Gee Automotive Invests in Joydrive, National Leader Creating Hulu-like Marketplace to Sell Your Car and Buy New & Used Cars, 100% Online

SPOKANE, Wash., July 11, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Gee Automotive and top dealerships across the US are uniting on Joydrive's unique marketplace to meet customer demand to sell or buy any brand of new or used car 100% online, without visiting a dealer. Akin to the Hulu joint venture among Disney, NBC, and AT&T, Gee and other top dealers are strategically investing in Joydrive. This is the first time competing dealers with competing brands have partnered on one comprehensive and cohesive platform. The offensive move gives Gee and Joydrive dealers a unified, nationwide marketplace of their own where customers can sell or buy any brand of new or used car, trade-in, secure financing, etc. 100% online. With the rapid growth described below, Joydrive is now America's largest online marketplace for customers to buy new and used cars without visiting a dealer.

The company raised $6 million in multiple recent funding rounds and grew significantly with Gee Automotive, a Top 50 largest dealer group in the nation. In addition, Gee Automotive joined Joydrive's Advisory Board and is one of the top Joydrive dealer members. Joydrive's recent funding rounds joins previous rounds for a total of $10 million in investment.

Ryan Gee, CEO of Gee Automotive Companies stated, "Joydrive is not only a successful e-commerce solution for individual dealerships, but the nationwide marketplace it has created is the only answer to countering the potential entry from the country's largest online retailer. For the first time ever, we've joined forces with our competition to pool our resources and meet the demands of our customers for an easy, intuitive and seamless online shopping experience."

• Brand New - Customers Can Now Sell Their Cars From Home

The company has also recently added a "Sell My Car" function allowing customers to sell their cars without leaving their house and without the purchase of a new car. Customers can receive a real, no-haggle offer in less than 60-seconds, 24 hours a day. Unlike other companies that require a dealer visit, Joydrive's "Sell My Car" is uniquely convenient as it allows customers to have their vehicles picked up and offers immediate payment, all from the comfort of the home.

• Asset Light, Highly Scalable Model

Joydrive's asset-light model leverages existing inventory and infrastructure of its select dealer partners. Thus, Joydrive requires dramatically less capital than online used-car only dealers that own their inventory. Additionally, Joydrive's expansive dealer network enables customers selling their car to receive rapid home pick up and immediate payment, all as fast as the same day.

Consumers across the country can use Joydrive to sell their vehicle or shop online for new and used cars, with free delivery and other perks thanks to a national web of dealerships in Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington -- with more to come.

And Joydrive's rapid growth has just started. Joydrive is expanding nationwide with top dealer groups in the country that also want to allow customers to buy on their own terms.

• The Hulu Model

For years, dealerships have relied on glitch-prone plug-ins to their websites or third-party catalog sites to advertise inventory, but sales still required a visit to the dealership. As consumer tastes have shifted to exclusive e-commerce buying platforms, new companies like used-car Carvana have sought to meet that demand and position themselves as the "anti-dealership."

With Amazon dipping even more toes into the auto market with Amazon Vehicles for search, parts sales, test-drive programs with Hyundai and event online car sales in Europe with Fiat, Open and Hyundai, dealers -- many of whom are family-owned small businesses -- have realized they can no longer attempt a digital transformation on their own.

Joydrive has brought them together in a Hulu-style platform to lead their digital transformation and meet the demands of the e-commerce driven buyer.

"Like Hulu, Joydrive is unique in that it breaks down the individual properties together into one easy to navigate and user-friendly process to sell your car or buy any brand of new or used car," says Hunter Gorham, founder and CEO, Joydrive. "Just like you aren't watching a show on ABC tonight, you're watching Hulu, a car buyer isn't eagerly heading out to sell or shop several local Toyota and Subaru dealers but shopping for and buying any brand from Joydrive."

Joydrive is available coast-to-coast and has more than 30,000 cars available today for purchase, lease, financing, delivery, and a 5-day return period.

• How Joydrive Works

Joydrive customers can browse numerous dealerships in one easy to navigate marketplace, purchase their car in their pajamas on the couch while they catch up on the latest binge-worthy show.

Joydrive, which will be nationwide by the end of the year, works in three easy steps, and
journalists are invited to take a test drive with a representative:

• Buy Online: The entire process can be completed online, from vehicle selection to delivery. After securing a vehicle with a $199 fully refundable deposit, a user-friendly dashboard shows all details of the transaction including trade-in, Vehicle Service Contracts, financing options, and delivery schedules. Of Joydrive's completed transactions, approximately 40% included a trade-in, and 60% included financing.
• Home Delivery: Communicating through the dashboard, customers coordinate the vehicle delivery date and time with their licensed dealer representatives. Because vehicles are located on dealer lots, delivery can occur as fast as one day.
• 5-Day Return Period: Buying a car can be the largest transaction customers make, so Joydrive and their dealer members offer a 5-day return period or up to 250 miles to ensure customers love their purchase. Customers can drive the car how they will actually use it. To date, less than one percent of Joydrive's transactions have been returned.

ABOUT JOYDRIVE
Joydrive (http://www.joydrive.com) is the first online marketplace where customers can sell their car or buy and lease both new and pre-owned vehicles without visiting a dealership. At no extra cost, customers can complete the entire car selling or buying process online, on their own time and at their own pace. With financing and trade-ins built directly into the mobile-friendly platform, with home delivery in as fast as one day, and with a five-day return period, customers experience a seamless, transparent, and worry-free purchasing transaction. While Joydrive removes the need to visit a dealership, the company works with a select network of industry-leading dealers providing customers more brands, more vehicle choices, and faster delivery.

SOURCE Joydrive