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In what may be a UK motor trade first, Bristol Street Motors, which is part of Vertu Motors plc, have launched an end to end online car retailing facility for used cars.

The move to create Bristol Street Buy Online means Bristol Street Motors has stolen a march on other UK dealers and dealer groups who to date have only provided facilities to reserve cars or request test-drives online with the actual purchase having to be completed in a physical dealership.

The Bristol Street system which went live with almost no fanfare on the evening of May 9th allows customers to organise finance, sort out their part exchange and actually transact the purchase online. The only outward signal of the launch was a social media message from the firm’s CEO Robert Forrester who Tweeted saying “#VTU we have today launched full end to end online retailing of used cars with part exchange and finance capability #online”

Talking about the initiative Vertu Motors CEO Robert Forrester told Motor Trade News, “We have launched an end to end online used car offer to customers so they can part exchange, finance and buy a used car online. We are early to do this because we want to offer customers the most convenient service and we want to learn as much as possible, as soon as possible about a channel which will no doubt play an increasing role in the years ahead.”

A source close to Vertu Motors told Motor Trade News, “This is a soft launch, we are not expecting this to make our website melt-down or anything like that. While most people will still want to come to the dealership, there is a demand for this and the direction of travel is clearly towards doing business online.”

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