Buying and selling a used car is not the gamble it once was
For dealers, buying the right used car can result in a tidy profit and a happy customer. Buying the wrong one can result not only in losing the shirt off your back but a potential legal and safety nightmare.
For decades, when it came to used vehicles, it was often very difficult to gauge a particular car’s history, since there was, especially in Canada, no real national database from which to pluck information on aspects such as accident damage, repairs, theft and of course any liens against the vehicle. As a result, it was all too easy for both buyers and sellers to find themselves the victims of unscrupulous operators, even though the cars they purchased appeared to be legitimate. That’s why services like those offered by CarProof have proven so popular with buyers and dealers.
BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY
Founded by Paul Antony in 2000, CarProof came about after Antony’s own experiences buying and selling vehicles. On one occasion a group of GMC Denalis purchased in Quebec, appeared to be just what the doctor ordered. However, when Paul and his American partners tried to sell them to eager buyers in the U.S. it was discovered the SUVs had liens against them.
Having become a victim of fraud as a result of this particular situation, Antony and his associates elected to put together a database that would make it possible for buyers and sellers to check vehicle histories for enforceable liens. According to CarProof vice president Joe Varkey: “it took a long time to build the infrastructure and set up the data feed from province to province.”
Yet, what resulted from that diligent research, is a truly comprehensive vehicle history service — one that’s provided the industry with a tremendous amount of transparency when it comes to the buying and selling process.
Paul Antony founded CarProof after he himself was a victim of fraud.
Today, CarProof can provide history on vehicles both in Canada and the U.S. It is unique in being the only service of its kind to offer nationwide access to lien history, combined with other aspects such as accident repairs as well as import/export information. In fact, CarProof Verified reports are so detailed and so recognized in the industry, few dealers will purchase used stock without them, whether via wholesalers, trade-ins or direct from auctions.
“Auctions have really seized onto this,” says Varkey. “Adesa now has a CarProof report for every vehicle that crosses the block and at the big auctions; with cars going through 10 or 12 lanes, the action is frantic. When wholesalers and dealers see a vehicle with a CarProof report, it’s unbeatable in terms of peace of mind. They know they know what they’re getting and can make a bid on it and get a fair price. It saves time, because they can make a quick decision. And in the car business, that’s huge.”
Varkey stresses that real-time data has been a major advantage for CarProof and makes the company unique in the industry. “It takes a long time to build those relationships so you can be linked, ‘live’ to different data sources,” he says.
The company pays its sources to ensure real live data access to ensure their reports have the most up to date information.
Although many have come to view CarProof reports as separating the clean and thus desirable cars from repaired and thus less desirable vehicles, Varkey says there’s a bit of misconception regarding the service.
A CarProof report is designed to essentially showcase the vehicle’s history, not just designed to separate the clean cars from the repaired ones. Today, even minor accident damage can total thousands of dollars on a vehicle, so if you’re bidding on a car that’s going for $40,000 and it has $2,000 in repairs, which can be from a parking lot scrape, cracked bumper assembly or crumpled fender, you’ll at least be able to make an appropriate bid based on the information available to you. There might be nothing else wrong with the car. As a result it should not be cast aside because it has suffered purely cosmetic damage.”
QUICKPROOF SERVICE OFFERED
For older vehicles (10 years or more) CarProof provides a QuickProof service, which often works well for dealers, especially if they’re taking cars from customers as trade-ins.
Roberto Bernard, CarProof’s sales director for Quebec, says the service has been a huge help for dealers, especially in order to determine the value of the trade-in against a potential new car purchase by the customer. “Trade-ins with older cars were often a difficult part in putting a deal together,” he says, “because the customer often didn’t provide all the information or perhaps didn’t know the car’s history. With QuickProof, a dealer can access the accident history information on the vehicle and give a fair price for the trade-in.”
Furthermore, if an older model taken in on trade is in good condition, or particularly sought after and has a clean history, the dealer can also decide to keep it as a used car in inventory rather than wholesaling it, ensuring a better return on the vehicle when it is sold. This can prove particularly advantageous for higher-end dealerships.
Bernard has also seen how CarProof’s Guaranteed access to lien information on a national level has been so pivotal, particularly if dealers are buying vehicles from out of province or the U.S. “If I’m a dealer and I’m looking to purchase a used car in Quebec, I can see if there is a lien against it in the province. However, with Guaranteed access I can also look at databases in other provinces as well. Sometimes, a car may not have a lien against it in the province in which it was purchased but could very well have one in say B.C. or Alberta. In the used market, clean, rust-free cars from western provinces can go for good money in Ontario and Quebec, so being able to track enforceable lien history is critical.”
CarProof Verified is the company’s most
comprehensive vehicle history report.
Alongside its Verified, B.C. Verified, Claims and QuickProof reports, CarProof has also placed a very strong emphasis on customer service, part of the reason why it’s seen as providing great value to retailers, wholesalers and consumers.
“Since the beginning, we’ve made top quality customer service and transparency a key part of our business,” says Joe Varkey. “We’ve worked very hard to build relationships with dealer associations, manufacturers, provincial governments and consumer groups. We’re also heavily committed to our national sales force and are very serious about service.”
He refers to the fact that a live person is always on the line to deal with customer concerns, while at auctions, CarProof has team members deployed, ready to tackle any problems as quickly and effectively as possible.
“The thing we must remember,” Varkey says, “is that we’re all in this industry together. We’re tremendously grateful for the recognition we’ve received over the last 12 years but the fundamental thing is helping our customers. And at the end of the day CarProof only succeeds if they do.”
