Sponsored: CarSwitch does just about everything in the car buying or selling process but write the check and sign the title…

Car dealers, especially the used variety, have a tendency to suck the joie de vivre out of the otherwise euphoric experience of buying a car. Selling your car – with all the paperwork and the relentless DM requests for ‘best price’ – is downright awful, too.

CarSwitch is a sort of middleman that does just about everything in the car buying or selling process, except write the check and sign the title.

Founded in the UAE in 2016 by Imad Hammad, CarSwitch is covering all emirates and has even expanded into Saudi Arabia, now present in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Khobar.

SELLING YOUR CAR

CarSwitch is not a dealer. Rather, it’s a service that sells your car for you at your asking price and helps you find a new one within its own marketplace.

Say you want to sell your Toyota Fortuner, for example. CarSwitch asks for your car’s records (mileage, year, trim, etc) and the price you want to sell it for.

Then they actually send a guy out to your house to verify everything you said about the car’s condition.

Think of it like the ubiquitous zillion-point inspection seemingly every dealership has, but one that takes place in your driveway. The inspector will take a bunch of photos, including a 360-degree view of the car, and keep copious notes for prospective buyers. That’s really it. Your car goes up for sale, at an agreed price point, and any interested parties can meet directly with the CarSwitch advisor, so that you don’t have to. You’ll also have private access to a dedicated ‘seller portal’  that tells you the number of offers/inquiries you are getting and the number of views on your car.

BUYING A CAR

On the other hand, if you’re looking to buy, the CarSwitch inspection is so thorough you probably wouldn’t beat it by taking the car to a mechanic yourself. Then there are those photos. Most car dealers use odd camera angles to avoid certain ‘blemishes’. They tend to take blurry photos to hide imperfections in the hope you won’t notice until after you’ve bought the car. While on the flip side, CarSwitch even provides you a 360-degree view of the car along with very clear pictures of the car.

CarSwitch pride themselves on offering used car deals you can trust, thoroughly checking over the cars in their portfolio to ensure they’re up to scratch.

Once you’ve studied the photos and are ready to pull the trigger on a given car, just click buy. Your money is not transferred until the car is in your name.

Take that, used car salesmen everywhere

Admin fees to list a car start from just Dhs49, while success fees on selling a car start from only Dhs999. For more information, visit CarSwitch.com

Images: Supplied