Used car buyers in UAE consider warranty as one of their critical decision-making factors: CARS24 insights report

CARS24, one of the world’s fastest growing ecommerce players in the pre-owned cars segment emphasized that the consumers in UAE give significant importance to ‘warranty’ before making their purchase. The unicorn provides warranty of upto 6 months and an extended warranty as required by the pre-owned car enthusiasts in UAE giving them the much needed ‘peace of mind’ when they are on the busy UAE roads.

Abhinav Gupta, CEO, Gulf Region for CARS24, stated that, “Prior to the launch of structured pre-owned car buying platforms such as ours, customers used to rely on the unorganized markets for buying their cars. This also meant that they were buying a car that was not verified by a competent body and relied entirely on the information shared by the seller. Single owner, lady driven, few kilometres driven, were some of the key features mentioned in the advertisements and of course the buyer went for a 10-minute test drive before making that purchase. However, the warranty aspect was never mentioned anywhere. This is a highly risky proposition as there is no way that the buyer could go back to the seller if anything went wrong with their car and more importantly if there are any safety or engine related flaws."

Since the launch of its operations in the UAE in May last year, CARS24 has sold close to 7000 plus cars and 100% of these transactions were conducted online. Furthermore, every car bought from CARS24 comes with a 7 days return policy.

Ahmed Bahaa, an Egyptian national, stated that, “Warranty was one of the most important factors that helped me confirm my decision to buy a car from CARS24. I strongly believe that without a warranty a customer cannot have complete peace of mind when you are buying a pre-owned car. I have personally also visited the CARS24 facility and have seen their state-of-the-art mega refurbishment lab. A certified car from such a lab builds a lot of confidence and I am happy that I made the right decision”.

“CARS24 is a customer centric organisation right from day one, and we adopt a 360-degree approach to ensure that we provide our consumers with the best-in-class support when it comes to pre-owned cars. Our mega refurbishment lab, curates the car both internally and externally which further adds tremendous value to our consumers. With this the customer can confidently take on the roads and rely on us for everything related to their cars,” added Abhinav.

Continuing on the warranty aspect of the pre-owned cars, Abhinav further stated that, “After making a large investment on a pre-owned car the last thing a customer wants is to shell out more money on expensive repairs that they could have actually avoided. Warranty provides the consumers with complete peace of mind, and they can confidently hit the roads. All the cars that are rolled out of our mega refurbishment lab (MRL) in Jebel Ali go through a series of stringent tests and only then we hand the car over to the customer and on top of that we provide them with further support with our stamp of warranty so that the customers are protected.”

“I had zeroed in on a car from the unorganized sector but I decided to go against it and go for a certified pre-owned car vendor like CARS24 where I found not only a great car but also a preowned car with an extended warranty feature. This perhaps is one of the most important aspects when you are investing in a pre-owned car,” stated another buyer Arun Vijay, an Indian national.

The company adopts a stringent 150 point check and each aspect of the car is reviewed with the minutest details prior to listing the car on its platform. This MRL in UAE now has the capacity to roll out close to 20000+ cars in a year. This facility at Jebel Ali has 70 bays and 5 high-end Italian paint booths.

“In addition to the warranty we provide, the refurbishment process is also standardized at our MRL and optimized by CARS24 by using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science. This eliminates subjectivity and the refurbishment process therefore becomes more efficient and effective,” concluded Abhinav.

With a company value of close to $3.3 billion, CARS24 is revolutionizing the way pre-owned cars are bought in the UAE.