Bravoauto replicates the name of its chain opened in November last year by its parent, Inchcape plc, and has now grown to 12 locations in England.

In Australia, Inchcape has started advertising for staff to fill its newly-landed brand’s first site in Penrith. It has advertised for a head of sales, two customer experience staff with one specialising in ‘online leads’, and an account clerk.

Inchcape, which is the national distributor for automobile brands Subaru, Peugeot and Citroen, also operates retail outlets in NSW, Queensland and Victoria including the Trivett Direct used-car outlets in Penrith, Castle Hill and in Queensland, at Kallangur.

BravoAuto, which started last year in its home country of England by Inchcape’s publicly-listed parent Inchcape plc, now has 12 outlets in the UK from Leeds in the north to Guildford (Surrey) in the south. 

It plans to have 30 outlets in the UK by the end of 2024 as it transitions all its current used-car centres to the Bravoauto name and starts promoting the name through regional centres.

In its 2021 annual report – which announced revenue of £7.6 billion ($A13b) and profit before tax of £195 million ($A332m) – Inchcape made scant reference to Bravoauto with two paragraphs explaining that: “The most significant near-term opportunity comes from the creation of a new global model for stand-alone omni-channel used car retail.”

“Branded Bravoauto and proven in the UK, this platform is ready to be scaled and rolled out to our markets globally,” the annual report stated.

“Bravoauto will use best practices and standardised technology in all our markets and it will plug into our advanced data analytics platform to deliver an industry-leading customer experience.” 

Its success in the UK is attributed to buyer-friendly features including a 12-month warranty and 21-day money-back guarantee as well as online or personal buying.

It also advertises its vehicles come with a 12-month breakdown assistance; a minimum of nine months registration; standard accident aftercare cover; free home delivery; a 150-point safety check; check of vehicle history and mileage; and competitive finance with flexible options on PCP and HP.

Bravoauto also operates an online market to sell cars on behalf of owners or part-exchange the trade-in.

It is believed the model of a used-car outlet in the vein of easyauto123 will form the basis of the venture in Australia although some of the details about warranties and money-back guarantees may be changed for the Australian market.

Inchcape would only tell GoAutoNews Premium that the launch would be within a couple of months and that some of the finer details of the workings of the used-car business would be slightly different from those in the UK.

Bravoauto was launched in November 2021 by the (then) Inchcape plc CEO James Brearley.In an interview with Automotive Management (AM) publication at the beginning of this year and prior to his departure from Inchcape, Mr Brearley said the company had “studied Cazoo, Carmax and Carvana” to research how best to develop its open used car retail offering.

“I think Cazoo is interesting as a model of how not to do it,” he told AM.

“We have an omnichannel platform, but we understand low-cost facilities, low-cost preparation to a high standard and the distribution costs. On top of that we already offer a 14-day money back guarantee anyway.

“We definitely can deliver to someone’s house, at a cost, but we believe that there’s no demand from consumers for that whatsoever.

“We absolutely believe that people want to test drive cars and have seen that in the spike of activity that’s been seen since the lockdown was lifted.”

He said that the Bravoauto name was chosen because it “breaks down to ‘bravo’ because we’ll work hard to ensure you celebrate your decision to choose us. And ‘auto’ because that’s what our teams live and breathe. The two words combined are recognised and understood in almost every language and fits well with Inchcape’s global strategy.”

Inchcape UK’s head of marketing, Claire Price, said: “Bravoauto represents our position as a main competitor in the used car market and aligns with the history we have with our Inchcape UK brand.

“Our slogan, Everything you expect and more, is reflected in our customer proposition where we provide best in market offerings to our customers. We want to give our customers more choice, more value and more security.

“This is an exciting time for the business and I’m really pleased to see the sites coming together to support the new brand and customer offering,” she said.

By Neil Dowling