McCarthy On-Line sells R660m in cars
February 13, 2004
By Roy Cokayne
Pretoria - Call-a-Car, the internet-based new and used vehicle superstore of McCarthy Motor Holdings, a division of McCarthy Retail, sold 6 662 vehicles worth more than R660 million last year.
It was a slight increase on the 6 616 vehicles sold through this internet facility in 2002.
Lourens Botha, the managing director of McCarthy On-Line, said used vehicles accounted for 83 percent of the total sales. New vehicle sales increased to 17 percent from 15 percent of the total.
Botha said 61 percent of these transactions were done through the internet, which was on par with international trends.
He said the results achieved last year proved that the South African motoring public was increasingly using technology to assist in the buying process.
"Recent research done by JD Power showed that 62 percent of American customers use the internet for research before they conclude a transaction.
"We have a very similar vehicle buying population in South Africa to that of the US, with those who actually do have access to the internet representing people in high LSM [living standard measure] categories with similar purchasing behaviour," he said.
Botha said customers had access to more than 5 600 vehicles through Call-a-Car.
He said the franchising of Call-a-Car to selected dealerships outside the traditional McCarthy outlets and locations was a significant development over the past two years. These dealers covered certain marques that were not represented by the McCarthy dealer network and serviced areas where McCarthy did not have representation.
"This new venture has enlarged the Call-a-Car franchised network to over 160 dealers. A total of 1 332 units have already been sold through these new dealers during the past financial year.
"This represents 21 percent of Call-a-Car's sales, or one in every five sales," he said.
Botha said low new vehicle inflation was expected this year, which would make nearly new vehicles "the best buys".
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