
Car buying “Disruptors” have done OK, yet no unicorns- Why - autohitch
About 50 million vehicles are sold every year in the U.S. and start up &quot;Disruptors&quot; have taken a crack at getting a % of that in recent years.  Some have done well and even a few, like YComb assisted CarWoo, shut their doors.  Yet despite even the most successful attempt, collectively, these companies have barely cracked 5% of the total market.<p>Why?<p>Is it because automotive is the one industry that must be massaged rather than disrupted?
======
MBCook
In many (most?) states only dealerships can sell new cars. These are the same
laws the Tesla has been fighting.

That means that no matter what you do you still have to share the profit with
the dealership and the sites are effectively lead generators.

When it comes to used cars you either have the mess of private sale or do you
have to go to dealerships (including used car only dealerships) because
realistically they're the only ones with any stock.

~~~
autohitch
Very True, but surely we can improve on Autotrader right? These listing sites
have been virtually the same since they were put up in the late 90's!

~~~
MBCook
Yes. I thought CarWoo did a great job.

For used cars I worry there isn't enough information to do a good job. Either
you get listings yourself (very expensive) or you scrape other sites (hard to
differentiate). Existing players like Edmunds will fight you. Both of those
make it very hard to make money.

Or you can go after the new market and go against all the dealerships. You're
just another lead generator, so it's hard to make much money against
established players like whoever powers USAA (can't remember off the top of my
head).

What I would want is clean consistent listings but that would be a ton of leg
work. I guess you could try to guess prices like Zillows but car prices aren't
based on neighbors and it's hard to gauge damage/cleanliness from a few bad
pictures.

Just seems like a huge mountain to climb before you'd have a hope of breaking
even let alone making a profit.

