simply to sell a car (irrespective of how much margin
they make). Thus, a highly-qualified CarWoo! buyer on their doorstep is a very
attractive prospect.

Further, we don't cut into dealers' margins as much as you'd think. Not all
buyers' first priority is price. A lot of the time it's fit (i.e. the car has
the right options, color, etc.) and a good relationship with the dealer.
Buyers can use CarWoo! to play hardball if they want, but, for example, the
vast majority never even use the counter-offer tool.

The pitch to the dealer is pretty simple: "We've got a buyer in your area
who's looking for <car description>. She's paid us 50 bucks to help her
through the car-buying process so you know that she's highly qualified. She
wants to buy a car in the next week. Would you be interested in making her an
offer through our website? It's completely free for you to sign up, it's free
to make her an offer, and we won't even charge you if you sell her a car!"

How could you say no to that? :)

------
jonpaul
Why wouldn't you just buy a used car from a person? I'm asking this sincerely.
Why do people buy from dealers? You save so much money by buying from
individuals than from dealers.

~~~
myoung8
CarWoo! is only for new cars at the moment. We're going to get into used cars
soon, and odds are we'll work with private-party transactions as well as
dealers if buyers want a Certified Pre-Owned car.

------
dolinsky
Not sure if this is a bug or intentional, but I created an account, selected a
make/model trim/colors and entered 'submit' and was brought to the 'pick a
plan' page to continue. However, there's no way for me to start all over. If I
go back to carwoo.com I'm immediately redirected to this 'pick a plan' page. I
want the 'start over' button instead :)

------
nanijoe
I don't see how I'm going to pay anyone $79 just so I can get quotes from 5
Car dealerships, without any guarantee that the quotes will be lower than
anything I would have gotten myself.

But hey, there are people paying for far apps...

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oomkiller
Recommendation: Dump the youtube videos, and host them yourselves, it will
look more professional. Offer HTML5 video if the browser supports it. At the
very least put an image there so people with flashblock don't just see a black
spot

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hussong
Awesome execution on the new site, customer service and youtube videos,
congrats guys!

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fname
With many smaller market areas, a lot of the same car manufacturer's
dealerships are usually owned by the same larger company throughout the city.
Is there someway to ensure there's no colluding going on between them?

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madh
Does anyone know how this compares to Cartelligent
(<http://www.cartelligent.com/>), which seems similar but more expensive?

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myoung8
Cartelligent is similar in the sense that it provides a very convenient way to
buy a new car. They are a lot more hands-on than CarWoo! (in fact, they are a
broker, while CarWoo! is not), so the buyer won't ever actually talk to a
dealer and Cartelligent usually will deliver your car to your house for you.
However, it costs at least an order of magnitude more than CarWoo! ($500+ vs.
$49).

Given that their business model doesn't scale very well, they've never
expanded out of California, and only recently (after being around for 10+
years) expanded out of Northern California. CarWoo!, on the other hand, can
help buyers anywhere in the US.

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rubyrescue
Congrats! I know one of the carwoo guys and it's a great idea and a solid
team!

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RDDavies
Http/1.1 Service Unavailable

Trying to load video. How'd that get missed.

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ansonparker
What was the need/motivation for capital raising?

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tickle_me_elmo
_It goes national today after no-publicity launches earlier this year in
California and Florida_

How do you launch without publicity?

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myoung8
You don't tell the media about it. Or ask them not to write about it. Launch
is a loaded word nowadays. To be very specific, it was a product launch, not a
media launch.

