The ‘Trade-in Trade Up Saturday’ event on saw 624 new bookings and 320 trade-ins for Proton.
While Proton sales have been on the rise in recent years, that still doesn’t seem to be enough for the Malaysian automaker. That is as in an effort to further stimulate new car bookings, the company has recently partnered with online used car retail platform Carsome to organise a trade-in event.
Dubbed the ‘Trade-in Trade-Up Saturday’, this event took place on the 14th of October at 32 Proton outlets that facilitated the automaker’s used car program. A total of 1,552 people attended the event, where a remarkable 624 new bookings were placed with 320 customers opting to trade-in their current vehicles too. Carsome had also conducted 489 vehicle inspections on the day, which far exceeded the initial target of 320 units set prior to the event.
Speaking more about the event, Proton Edar CEO Roslan Abdullah said: “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 are able to offer a more efficient and transparent process that eases the customer towards 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 stabilise our used car values together with our partners,” he added.
Carsome meanwhile stressed transparency and offering fair value to customers during the event. “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” said Eric Cheng, co-founder and CEO of Carsome.
According to Proton, its used car management division has taken in over 4,500 cars across its 32 outlets in 2023, and is on track to set a new record by the end of the year. As for its goal for 2024, the Malaysian automaker plans to expand its network to 60 outlets nationwide with a target of achieving an annual turnover of at least 6,000 units. To achieve this goal, the company has stated that it plans to possible run more trade-in events on a quarterly basis.
Buyers interested in a certified pre-owned Proton (and interestingly enough, general used cars that came from a Proton dealer) can view the automaker’s dedicated used car website: http://used-cars.proton.com. Said site also provides an online service that will provide a trade-in quotation for their existing cars too.
