We have some experience of running a Car portal and working closely with some 150 car dealers in India for more than a year. Automotive space presents multiple opportunities and our experimentation/ understanding here, may be of some use.

Indian consumers will not buy a car online. However, s/he is most willing to get empowered before entering into a buying & selling decision. Even today, Car buying is not a pleasant experience. With all the hassles, haggle and time spent, people often face frictions and come of the experience not feeling so good about it.

There are opportunities to improve Car buying and ownership experience by delivering information and tools which help consumer spend his/her money on the right car at right price and at right place. Today, With car valuation / car recommendation services, today, some 80% consumers report that we have helped them in their car buying/selling experience (And I’m talking at least a few lacs here). Besides, user generated content / reviews etc are a high hit, consumers refer to them a lot.

And our figures says that around 35% of buyers who came online were genuine who finally entered into a transaction.

On the dealer side, used car market is also fragmented and dominated by a large number of small brokers/ dealers (Mumbai will have around 4000 dealers/brokers and Delhi have at least 1000 mid size dealerships). Web actually helps them reduce their cost of acquiring customer and reach beyond their geography. Of course, this was not so obvious to them.  Over time, we generated multiple thousands of car purchase inquiries and distributed those free to dealers. And for which their reaction was not encouraging enough. However, today dealers are willing to experiment more with us and are actually paying us to get them consumers through web.

We also see more encouraging figures. Google ad spent of automotive companies this year is around Rs. 10 million (IAMAI & Pinstorm report). I know at least of one comapany who successfully delivered ‘lead aggregator’ model in US, have actually started working in India on similar lines.

We see more of Maruti/ Tata/ Toyota ads online than ever before. ICICI Lombard have aggressively focused to acquire consumers online.

I think India will see at least one big company in online automotive space.

Ok guys, I am in the market to buy a new car - my second car, in fact. I own a Santro Xing now, and my next one will probably be a C segment car. I am toying with various models and makes - Verna, Honday City, Ford Fiesta, Flair, Scorpio, (would have loved to look at Innova, but slightly off the budget) and so on.
I will make the transaction in next two months. But I would like help in terms of organising the test drives for almost all these cars, the comparison information, and finally the finance arrangement, buying, registration etc…which website can help me?
Cheers

I think, no single website can give you all this today. We may at least provide you with comparison, specifications, pricings and dealer details and may know what financing, rates, EMI etc are possible. And very soon may give you a comparative statement for various finance options available.

We may also help you dispose your used car through listings and by reaching to a network of dealers.

You still got to go to delaerships for a test drive. Only thing is that you will go there with more clarity & information, which may ensure that you get a better deal.

I’m glad that you demand so much from existing auto portals and these expectations makes us work harder to revolutionize the ‘car experience’ in India.

List of auto portals
http://indiaupcoming.com/tag/auto

Automotive buying experience can never be replaced by portals. The user still needs to have the touch & feel experience, as many have commented above. For many in India, car buying is a dream, just like buying a home.

However, the typical Indian car/bike shopper is very tech savvy, and we see a demand for comprehensive auto portals that provide rich content and help the savvy buyer at every step in the car/bike shopping process. With more consumers on the Internet (thanks for broadband and a flood of low cost PCs), auto dealers and manufacturer are bound to see a good portion of their leads come from online sources. It is those who can adapt to this quickly and optimize their selling/marketing strategies that will reap the benefits in the years of automotive boom to come.

auto portals cannot survive independently. mouthshut.com and user opinions play a critical role in moving consumers to making a decision. carwale.com and all are yet to prove their standing. nikhil is right, we are far from it yet. but as mohit said, auto companies have increased their online ad spends. i hv seen huge auto ad campaigns on mouthshut.com (google adsense) and on ebay.

Hi Guys,

With the increase in Internet adoption, PCs going down in prices, Tata launching its new car in the 1-2 lakh segment, the auto portals are in a good position to capitalize on ad revenues and auto companies will need to step up their online ad spends.  It might be tough right now, but I do believe they are truly providing a service and help consumers be informed of the product, doing comparisons, etc. before walking into a dealer and bombarded with all kinds of information.

I am an NRI whos been in the US for the last 16 years and I can tell you that the competition is and will be EXTREMELY stiff between the dozen or so auto portals. Most will not survive. I am currently interested in a buyout of a major Auto Portal for investment purposes.  If any of the Portals are on the market and are interested in complete buyouts or investment, please contact me to go through the due diligence and evaluation phase at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Yeah, we agree that India is still not so online savvy for Automobiles, but this was the case even for e-commerce some 5-6 years ago and every person at that time was saying that who will buy goods online without seeing them etc…but today we have some big names like rediff shopping, ebay etc who dominate this space of e-commerce….so its natural that every big thing starts with a small brick and while we place brick by brick people doubt that this may fall…but time will see tha growth of such portals.

hi, used car industry in india is certainly picking up. Dealers are using portals to buy the used vehicles from financial institutions which are normally repossessed from the delinquent customers. You all have forgotten one site http://www.b2bmotors.in by Ebay. They claim to have more than 8000 dealers in 225 cities. Does anybody knows the size of used vehicle market in India?

Everyone who started an Auto portal in India started it with a big dream. Also with the promises of the market and the growth in economy they will see success. Thus came into existence my web portal <a >www.CarSalesIndia.com</a>

We all know there are a only a few web companies that survived the market crash in 2000. Similarly, a few legends will survive in this market over a long period. However, as time flies, we will see more auto portals launching and there will always be big oppurtunities for everyone.

The Indian auto market is brighter than ever, and most buyers are tech savvy who wouldnt mind checking their dream machine online before venturing out for a test drive. They are also interested to know about performance/mileage/features and value for money. Most of the indian buyers go on references or advice from friends/colleagues/relatives.

The current active portals almost provide similar services to the end user, and it is a boon to a car buyer to be able to search for a car online and make appointments over phone. Most of the portals are technically advanced and provide fully integrated SMS services to make communcation between the buyer and seller much easier.

On the new car front, Very soon we will see car manufacturers fully integrating with auto portals to serve online customers in a much better fashion. However, on the used car market, we still have a long way to go before maturity.

2008 to 2010 are very golden period of automobile industry in India informative article and news i have found at recently launched http://www.infibeam.com Best Example is Tata Motors Launching Nano Car, that is best sign for us.

so many new cars coming in.

we need such portals to get information

check out
http://www.carazoo.com

With the global auto scene so vibrant, there is always scope for new Auto Portals to work.

The Indian auto market is brighter than ever, and most buyers are tech savvy who wouldnt mind checking their dream machine online before venturing out for a test drive. They are also interested to know about performance/mileage/features and value for money.

The current active portals almost provide similar services to the end user, and it is a boon to a car buyer to be able to search for a car online and make appointments over phone.

Check out excellent services and uptodate information about new cars and used cars in India at :
http://www.cardekho.com

The ratio of cars to bikes prior to 5 years ago from now and today has changed drastically at least in the metro and some big cities in India.  The Indian (Metro Indian) consumers’ buying behavior has witnessed change. The automobile sector is witnessing consistent growth.
Now considering all this facts it can be logically arrived at the point that automobile portals can truly be a great success.
Now what is important here to understand is that conversion happening over internet or actual purchase taking over internet is almost not possible in the case of automobile.
Gifting by NRIs or rare buys should not to be taken into account (Unless share is significant enough) when talking in terms of general market trends.
Your web page is perhaps much better and cheaper option to generate leads or to educate a prospect up to the level that he/she becomes your customer. The actual conversion can only be possible when the customer physically take a test drive or walk up to a car showroom.

Use web to get educated or pre-qualified customer or simply fix up a meeting or a telecon with a readily waiting prospect.

If you want to know more on Indian automobile sector, visit http://automobileindia.com

I wld now like to ask everyone to do some crystal ball gazing and tell me as to what will make buying a car on-line a reality. can some one shed sone light on it. As a matter of fact Mr. Mohit Dubey if i am not wrong is from carwale.com. can he shed some light plus all other car portal owners might be able to help

Mohit if u r really from carwale then has your views changed since 2006 and if yes they why and where do u think this is going

Looking forward to hearing from all of u’ll

So much about various car portals and their offering. Check out http://www.autoways.co.in, a simplistic upcoming automobile portal which acts a platform, for buyers of used cars and bikes to list their used vehicles for sale with an option of free listing as well as paid listing. Although new, the portal has received hits from many cars and bikes buyers and have successfully bought and sold cars thru autoways. The portal also intends to offer a platform for the automobile accessory dealers and used car buyers to list their request for buying their own targeted vehicles. Check out for free.