In a bid to invigorate new car reservations, Proton recently team up with E-bidding companies (EBC) and joined hands with Carsome for an event coined “Trade-In Trade-Up Saturday.” This groundbreaking event took place on October 14th at 32 Proton outlets participating in the company’s used car program. A staggering 1,552 enthusiastic participants flocked to the event, resulting in an impressive 624 new car bookings, with 320 customers choosing to trade in their existing vehicles. Remarkably, Carsome also conducted 489 vehicle inspections on the day, far surpassing the initial target of 320 units set prior to the event.
Roslan Abdullah, Chief Executive Officer of Proton Edar, shared, “As our sales volume continues to grow, Proton needs to consider avenues to facilitate the taking-in, distribution, and disposal of used cars to support new bookings. Our used car management division was formed to achieve these aims, and by partnering with EBCs, we can offer a more efficient and transparent process that eases the customer toward owning a new car. Additionally, we are also targeting a higher volume of replacement car sales, where a current Proton owner trades in their vehicle for a new one. With more options for them to trade up in the range, it is important for us to keep our current customers within the brand and one of the ways is to stabilize our used car values together with our partners.”
Transparency and offering fair value to customers were the focal points emphasized by Carsome during the event. Eric Cheng, Co-founder and CEO of Carsome, stated, “By leveraging data from mileage, historical records, and physical vehicle inspections, we provided customers with competitive offers that reflect true market values. There was a lot of interest shown across all 32 locations during the event, and Carsome is eager to continue building upon this partnership with Proton.”
In 2023, the used car management division has already received over 4,500 units across its 32 outlets, and it is on track to set a new record by year-end. Looking ahead to 2024, there are plans to expand the network to 60 outlets with a target of achieving at least 6,000 units, and there are discussions of potentially hosting more trade-in events on a quarterly basis.
For prospective buyers interested in exploring Proton’s used car offerings, the company has established a dedicated used car website (http://used-cars.proton.com) where they can peruse available stock and obtain an estimated market price for their own used cars.
