Will
VavaCars be able to make a dent in the used cars industry?
The first competitor to CarFirst, VavaCars has a surprise advantage up its sleeve By Taimoor Hassan
T
here is usually a very particular way you sell your car in Pakistan. You start off by mentioning that you’re thinking of selling to a friend or a relative. They tell you they have a dealer or a website that has been successful for them. Slowly, the word starts to spread and different people inquire after the car, come to check it out, and offer a bad price. If that doesn’t happen, you go on OLX or Pakwheels and put up an ad where the interested buyers on the platform will call, connect with you, schedule a visit and inspect your car, negotiate the final price and complete the transaction if things go smoothly. If neither of these two methods work, then you will reach out to a showroom or a car dealer where you will park your car and people visiting the dealership will decide whether they want the car or not. Once the right buyer is there, the transaction is completed and the middleman or the showroom owner will
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charge a commission, There is a fourth option, however, where you can avoid the hassle of negotiations, time consuming visits to showrooms and of interested buyers coming to you, one after the other, to inspect your car and you having to negotiate with everyone individually. The fourth option are the platforms where you can simply go and the platform will buy it from you right then and there. Launched in 2020, VavaCars is one of the only two players from your fourth option that will purchase your car if you reach out to them. The other platform in the same space is CarFirst, which was founded in 2016. Headquartered in the UK, VavaCars has no operations there. Instead, the company chose to have operations in Turkey and Pakistan. VavaCars launched in Turkey in the mid of 2019 and in Pakistan, launched operations in January 2020.It is a little odd for a company that is headquartered in the UK to not have operations there, but in two emerging markets instead. “The UK is the hub of technology and
leadership is based out of the UK. The parent investor, Vitol, is also based in the UK and so are the founding members. From a growth perspective, we saw potential in the growth markets,” says Mujahid Khan, country manager at VavaCars. Having operations in Turkey and Pakistan would further make sense if you know a little more about the company that backs VavaCars. It is backed by Dutch energy and commodity trading company Vitol which owns and operates retail petrol stations in Turkey and has a stake in Pakistan-based petroleum retailer Hascol Petroleum. The potential here is extraordinary. Imagine a VavaCars dealership at every Hascol pump in the country. So if you’re thinking about selling your car, the next time you drive by a Hascol pump you go in for a quick fill and then ask for them to give you an evaluation. Even if you aren’t thinking, the service simply being available might convince you to get an evaluation and that might get you thinking. Even if that doesn’t happen, whenever you plan to sell, VavaCars will be on the top of your
