[London, ENGLAND] Pan-European car buying service
OneSwoop.com announced on
Wednesday the availability of another 46 models with up to
33 percent off their U.K. list prices.
Formed in March 2000, OneSwoop.com has since run up against
stiff competition from other new entrants who also aim to capture
the huge market for low-cost cars sourced in Europe and sold
to individuals in the U.K.
In the very month of its launch OneSwoop.com issued a statement
extending a “warm welcome” to the cut-price car sales service
Carbusters.com from
the Consumers’ Association. Then, in May, OneSwoop.com
“applauded” Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson’s entry into
the same market space, believing he would help promote
the general concept of buying cars on the Internet.
But the competition proved to be damaging to OneSwoop.com
as Carbusters and Virgin received the majority of visitors.
Wednesday’s announcement from OneSwoop.com will help its
drive to win back the initiative in the European online car
buying market.
However, with so much publicity given to the high cost of
cars, many people are aware that certain models of Fiat
are priced as much as 76 percent higher in the U.K. than
in Europe. OneSwoop.com’s discounts of up to 33 percent —
large though they seem — may still not be enough.
One encouraging statistic comes from a recent MORI survey
which found that 12 percent of U.K. consumers said they
intended to buy their next car over the Internet. However,
whether they do so, remains to be seen.
The 46 new models offered on OneSwoop.com all come with
pre-configured options, a disadvantage to be set against
the cost-savings. In any case, according to representatives
of the U.K’s “real world” car dealers, most customers can
get a deep discount on the fully-configured car of their
choice — all without going online.