Getting a car deal online

With different websites dealing in vehicle sales and buying, all you need is access to internet and you will be able to either buy or sell a car. PHOTO BY FAISWAL KASIRYE

What you need to know:

Nowadays, you do not have to move from one car bond to another looking for a car. All you need is access to the internet and you will be able to either buy or sell a car in a few minutes. Emmy Omongin explains how online trade works.

A few years ago, if you wanted to buy a car, you had to walk into a car bond, look at the different available types and settle for the one that meets your needs. However, today, car buying and selling has changed. You can buy or sell a car online. Gideon Atuk, a businessman, attests to this. He bought his second car online. With a wide range of online car trading websites, he managed to land on a website that had a database of used cars.
He explains; “I didn’t have the time to leave my office to go to car bonds searching and negotiating for the car of my choice. I had heard of websites where one can buy a car from, so I went online. I landed on Cheki.co.ug, they had a list of car brands and specifications.”
He adds; “There was also a contact of the seller whom I contacted and told to drive the car to my office for inspection, which he did. After negotiations, I paid and the document processing commenced. I am now the new owner of the car.”
Therefore, as technology keeps advancing, more people are able to do more things that they couldn’t do before. The Internet is an excellent example of this. You can buy and sell just about anything over the Internet.
Anyone with a computer can sell things, and anyone else with a computer can buy whatever it is they are selling. The Internet knows no geographic boundaries. It’s probably not practical to buy oil and gas over the Internet, but you can buy a car that way.

THRIVING MARKET

Gideon Atuk’s tale is just one of the many testimonies you will hear from people who have ventured into purchasing cars online. With the world getting digitalised every day, Ugandans, according to Charles Mugyenzi, the country director of Cheki.co.ug, are steadily embracing online car trading.
“If you look at the number of enquiries we receive daily, you realise that many Ugandans are interested in buying cars online. We have over 180 car dealers with stock of over 6,000 cars,” Mugyenzi shares part of the statistics of Cheki.
He adds that the number of online sellers has increased from 150 last year to about 1,000 this year. “The number of transactions has gone up four times as compared to last year’s,” Mugyenzi explains.

HOW IT WORKS

For the buyer
For websites such as olx.co.ug, Hellouganda.com (Uganda Auto Dealers), Cheki.co.ug, cars.co.ug, the buyer is given a provision to state the specifications of the car they wish to buy.
Information such as the preferred manufacturer, transmission, mileage, body type and price range are some of the specifications they need to give. This makes it quick, easy and fast for the buyer to zero down on just that one car they wish to purchase.

For sellers
Sellers are given options to specify the type of car they want to sell. They are required to include the fuel type, model, transmission, interior among others. After listing the above details, the seller provides their contacts, uploads photos of the car on sale and posts them.
If the search of the buyer matches the details of the car uploaded, the search results will be displayed. Consequently, the buyer contacts the seller to make the transaction.

EFFECTS ON CAR BONDS

Ivan Musimenta, a car dealer in Nagoya Car Bond, Banda says nowadays, most of the car bonds operators upload the available cars online so by the time a buyer comes to the bond, they just come to pay and take the car.
He explains that online car sale removed the middleman so the buyer does not get cheated by the broker.
“For Nagoya Car Bond, we post listings of available cars on OLX and Cheki websites daily. Our income has greatly improved because I often get committed buyers who get my contact off these websites. With online car trading, I don’t get to deal with brokers. I get calls directly from buyers who are interested in my automobiles,” Musimenta says.
He adds that the internet traffic is driving more clients to bonds. “Most clients we get do not come randomly to the bond, they come after seeing the cars we post on the different websites.”
He added that since internet knows no boundaries, he can now sell his cars beyond Uganda. “Sometimes clients call me from as far as Tanzania. They find it cheap to export cars from Uganda to their country than importing them all the way from Japan,” Musimenta says.

ONLINE IMPORTING

Another trend that final consumers are opting for is importation of cars of their choice personally. Chris Onyango, a businessman says he finds it cheap to import a car directly from Japan by himself.
“Through www.beforward.jp, I can purchase any car at a very cheap price. For example, a Toyota Corolla Spacio costs roughly $700 (over Shs1.9m). When you include taxes and shipping fees, you may get that car, in a very good condition, at just $1800 (over Shs5m),” he adds that it always takes him not more than five weeks to ship in the car.
He says you can get the same at over Shs11m in Uganda.
However, Andrew Nsubuga, the sales manager HelloUganda Auto Dealers insists that online car trading, especially direct importation by individuals has not picked up as yet.
“Very few Ugandans can actually transact big sums of money online without physically meeting the seller. They always prefer handing over the money to the seller,” he says.
Nsubuga added that most buyers in Uganda cannot risk. Their reasoning being, “they don’t trust online sellers”. “There are very few people who import cars straight from Japan.
The majority of importers are car dealers with bonds who have been doing it for a very long time and have established contacts and partnerships in Japan,” he said.
Therefore, as everything goes digital, buying and selling of cars seems to have eased business for not only the buyers but even the sellers whose market has gone global.