Gettacar accelerates expansion in online used car market
Another entrant is gaining momentum in the increasingly crowded race to sell used vehicles online.
Gettacar, founded in 2018, is a direct-to-your-door, online platform that enables consumers to buy, finance, and trade used cars, is expanding to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area effective July 1, 2020. The opening of the Washington, D.C. market comes six months after Gettacar expanded from the Philadelphia Tristate area into Baltimore.
The company has an inventory of cars that are delivered to the customer’s door at terms that they choose. Gettacar also allows customers to test drive upon delivery without committing to the car, and provides a seven-day period to decide if they want to keep the car, or they can return or exchange it for free.
Headquartered in Northeast Philadelphia, the company also has a 75,000 sq. ft industrial reconditioning center near their offices. The facility processes thousands of cars a month ensuring that each is inspected, tuned up mechanically and thoroughly detailed before being listed on the Gettacar website. The center has a temperature-controlled paint room that produces finishings and a 360-degree photo booth for picture taking.
“Even before the pandemic, we saw a huge demand from consumers looking for an easy and accessible way to get in the driver’s seat without spending hours at a dealership,” said Gettacar co-founders Yossi Levi and Jake Levin. “Now that demand is growing even more as car buyers look to practice social distancing and take advantage of our contactless delivery. People feel even more uncomfortable going to a traditional dealership during the pandemic, so our experience makes a lot more sense because of how easy, fast, and safe it is.”
The online used auto market has at least two established competitors. Tempe, Arizona-based Carvana allows customers to shop more than 15,000 vehicles on its site in as little as 10 minutes, with ability to finance, purchase, trade-in, and schedule as-soon-as-next-day touchless delivery of a vehicle. Select markets also offer “car vending machines,” which are automated facilities designed to offer customers a convenient pickup option for online purchases. In addition, Carvana offers a two-minute real online offer for customers who want to sell their car to the retailer.
And Vroom offers thousands of low-mileage, reconditioned vehicles with delivery directly to consumers. The company, based in New York and Houston, also provides an online service that provides cash offers to customers for their vehicles in minutes.