Beat the Price: Innovative car buying tool

Only five months after its inception in Cape Town, Beat the Price is set to become a game-changer for the way we buy and sell new cars.

“Where you can’t compare like-for-like with used cars, you certainly can with new cars,” says Marius du Toit, MD of Beat the Price.

The platform has an alliance with dealers, allowing them to bid on a deal, ensuring that the customer gets the best possible price.

“It’s simple – you tell us which car you want, where you want it delivered and we find you the best price. No fees and no commitments,” adds Du Toit.

With 26 years in the industry, Du Toit has worked for and started many dealerships.

He recognised that it was becoming increasingly difficult to buy new cars for a good price and that buyers were completely at the mercy of dealership prices.

Beat the Price collects requests for new vehicles from buyers and sends these requests through to dealerships, allowing them to bid for the sale with their best price.

“By opening an enquiry to the whole country, you could get a dealer in Bedfordview that has a stock unit that is priced lower than the same vehicle in Sandton,” says Du Toit.

Beat the Price significantly streamlines the normal negotiation process, for both buyers and dealers.

“Rather than forcing people to phone around and get dealers to manually bid for a sale, our platform automates the bidding process. This saves both buyers and dealers time and money,” says Du Toit.

“By keeping the process confidential, Beat the Price ensures that buyers are not bothered by multiple dealers phoning them directly,” continues Du Toit.

This is ideal for more inexperienced buyers who don’t like having to negotiate in person.

“With buyers, we have established a very personal process, ensuring that we completely understand their needs,” explains Du Toit. At the end of each bidding process, Beat the Price puts the winning dealer in contact with the buyer.

“Our buyers sign all the normal contracts with the winning dealer, so they are covered and supported by the dealer as per normal,” says Du Toit.

The platform is already saving customers thousands on new vehicles.

“Our best deal, so far, had 27 bids on a single vehicle,” says Du Toit. “Very few buyers would have the confidence or the patience to manually negotiate 27 times on a single vehicle.”