The start-up founder wants to make it difficult to manipulate speedometers.
Dusseldorf When Patrick Scharwenka inspected his first used car, a small Fiat car, a few years ago, he relied on gut instinct. “To be on the safe side, I took my father with me,” says the 29-year-old looking back, “and he then kicked the tire two or three times.”
The former PwC and Accenture consultant would like to see no more helplessness like this in the future. On November 18, the business graduate started an online service that creates a certification at the request of the car salesman. Car-Cert, as the company name, confirms the stated mileage, completed general inspections, the original purchase price and product recalls for the vehicle model.
Car-Cert’s shareholders are the Bertelsmann subsidiary Arvato and the Dublin-based data service provider Experian, which has been offering similar services in Great Britain and the USA for several years.
In this country, Car-Cert is thus finding a potentially lucrative gap. According to a sample of 1,000 respondents, two thirds of all Germans consider speedometer manipulation when buying a used car to be a “major problem”. According to another result of the survey, there is mistrust, especially towards independent car dealers.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
The skepticism does not seem unfounded. The police estimate that about every third used vehicle has its mileage turned down. Manipulated used cars would be sold too dearly on average.
According to the survey, 62 percent of all Germans distrust used car dealers.
The check on the Car-Cert website, which costs just under 30 euros, only takes a few minutes. Anyone who enters the vehicle identification number into the screen and then emails a photo of their vehicle registration document will receive their vehicle’s résumé a few minutes later.
As a data source, Car-Cert uses the main inspection results from Tüv or Dekra, in which the respective mileage is recorded. The ADAC provides information on product recalls, the Deutsche Automobil Treuhand (DAT) provides reference values for the usual mileage and costs of the vehicle.
“We have had a legal opinion drawn up by the former Schleswig-Holstein data protection officer Thilo Weichert,” reports the Car-Cert managing director.
Germany’s neighbor Belgium is a role model. In 2006, the country introduced the so-called “Car Pass”, a document created on the basis of a car’s résumé showing the mileage that must be enclosed with every used vehicle. The number of manipulated used cars then fell drastically from 60,000 to less than 2000, reports Belgian newspapers.
In order to get even more precise data for the individual used vehicles, Car-Cert is currently negotiating with car manufacturers, workshops and insurance companies. “Legally, your data belong to the vehicle owners,” explains Scharwenka. “If you wish, you have to give them to the car owners.” So far, many data collectors have found it difficult, but now they are “in good talks”.
The Federal Association of Independent Motor Vehicle Dealers (BVfK) considers it “very desirable” that the subject of odometer manipulation will soon be a thing of the past. “It could actually do that too,” says CEO Ansgar Klein, annoyed, “if the manufacturers installed tamper-proof systems and made the vehicle data that they diligently collect available to their customers.”
Millions in sales in sight
All alternatives have so far failed due to a lack of security against manipulation of the data in the vehicle and data protection, reports the dealer association. “Should Bertelsmann have solved these problems and offer more than just false security,” says Klein, “our association would very much welcome that.”
The Bertelsmann subsidiary is convinced that the market potential is huge. “Seven million used cars are sold in Germany every year,” says Scharwenka. “If only one in ten of them uses our service, we will have a turnover of over 20 million euros.”
Scharwenka, who lives in Berlin, does not reveal when Car-Cert wants to start earning money with it. “The certification process runs automatically and is solely software-driven,” he says. “We don’t need any people for that.” Nevertheless, 25 software developers, data protection experts, web designers and marketing specialists are currently keeping the company running.
“There will probably be even more in the future,” says the start-up boss. “After all, we want to keep growing.”
More: Simple odometer manipulation – ADAC demands more protection