Buyacar acquires pre-owned cars from BDO

MANILA, Philippines - Buyacar Inc. recently purchased another batch of pre-owned vehicles from BDO Unibank Inc. as a response to the increasing market for pre-owned cars in the country.

A joint venture between Esquire Financing Inc. and Capitalife Lending Inc., Buyacar is negotiating with BDO to buy the next batch of vehicles as the company is cycling through its inventory faster than its target.

Esquire Financing Inc.’ president/CEO Rajan Uttamchandan said: “We’re targeting 700 to 900 cars a year in sales.”

In less than five months since it started operations, Buyacar has sold 50 percent of the cars that it purchased. Steve Borsuk, CEO of Capitalife Lending Inc., added:  “The numbers keep growing because people are becoming aware of our company and the way we do business, and they know how to appreciate and value these terms.”

Given expectations of future growth, Borsuk said.”  “We believe that by the end of 2014, we will be able to sell hundreds or thousands of cars on a monthly basis.”

Similar to the no-down payment car loans in the US, Buyacar brought this business model in the Philippines to meet the increasing demand for used vehicles and to deliver more affordable pre-owned vehicles to its market. “Our vision is to be able to service the market with affordable cars at flexible lease terms,” Uttamchandan said.

Borsuk added: “Since people often find it difficult to be given loans to buy second-hand cars, we came in to offer non-collateral and basically lease-to-own cars. Through this, clients will have the opportunity to come up with small amount of money to get their dream car that none of the other companies are willing to offer them.”

While buying a car from other companies may require down payment fees amounting to P500,000 to P1 million, Buyacar requires more affordable monthly amortization fees. “If you can’t afford P17,000, we even have some cars which are only less than P7,000 (a month). With this, you get car insurance and everything. We have all varieties of prices from P7,000,” Borsuk said.

For Buyacar, that means solving an issue of transportation that affects almost everyone living in Metro Manila. Uttamchandan said, “It’s every person’s dream to own a vehicle, we’re helping facilitate that dream.”