Mobil'88 fine tunes formula in selling used cars

By Sugianto Tandra

JAKARTA (JP): In the 1970s, purchasing a used car from a doctor was judged a safe buy. Their caring hands were assumed to have kept the vehicle in tip-top condition.

This notion has slowly faded away. It is not because people don't trust in doctors' integrity anymore. Instead, enterprising used car dealers have learned lessons from the doctors, and know the importance of establishing trust with clients from the first meeting.

One company sticking to this philosophy is Mobil'88, the biggest used car dealer in the country.

Mobil'88 -- PT Arya Karisma to give its full name -- is a subsidiary of the giant PT Astra International conglomerate established in October 1988. It is one of Astra's "automotive packages" with famed authorized Toyota dealer Auto2000 and PT Astraprima, the group's other used car dealership.

It has 10 showrooms across Indonesia -- four in Sumatra, one in Bandung, one in Surabaya, and four in Jakarta. By the end of this year, it will have three more showrooms in Indonesia.

Each showroom has at least 40 cars. Mobil'88 specializes in cars not more than five years old.

Managing director Karya Budiana said the company outsold other used car dealerships in the country, and controls the market with total unit sales of 6,000 cars per year in Jakarta alone. Annual used car sales in Jakarta are 10,000.

"It's a big business, but it's not easy doing it," Budiana said, calculating the company's total annual sales at Rp 180 billion, according to a standard average of Rp 30 million per unit.

Budiana, 40, and purchasing and reconditioning head Muzni ZN spoke to The Jakarta Post recently at the company's headquarters in Sunter, North Jakarta.

Mobil'88 has a motto of "one step ahead" and Budiana said it would introduce a more advanced company concept exploring information technology next year.

"You will be able to see all our used cars in other showrooms, and in Jakarta there are about 600 cars, just from one showroom," he said.

Budiana said he had visited Britain and several other European nations to research dealers' concepts. He also hired consultants to sharpen the firm's business paradigm.

Muzni added: "We have become a benchmark for other dealers here, and this makes us keep improving our business concept."

Budiana said the firm's major competition were "uncles, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces or friends" of prospective buyers.

"We want to take over that doctors' part, that we are the trusted hands," quipped Muzni, a 51-year-old who started his career as a salesman with Astra 21 years ago.

How does Mobil'88 attract buyers considering their prices are relatively more expensive than other dealers?

The men said it was through providing a product that was as good as new, including in service and guarantees, and listening to the "very rare" customer complaints.

"Looked at from a wider point of view, our price is reasonable," Budiana said.

Two winning points of Mobil'88 are centralized buying and reconditioning of all its used cars, which cuts costs and standardizes prices, and its close ties with Auto2000.

"A complaint often directed at us in the past was that we didn't have a uniform price in every showroom, that some were more expensive than others," Muzni said.

Muzni explains that reconditioning begins immediately after the used car is bought from the company's sources. The latter is broken down among 40 percent from Auto2000 customers, 40 percent from its own customers, 12 percent from those who trade in for a newer vehicle from the Mobil'88 collection and the rest from other dealers.

With some 150 mechanics, the company is able to refit up to 15 cars a day. Muzni said this target would be increased when Mobil'88 opens the biggest car reconditioning center in the country on a one-hectare site in Bekasi next year.

Mobil'88 zeros in on 122 check points in a used car to be scrutinized, tuned up, updated or replaced.

"A reconditioned used car is like a new car," Muzni said.

Budiana said that with the company's centralized reconditioning, the price of a 1995 red Corolla, for instance, would be the same at every showroom.

"Just check that out in our showrooms," he said.

"With the centralization and the costs this cuts, we have also increased our profit margin," Budiana said.

The company's other strong point is its service.

"Mobil'88 is the first used car dealer to introduce a guarantee scheme like the one offered when purchasing a new car," Budiana says.

"We even give a 100 percent refund if we find our customer justified when he returns the car he bought. Of course, these cases are very, very rare," he says.

In fact, Budiana said the lone exception to its perfect track record was a stolen car several years ago. Budiana said the company was now able to verify the authenticity of car documents.

Its close ties with the Auto2000, Indonesia's sole distributor of Japanese-made Toyota cars, also give Mobil '88 the edge. Its customers are entitled to receive service from Auto2000.

Mobil'88 boasts that its every showroom will be standardized for convenience and to better serve clients.

Budiana said many visitors had told the company that its showroom in Jaga Karsa on Jl. TB Simatupang, South Jakarta, is the most convenient. Company data shows the walk-in rate at the showroom is high.