Online car broking business Motor Scout run by Kingscliff entrepreneur Peter Gee gears up for expansion

A Kingcliff man who says car buyers rarely get a good deal has unveiled a new way to turn the tables on the dealers. Here’s how he’s doing it.

Peter Gee is the founder of Motor Scout, an online car broking business, launched from his Kingscliff home in 2018. Picture: GLENN HAMPSON

BROKERS are commonplace when buying a home so why not use them when it comes to buying a car and potentially saving thousands for consumers?

This is the thought process that spurred entrepreneur Peter Gee to launch online car-broking business Motor Scout from his Kingscliff home in April last year.

Mr Gee said he was buying a car three years ago when he first conceived the idea.

“I had a bad experience buying a car. I was time poor and didn’t get the best price I could. I drove it out of the dealership and the first thing I had to do was put petrol in it because the tank was empty,” he said.

A new online car broking service has launched, which claims it can save consumers thousands of dollars.

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Mr Gee said while nearly 60 per cent of home buyers in Australia used a mortgage broker, many people still hadn’t heard of car broking.

“We all like to think of ourselves as good negotiators, but the reality is the odds are stacked against you from the start,” he said.

“Most people don’t have the time to be visiting multiple dealerships chasing the best deals, and dealers make it hard to compare apples with apples.”

Mr Gee said Motor Scout was the solution.

He said customers paid nothing to use the service, while the winning dealer paid a small fee to secure the transaction.

A new online car broking service has launched, which claims it can save consumers thousands of dollars.

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“We have nearly 1000 dealers on our books nationwide and they know they only have one chance — give us your best price first time or you won’t win the deal.”

In 18 months Mr Gee has built up the business to include four staff working from Kingscliff and a website drawing in 800 clients per month. Of those 800 visitors, the company speaks directly to 600.

Mr Gee said Motor Scout did come across an issue whereby it struggled to service the volume of clients coming to use their services.

However he said that would change because of $200,000 invested in Motor Scout by a private equity company to help meet demand as of the start of this month.

Another challenge is overcoming a bad reputation for the car retail industry.

“There are still a lot of cowboys in the industry. They will get a price from the dealer at $30,000 and offer it to the customer at $33,000. We don’t take a clip from the sale price.” Motor Scout users can see the offers as they come through from car dealers, ensuring full transparency, Mr Gee said.

He said Motor Scout’s message was cutting through. About one third of customers come from referrals while clients hail from Melbourne (30 per cent), Sydney (30 per cent) and Queensland (20 per cent) with the remainder from ­regional areas.