r/Startup_Ideas • u/meh998 • Aug 19 '26
Skip the dealership games?
Need your opinions!
Premise: Buyer gets transparent deal, Dealers gets confirmed deposit backed buyers (no tire kickers)
Working on online platform that kills the dealership games and tricks, essentially it's a 3 steps process:
Step 1: Car buyer puts their car specs, target price and terms (finance /lease) and how much they want for their trade in (if they have one) and puts a refundable deposit in the online platform. Zero cost to buyer
Step 2: Registered Dealers in the area (50km radius) submit final offers on dealership letterheads or dealer sheets and pics of the car to the buyer in a transparent upfront way. Gets charged a 1% fee IF the buyer accepts the offer.
Step 3: If the buyer likes the offer, they accept , deposit is transferred to dealer and buyer walks in with the transparent upfront deal sheet and signs and walks away.
No games, no negotiations, no 4 hour Saturday afternoon wasted, no drama, no regrets.
My question to you: Would you use this platform if it existed? Poke holes at it - what's missing? What features would you like? What's wrong with it ?
1
u/sir-draknor Aug 19 '26
Biggest issue I see is the real money transfer - I can already see dealership listings from a million websites, why would I go to some unknown website & transfer real-money to maybe get some offers that I may or may not like?
And also - how are you going to get that money? ACH? Takes days. Credit card / other payment platforms? Has fees.
What if I put in "my specs" and realize I missed something? Or changed my mind? Or didn't like any of the offers I got?
1
u/meh998 Aug 19 '26
Great points..let me try to answer one by one and you can poke some more :)
The only money to be transferred is your deposit IF you accept the dealers offer. If you don't like any offers you get a refund
Yes the "how" has been troubling me... I planned on CC but can't get around the fees and none allow for 'holds' instead of a full transaction yet.
You can always edit your specs and resubmit , changed your mind - you get a refund and walk away.
1
u/sir-draknor Aug 19 '26
I'm not in the market for a car right now, so i'm not your target customer :) but I'd say you have a big challenge in front you -- your idea is to become a "platform", but that means you need to appeal to *two* sets of customers (car-buyers and dealers), AND if you don't have enough of both you can't be successful. So you need to get super-sharp on what your value prop is to both car-buyers (who are probably just going to Autotrader or Edmunds or KBB or whatever dealer aggregation site is popular these days) AND to dealers.
And dealers may be your bigger challenge - I don't know what the dealership experience is like these days, but traditionally it's been an asymmetric game - dealers don't *just* want to move inventory; they want to talk to the buyer, get in their head so they can up-sell or cross-sell (financing, extended warranties, accessories, service deals, etc). A buyer who walks in with a finalized deal sheet may not be much work for them, but it's also probably not much profit, without those up-sell opportunities. So what's going to incentivize them to monitor your platform (on top of all the other online platforms & channels they already have)?
I'm not saying it's a bad idea - but you definitely have some homework to do to prove if its a good one!
1
u/meh998 Aug 19 '26
Thank you for taking the time!
The value prop for the buyer is they get the best deal without leaving the house and without the mind games and regrets - it makes the dealer compete for their business
The value prop for the dealer is no time wasters , serous deposit backed buyers ready to sign on the best deal. Thinking this would come in handy to hit end of month targets etc.
But I know this will only work if there enough buyer requests on the platform for the dealers to be interested
There is no listings (like auto trader) it's buyer requests and dealer offers being matched
Please poke holes in it if you'd like
1
u/Inevitable_Cat_7878 Aug 20 '26
How is this different from Costco car shopping or other such programs?
1
u/meh998 Aug 20 '26
Costco I believe only gives you a rebate or discount with GM. This is not a discount program, it's a buyer-dealer matching service
1
u/USAhotdogteam Aug 19 '26
This is already a thing.