David Paviour

I have never attempted to advertise, just clarify. If you think I’ve been vague, check out the info on our site, including our entire timeline on where and how Autoport was created. Several interesting points have been raised… Regarding pricing, more and more people find a fixed price model refreshing as they don’t like the haggle. They also like online as find car yards intimidating. Also, there are plenty of moving pieces apart from the price with buying and selling cars which usually affect the end price. Regarding ownership, it seems good business sense not to own the depreciating and costly inventory but have full rights through an agreement to sell it. And while on that, there are plenty of dealers in NZ who have cars sitting on their yards they don’t own – it’s the supplier that still owns the car until it’s sold and the supplier is often a Japanese company. Another thing I like about our model is that we aren’t motivated to sell cars based on margin or how long it’s been sitting on the yard (with turnover aims and cash flow implications of that). We are motivated to help clients find the best car they can, from a wide range, that fits their budget. Challenging the traditional model means we do things differently, but with the same end result and most people who contact us understand that. If they don’t like how we operate, there’s plenty of choice!

I’m correcting your comment that Autoport is just an “agent”, who takes no risk or responsibility and just runs a currency converter! We’re a full service RMVT offering cars online direct from the source. Also, no attempt to advertise here - just advise what is included as standard for Autoport, since that was in question. I’m sure you know the answers to your questions given your position, but happy to answer for the community. All those questions and more are answered on our site. We offer cars for sale from our network of authorised suppliers in Japan and the UK and we have companies setup in both those countries for quality control and admin efficiency. We have a physical office in Auckland for clients to visit and collect cars from - clients only deal with us. Cars are complied, serviced, registered, prepared and valeted by us. Being online means we can be mitigate any issues at the inception of any deal with several inspections prior to shipping. It also means we avoid depreciation and the cost of funding an inventory – both usually add to the cost for the customer. Clearly there’s no option to test drive, but that’s why there’s a robust process and a money back guarantee. While some see a test drive as important, some can’t be bothered and see it as a way for the salesperson to get some one-on-one time with the perspective customer to see what makes them tick and get closer to selling the car. We are challenging the traditional dealer model by being online. Clients pay no more than the agreed price at the inception of the deal, and secure the car with a 10% deposit. As for negotiation, Toyota and Honda stopped that years ago and from next year I hear that will be the case for Mercedes Benz. Do you know when it will be the case for BMW? And while our service isn’t for everyone, there seems to be a growing number who are quite interested. Hope that helps.

The intent for this and the previous posts is only to correct what you have said about us. Here's the original post... Hi there, just want to clear up what Autoport.nz do. We are not just agents - we are full service RMVT so take full responsibility and risk under the CGA. Hope that helps.