Used Car Buyers Queue up for Quality

In the 'second chance' section of the website, visitors to Autoquake.com can register their interest in a used car which has already been reserved by another buyer, in case it becomes available again. A staggering 220 potential buyers asked to be emailed if one BMW 318i came back on the market, more than any other model.

The website also has a 'coming soon' page, where shoppers can ask for email alerts on cars which will shortly be in stock. Again, BMW tops the charts. One particular used BMW 118d M Sport had a queue of 145 buyers waiting before it was even on sale.

Plenty of other prestige cars have attracted lots of interest, and not just those with a BMW badge. 108 car buyers asked to be contacted if one Range Rover came back on the market. 95 buyers requested an email if a reserved Volvo XC90 became available again.

Quality mainstream cars are also popular with Autoquake.com visitors. An amazing 180 buyers waited to find out if a Vauxhall Zafira 1.8i buyer changed their mind. Almost 140 shoppers asked to be told if a Mazda 5 2.0D became available again.

Fredrik Skantze, Autoquake.com's CMO and co-founder, said: 'There's a shortage of quality used cars at the moment, so it's no wonder buyers are queuing up to buy the most popular models.

'At Autoquake.com there's a constantly changing stock of nearly 1000 cars, so if we don't have the car a buyer is looking for right now, there's a good chance we will soon.'

Top 10 'second chance' cars

Make and model Age/mileage Price Sign ups
1. BMW 318i SE 4dr 53-plate/82,326 miles £4763 220
2. Vauxhall Zafira 1.8i Club 56-plate/18,239 miles £6813 180
3. Mazda 5 2.0D Sport 07-plate/38,741 miles £10,842 138
4. BMW 520d M Sport 4dr 06-plate/94,818 miles £12,687 120
5. Range Rover Sport 2.7 TDV6 SE 5dr auto 06-plate/28,193 miles £22,750 108
6.= BMW 520d SE 4dr 06-plate/82,045 miles £13,875 104
6.= VW Passat 2.0 Sport 4dr 06-plate/27,257 miles £9425 104
8. Volvo XC90 D5 S auto 05-plate/49,056 miles £13,875 95
9. VW Passat 2.0 TDI SE 4dr 06-plate/28,800 miles £8650 85
10. Toyota Avensis 1.8 T4 5dr 06-plate/87,626 miles £4532 84

Top 10 'coming soon' cars

Make and model Age/mileage Price Sign ups
1. BMW 118d M Sport 5dr 06-plate/54,300 miles £11,997 145
2. V'hall Vectra 1.9 CDTi SRi 55-plate/53,401 miles £5931 102
3.= BMW 330Cd Sport 04-plate/75,837 miles £10,799 54
3.= Mazda 5 2.0D Sport 06-plate/20,749 miles £9858 54
5. L-R Freelander TD4 GS 07-plate/56,589 miles £14,195 46
6. Mercedes-Benz A140 Classic 03-plate/6580 miles £4868 45
7. BMW 320i Sport 4dr 54-plate/37,359 miles £8797 36
8. L-R Range Rover 2.7 TDV6 HSE 06-plate/51,526 miles £24,875 33
9. Audi A6 2.0 TDI SE 4dr 08-plate/45,965 miles £14,033 31
10. Volvo S40 1.6D SE 4dr 05-plate/85,729 miles £5146 28

Autoquake.com is the UK's largest online car retailer. Founded in 2005 with the goal to provide a better used car buying experience, Autoquake.com currently helps around 1000 buyers a month.

Cars for sale in Autoquake.com's virtual showroom are displayed with descriptions including 40 high quality digital pictures. All cars go through a 141 point inspection and come with a 100% money back guarantee. Car finance, warranty, insurance and delivery are supplementary options that buyers can benefit from.

Kuwait's online market flourishing

KUWAIT: Twenty years ago, it was inconceivable that one could make money without owning a shop or a company selling products. The Internet revolution, however, has transformed this state of affairs and introduced a new flavor to retail.

The Internet is becoming more prevalent and connection costs are falling, while broadband speeds are accelerating and computers themselves are becoming more compact and cheaper by the day; this brings more and more costumers to the virtual reality, and has turned the contemporary dot com industries into the most promising, attractive and profitable businesses in the world.

Kuwait is no exception. The online services offered in the country range from paying your mobile bill or traffic fines, to ordering food, buying groceries, finding a job or browsing for a new car. In fact, many people in Kuwait make a living exclusively online, and many small websites that started with just a simple idea, with few people working on them, have turned into major enterprises, with a net value of hundreds of thousands of Kuwaiti Dinars, like Q8cv.com, Dartmedia.com and others.

Although Kuwait's population, including expatriates, does not exceed three million, it still occupies a leading position among the Arab world internet users' index, coming second after the UAE with approximately 900,000 users, meaning that 34.7% of the whole population in 2008 were online, compared to only 5.8% of the population in the year 2000. (what is the index, who commissions it and where does Kuwait stand in terms of penetration on it?)

The user growth increase of a staggering 423.3% in the period between 2000 and 2008 is not expected to witness a slowdown any time soon, according to internet world statisticians' estimates. And this, of course, means yet more opportunities for Kuwait's online businesses.

Jassem Al-Enezi, the sales manager of the Q8Car.com website, told the Kuwait Times, "When we started in the year 2000, we were just three engineers with an idea to make it easy for people to sell or buy a car, without having to physically travel to all the used cars agencies or car market, and that's what we did; we've now been in the market for nine years and we've achieved the milestone of 20,000 visitors a day...we are considering expanding our business to KSA.

Dot com biz and fast revenue
Al-Enezi explained why the dot com business is sometimes considered a tough venue. "Some people just don't have the patience to pursue internet business. Most of them want fast revenue and that's why we see a lot of people trading on the stock market. Internet business can be very profitable, but it needs patience and determination. You can't just expect to make an income with the launching of the website, you need to plan for a long-term investment in your website and you need to expect not to make any pr
ofits, at least for the first year.

Al-Enezi has some advice for beginners in the online market. "The idea is the most important thing when it comes to opening an online business. If you come up with a new idea that can really help online users in their daily life, and pursue it all the way, then it's more likely to be successful. The second thing is the website should constantly be updated, enhanced and maintained. Then again, you have to be patient to establish a name and reputation and only then can you enjoy the outcome".

A UAE-based online recruitment company, also dubbed one of the biggest online recruitment companies in the Middle East, has been operating in the Kuwaiti market since 2001. It offers another example of how online business can prosper in this part of the world. According to the company's managing director in Kuwait, when they started the business in 2001 the internet market in Kuwait wasn't as big as in the UAE. "So, we opened the first headquarter in UAE, and the second branch here in Kuwait, he recalls.

The idea started with a group of people who wanted to find employees for one company, and it was difficult to reach out to people, so they wanted to create an online employment market," he says, adding that in the first month alone they gathered some 6,000 CVs on their database. "That encouraged the team to pursue their idea further," he added. "Now, thank God, we have about 3.5 million CVs".

The manager also explained the steps of establishing an online business. "The time you take from launching the business to making money online differs according to the place you are competing in. Kuwait, for example, is a very educated market, and that can be very helpful when it comes to how easy it is to really be known as an online business.

Click and earn
At the time when so many companies are offering services online for their clients, many websites don't offer any kind of tangible services, or sellable products, and the only source of income for this kind of online businesses is in advertising. The system is simple: Website owner A places a banner or a link on his web pages, which promotes the product or products of advertiser B, and every time a visitor to A's website clicks on the advertising banner and moves to the advertiser's homepage, B pays A a sma
ll amount of money.

The online advertising business is an industry worth $45 billion worldwide annually, with this figure, according to a 2008 report, expected to reach over $147 billion by 2012. Dart Media is one of the Kuwaiti online marketing companies that are active in this field.

Salim Hatoum, Dart Media's General Manager, told the Kuwait Times "the internet is a lifestyle," asserting that pretty much everything can now be done online.
Many people connect online daily, and there are many positive sides to e-marketing," Hatoum explained, arguing that with e-marketing it only takes one click to bring the client to your site. "Advertising campaigns usually last a month and the banners can be case-specific when it comes to language," he says, providing the following example: "You can have your English banners forwarded to the English version of your website and the Arabic banners to the Arabic version. Also, you can actually discover how ma
ny people clicked on your banners, so you can assess which advertisements are working better for you.

Hatoum claims that there's a strong demand for internet marketing in Kuwait. "Advertisers know that very well. Since 2006 until today, the expenditure on internet advertisements has grown by 300 percent and that just indicates the amount of awareness here about the importance of internet marketing.

Audi's bold marketing strategy pays off

Audi Worldwide sales and marketing boss Peter Schwarzenbauer says Audi's growth and increased market share is partly because it was spending more on marketing during the economic downturn, not less.

"Other companies have put on the brakes but we have done the opposite," said Schwarzenbauer on a whistle-stop visit to Auckland at the weekend.

He said New Zealand importer European Motor Distributors had made Audi the market leader in premium cars, helped by its focus on marketing activities.

He would be looking at using its approach in other markets.

Last year Audi sales were 1060, and they were on target for 1000 this year. Schwarzenbauer - who is a member of the Audi worldwide board of management - said it's long-term strategy was to be the most successful premium car brand in the world by 2015.

The New Zealand market had achieved that two years ago and provided lessons in other markets. He said marketing used here was well suited to the brand internationally.

"It is not only about advertising but getting involved in activities - getting people into our cars, he said.

He said that Audi sales in Europe had been good but the European economy was under pressure.

Asked whether cost for premium car brands was an issue in the current economic climate he said not as much as a volume brand, but said value was still important.

Carcash Is Proven To Be The Fastest Means Of Selling Used Cars

This is the time period when people want financial aid as quick as possible. You will be well aware of the fact that the banks have stopped issuing loans and the people out there are left with no option other than selling their cars. This worst economic condition has not affected only a certain group of people. The economic slowdown has hit worldwide and so there are no takers for the used cars even for dead cheap prices. As a matter of fact people don’t even notice the used car sales advertisements in the newspapers. We have been buying used cars since 1977 and we know the used car market than anyone else. Foreseeing the market, we continue to buy the used cars for acceptable prices. We still keep our promise of providing the easiest, fastest and most profitable way to sell used cars

What is the difference between the service provided at carcash.com and other online portals available for car sales? "There is no scarcity for online portals where anyone can list their used cars for sale. Moreover, most of these online used car portals are free to use. However, these portals don’t get into the business directly. They just help you in finding the people who are interested to buy used cars. Selling used cars through these online portals will take ages. There are several cases where your listings will get no responses. This is where CarCash stands out from the crowd. We directly buy used cars no matter the model, make or year of manufacture.

Mr. Ron said, "All you have to do is to get a free online quote for your used car from our website. If you are satisfied with the quote, the deal will be completed in just minutes. We will pay the cash instantly and remember that none who requested the quotes from use were disappointed with our pricing.

More turning to used cars

USED cars are getting more popular, as prices of new cars rise with certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums going up in recent months.

Latest data from the Land Transport Authority shows 18,539 cars changed hands in the first seven months of the year - the highest in recent years.

Used car traders expect sales, which have been rising consecutively since 2006, to continue growing, as COE supply is expected to shrink in coming years.