'Dealer-based import car market should change'
.jpg)
Cho Young-tak Be My Car CEO
By Park Jin-hai
Cho Young-tak, 37, CEO of imported multi-brand dealership Be My Car, says the local imported car market favors dealers, not customers.
“At a Mercedes dealership, you will hear only the good side of that brand, while all you hear from an Audi dealer is that Audi is the best,” he said during an interview with The Korea Times.
On the first floor of his two-story show room in southern Seoul, the BMW 520d is displayed right next to its rivals the Audi A6 TDI and Mercedes-Benz E220 CDI.
He said that imported multi-brand shops like his give more information to customers. “We say that the fuel efficiency is good for the BMW 520d, while the Audi A6 has better acceleration and has more back-seat room for a family.”
Cho, a former fund manager, has been running a car rental service for two years and opened his imported car shop this past September.
He got the idea while purchasing cars for his close friends, and realized how difficult it was to get the best offer.
“Imported car prices vary by a large margin each day. For instance, Mercedes-Benz has six different car dealerships where each sales person suggests a different rate every day,” he said.
The sale price of the day fluctuates widely depending on that day’s exchange rate and the sales person’s suggested rates. Customers are then left in the dark without knowing the best bargains of the day, he said.
More than that, customers are regularly forced to use a car brand’s affiliated financial service, which often has exorbitantly high interest rates of 8 to 9 percent, because if they don’t they cannot receive other promotional benefits.
“Customers pay a commission to dealers and then an interest rate for the financial service, and are deprived of a chance to compare other options they have,” he said.
Cho said that his business model is much like a matching service that connects the best dealer price and the interest rate of the day.
During the three months since opening, the company has recorded average monthly sales of 4 billion won, he said.
“Each day on our computer some 70 to 80 dealers suggest rates. Through a partnership with various financing companies, we give on average a 5.8 percent interest rate. With the interest rate alone, customers could save as much as 3.9 million won for a 60 million won car using a three-year loan service.”
Cho said that for the sake of customers, imported multi-brand shops should be promoted.
“Currently the information gap between haves and have-nots is huge in the industry and the dealers are profiting. But, if imported cars are bought in the same way as shoes are in ABC Mart and other shoemakers, dealers will compete and customers will eventually be able to buy imported cars at reasonable prices.”