A NEW app developed for new and used-car dealers launched just this month is setting out to modernise the time-honoured process involved in the valuation and sale of unwanted trade-ins and old stock disposals.

Dubbed FLIPACAR, the new service not only takes the guesswork out of the process of offering trades and excess stock to a dealer’s favoured wholesalers, it electronically documents the process with “very detailed reporting” to the business owners.

It is aimed at the used-vehicle operations of new-car franchises, used-car dealerships and wholesalers. It gives the business owners the ability to completely track the activity of the used car department from buying and particularly wholesaling of used cars.

The system involves loading a used-car old-stocker or trade-in onto the platform with pictures and detailed information from Red Book with a back end built in to manage the network of wholesalers to whom the dealer seeks to resell the car.

FLIPACAR director, investor and industry stalwart Michael Winkler told GoAutoNews Premium: “The wholesale side of the business is still, in most cases, very analogue”.

“Typically when a car gets traded-in, the wholesale manager at the dealership or the used-car manager, whoever is put in charge of remarketing that car, tends to then get on the phone with four or five trusted sources and establish a value for the car; all of which takes time,” he said.

“What we’re offering is the ability to really digitalise that and make it very quick. You can load the car very quickly and then you can send it to your network very quickly, all within a matter of minutes, in order to get a real time first valuation and then a pre-offer for it.

“The way we see it unfolding is that where your usual five are interested in the car you are disposing of, then you will probably just stick to those five. But if it’s something where you are a little bit unsure, or you think it might be a very hot property and exposing it to a broader network might get you a better price, you can just choose to then connect with a broader number of people.

“The system has an algorithm that suggests connections for you in the sense that if you have connected your favourite five, the algorithm will suggest to you connections with whom those five are connected. So you can then make a decision as to how far out you want to go.

“So if one of your favourite five also deals with others who aren’t in your favourite five, it can in fact extend through to those as well.”

There is no fee to join or list on the platform, nor is there a fee to sell. The buyer pays FLIPACAR $100 for each purchase via a credit card or larger businesses can set up an account.

All parties need to be registered motor traders with an ABN or be associated with a licenced motor dealer with an ABN. Wholesalers are either invited by dealers to participate in that dealer’s network or can request to join the list of a dealership’s favoured wholesalers.

Mr Winkler said that at this point there are more than 90 users signed up.

FLIPACAR also has a feature called Deal My Car where the platform can be used by a dealership’s customers to get a valuation on their car from the dealership in the lead up, for example, to an end of lease. The dealership can send a communication to its customers with either an SMS link.

“The customer opens the DealMyCar app on their phone, performs a self valuation on the vehicle and is guided through the process of taking photos and so forth and then sends the information to the dealership,” Mr Winkler said.

“It is a very interesting method of engaging their existing customers as a retention tool. At the same time, it allows them to give the customers some direct feedback as to what the car might be worth and engage them in a conversation.

“And it is a very cool communication tool, if you will, that drives people to perhaps get motivated to engage with a dealer and it opens another direct avenue to sourcing used cars.

“Dealers can use the FLIPACAR platform and send that car out to the market and get bids for it.

“And then as a result of the pictures and whatever details are provided, that can be used to come back with an offer on the car based on the responses from the wholesalers.

“It is a way to build credibility into the conversation and into the process,” Mr Winkler said.

By John Mellor