Autoquake’s founder, Fredrik Skantze, has bought cars in 3 different countries and was always frustrated by the experience.
He explains: “Buying nearly new was almost as expensive as new, trading it in four years later, the part exchange price offered by the dealer was £1,500 less than I could get selling privately.”
Garry Hobson, CEO (left) and Fredrik Skantze, Co-founder (right)
So he hit on the idea of de-coupling the three elements of car buying: finance, part-exchange and buying a used car. He wanted to make everything transparent so that consumers get the best loan, highest price for their current car and lowest price for their new car. If that means Autoquake only get part of the business, so be it.
Autoquake believe that their prices are 16-17% lower than the main dealer, typically offering consumers a saving of £1,000 - £1,200. They are trying to create an ‘earth quake’ in car buying by working off just a £300 margin on each car and passing the saving on to the consumer.
We looked at their cars and prices and, as we explain below, you have to do your homework and check each deal if you are going to get these kinds of savings.
Autoquake take the kinds of ex-fleet cars that main dealers buy at auction and because they don’t have a dealership, they can pass the saving on to the consumer. The customer buys online and either has the car delivered or visits one of the handover centres.
Having visited their handover centre, which is a series of portakabins in an unmade yard in a small industrial estate, I can assure you that they are not spending their money on flash trimmings. Walking around the yard, cars are being very thoroughly valeted, photographed and inspected. The cars are given an M.O.T. level inspection at a local repairer.
I was impressed by the friendliness of the staff, the belief in what they were doing and the valeting. There is also a good variety of cars. But beware, you still need to know what you are doing if Autoquake is going to deliver the best car at the best price for you.
For example, at the time of writing, they have a 2007 2.2 litre Honda Accord SE that has done just 7,500 miles. This car has two years warranty, is two years from needing an M.O.T. and is about 4,000 miles under average mileage. There are lots of photographs of the car and its high street value, we believe is £14,000 -£15,000. You can have it from Autoquake for £11,163. It’s hard to see how you can go wrong with that.
However, they also have a 2005 Accord with 97,000 miles. That’s about 30,000 miles above average and the car is at the end of its warranty. It will have a minimum of 3 month’s M.O.T., but it won’t have road tax and the price is no better than you will find on the high street. Where you can get lower mileage, tax and a longer M.O.T. thrown in for very similar money.
If you find that the car is not as you expect when you arrive to collect it, you don’t have to complete the transaction and you have a 7 day money-back guarantee to fall back on too.
Summary
A fantastic service for nearly new cars, with the potential to pick up a bargain on older cars too. But you need to do your homework.
Checklist
Compare Autoquake cars with those at dealers and against our price guide
- Do the cars have road tax?
- How long are the MOTs?
- What is the real average mileage for that car?
- What condition are the two cars really in?
Visit Autoquake
FAQs
Autoquake do some of the inspection work themselves and some at a local repairer, rather than have the RAC do it. Cars only have a minimum of 3 months MOT rather than 6.
How is it different from a main dealer?
The differences depend on which main dealer approved programme you are comparing the service to. However, as a general rule, the main dealer cars are prepared to ensure that there are no bodywork problems whatsoever, wear items like brakes and tyres are often changed earlier than necessary and all the safety recalls should have been completed. There is usually a 12-month warranty and other protections against breakdown.
To compare a specific used approved programme click here.
Words: Matthew Tumbridge