[sarathlal]

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) has opened the company’s first Toyota Used Car Outlet (TUCO) in Bengaluru today.



The TUCO outlet would buy and sell only Toyota pre-owned cars. This is a pilot project and would be expanded to the rest of the country in the future.

• This is company direct sales.
• No dealer involvement making it different from the existing 'Toyota U - Trust'
• Will provide OEM-refurbished used car to the end customer
• Each vehicle will undergo complete refurbishment based on TKM’s global vehicle quality standards.
• Finance and insurance will also be packaged

Source 1
Source 2

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) has opened the company’s first Toyota Used Car Outlet (TUCO) in Bengaluru today.

The TUCO outlet would buy and sell only Toyota pre-owned cars. This is a pilot project and would be expanded to the rest of the country in the future.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities...le65608070.ece

With Toyota controlling the business, they will be able to control the used car prices of their models which will give them enough incentive to continue their quarterly price hikes. Not sure if the market will reward this move.

[sarathlal]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

Didn't Toyota already have U Trust which is their used car business. What's the need for Toyota only used car business.

Had accidentally posted before adding full details, sorry for that. Added additional details now.

TUCO is aimed at direct sales and deal with factory refurbished standards which looks to be the main differentiator here

[androdev]

Toyota U Trust is actually pretty good especially if you are buying Toyota cars. I can't imagine any real benefit over U Trust other than maybe higher prices.

[Porcupine]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

With Toyota controlling the business, they will be able to control the used car prices of their models which will give them enough incentive to continue their quarterly price hikes. Not sure if the market will reward this move.

It doesn't make that much difference to third party activities in the secondary market. This is like any other brand - especially in other countries - having their own used car marketplaces. They will only buy used cars of a certain standard and might have a cap on age and mileage and then refurbish them and command a higher price. Even Porsche has recently launched this in India, and in other countries most brands have their own used showrooms that operate at higher priced than the actual secondary market.

The benefit here is the cars will be serviced and guaranteed fit by Toyota and will possibly come with a new warranty of a couple of years.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

• No dealer involvement making it different from the existing 'Toyota U - Trust'
• Will provide OEM-refurbished used car to the end customer

Aren't these 2 point contradicting each other?

This would work in Bangalore, where the plant is nearby. But how will the logistics work in any other city?

Isn't this similar to Hyundai Motor Plaza in Madras, who are a direct OEM outlet?

[greenhorn]

From the pic, it looks like a coco u trust outlet.
Given that they're purely in the used car business, i wonder where they're going to get their supply from. Most Toyota u trust inventory is from customers trading in or from current employee cars.

Originally Posted by sarathlal

[*]This is company direct sales. [*]No dealer involvement making it different from the existing 'Toyota U - Trust'
[/url]

I would rephrase that as

No dealer involvement making it different from the existing 'Toyota U - Trust' network

[TusharK]

Toyota has announced its entry into the used car space. The company recently inaugurated its first Toyota Used Car Outlet (TUCO) in Bangalore.



TUCO will offer fully refurbished used cars to customers. The facility will buy and sell only Toyota pre-owned cars.

According to the company, every Toyota used car will undergo a thorough 203-point inspection and will be refurbished accordingly. TUCO will also offer financing options, RTO assistance, insurance and accessories.

TUCO will be digitally integrated so that customers can get their cars evaluated online. The 'Value your car' option is available on the U Trust website.

Link to Team-BHP News

[VikramCS]

Good news. Toyota already has a U-Trust division at major dealerships which sell multi-brand use-cars. They are professional, reliable and also provide suitable warranty on used-cars (limited warranty). Is this division still going to be retained? Or, will the U-Trust continue with all brands, minus Toyota cars, which now will be under TUCO umbrella?

[learning_cars]

Good to see this. Toyota investing in India is always music to my ears. They have been a bit on the fence specially after Etios and the recent run of Yaris was not really be confidence inspiring for the Indian unit. But they seem much more invested now with Suzuki by their side. With rebadged Suzuki's, they are doing good volumes now and this business should give them good returns.

The fact that it does mention refurbishment reminds of reading some months back about Toyota wanting to do factory quality refurbishment on old cars, to reduce waste. I don't think that was for India(probably Japan) though.

[sunnysideup_]

This is a really welcome move, considering how insanely marked up Toyota cars are in the second-hand market. But will this bode well for the original owner of the car? If the original owner knows they can get a better price via other avenues, would they approach Toyota? If Toyota offers a competitive price, won't that mean the buyer will have to shell out extra than the market, which already commands quite a premium? Or am I being a little too unnecessarily sceptical about this. I'd really like to know other's opinions!

[DonHyd]

I think this is another excuse to further increase the new car prices. A customer who is not in the habit of keenly tracking car prices enters Toyota showroom thinking that top end Innova and Fortuner cost about 30 and 47 lakhs OTR respectively. By then prices would have touched 40 and 65. So, in order to retain the customer, Toyota will sell refurbished Innova and Fortuner at 30 and 47 convincing the customer that they are as good as new.

[theabstractmind]

I recently bought a Yaris from TUCO.

Pros:
1. You will get very well maintained and refurbished cars.
2. Warranty - depends on age of car. Cars less than 3 years old get longer warranty.
3. Free labour on service (one free checkup and one periodic maintenance) - 10000 kms.
4. Similar run cars in the market were much more expensive.
5. Toyota listed certified cars on U Trust is always better than other portals.
6. Both cars I test drove were superbly maintained. And the SA was glad to give a fairly long test drive. Not sure if they will sustain it. Having said that, even the Toyota dealer (3rd of the Yaris which I drove) allowed me a decent test drive. This is very unlike others who ask to end the drive even before it started.

Cons:
1. It took a total 6 working days for me to get delivery of my car - had to follow up at each stage of sale (finance and delivery). They kept saying new setup, teething troubles.
2. The only known outlet in Bangalore is outside the city. This should improve though.

And yeah, I bought a media car. Despite having read about the abuse, etc. Simply put, the quality of the car is damn good and mechanically felt very fresh indicating high standards of refurbishment.

[sandeepskarobar]

Originally Posted by theabstractmind

I recently bought a Yaris from TUCO.

Pros:
1. You will get very well maintained and refurbished cars.
2. Warranty - depends on age of car. Cars less than 3 years old get longer warranty.
3. Free labour on service (one free checkup and one periodic maintenance) - 10000 kms.
4. Similar run cars in the market were much more expensive.
5. Toyota listed certified cars on U Trust is always better than other portals.
6. Both cars I test drove were superbly maintained. And the SA was glad to give a fairly long test drive. Not sure if they will sustain it. Having said that, even the Toyota dealer (3rd of the Yaris which I drove) allowed me a decent test drive. This is very unlike others who ask to end the drive even before it started.

Cons:
1. It took a total 6 working days for me to get delivery of my car - had to follow up at each stage of sale (finance and delivery). They kept saying new setup, teething troubles.
2. The only known outlet in Bangalore is outside the city. This should improve though.

And yeah, I bought a media car. Despite having read about the abuse, etc. Simply put, the quality of the car is damn good and mechanically felt very fresh indicating high standards of refurbishment.

Can you please share the location of the TUCO which is company owned one not the UTrust maintained by dealers.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

With Toyota controlling the business, they will be able to control the used car prices of their models

Impossible. A brand with smaller volumes (e.g. Porsche, Volvo or even Mercedes) can do this to an extent, but not Toyota. Reason = their sales are too vast for them to control any used car pricing. Maybe Lexus could try, but not Toyota. Plus, there is now a large number of organised players (Cars24, Spinny, OLX, Cardekho etc.) all vying for that same car on sale. The competition in the pre-owned segment is insane.