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Job Hunt produces CarHunt.co.uk
Added: (Wed Dec 28 2005)
“Having handed back my Rover company car, I went looking for a cheap reliable car so that I could attend job interviews.” writes Charles Rapson, former MG Rover Group employee. “Trawling around used car dealers was time consuming and searching on the Internet didn’t seem to provide me with any suitable cars locally. Lots in Manchester, Leeds and London but not what I was looking for locally. I knew that something like 400,000 used cars were sold each year in the West Midlands, so there must be something suitable nearby.”
It was then that the idea for CarHunt.co.uk came about – an online advertising service for used car buyers and sellers aimed specifically at the West Midlands. With 30 years experience in the car business, traditional marketing and Internet marketing plus the boom in broadband connections, Charles Rapson knew he had a winning idea and the skills to make it happen. Rod Ramsay, MG Rover’s former Sales & Marketing director said, “Charles certainly has the skill and determination to make this a success. His services will be of great benefit to anyone selling used cars”.
The financial resource for the venture came from a combination of savings, redundancy money and support from Business Link, the Arrow Fund and Lloyds TSB.
Although CarHunt.co.uk is only a few weeks old, it’s already starting to make an impact. A quick search on Google for ‘used cars in Birmingham’ found CarHunt.co.uk at the top of page 1. It works too if you replace Birmingham with Coventry, Wolverhampton, Bromsgrove and just about any other West Midlands place name. The site currently carries adverts for around 200 used cars from private sellers and dealers such as George Heath Motors in Birmingham, Friarsgate in Lichfield and Tamworth, Barclay Motor Centre in Hopwood and West Heath Motors - a number that will grow as more and more people get to know about the site.
“We offer a unique service in that we are purely West Midlands based and promote our services only in the region. Something like 80% of used cars are bought within a 20-mile radius of the car buyers home. This way we concentrate our efforts where it matters, keep our costs down and promotion high – it makes the best use of our advertisers money.” explains Charles. “Already we are attracting about 150 visitors a day to the site and the volume of traffic is growing daily.”
Because the idea came about when Charles Rapson was looking for a cheap car, adverts for cars worth under £1000 are free at all times. As a promotional offer, until the end of January, private sellers can advertise for free.
PS. Charles Rapson stayed loyal to his former employers brand and bought a Rover 600 for £900 from, as it turned out, “a bloke just a few streets away”.
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For more information, contact Charles Rapson on 0121 246 1564 or 07981 472 688 or E-mail CharlesR@CarHunt.co.uk