GM sees growth for CarBravo used-vehicle sales platform

General Motors' CarBravo online sales platform logged its best sales month in August — more than 5,500 certified used vehicles — and the automaker is working to build on that momentum.

CarBravo, launched in 2022 with a pilot of about 12 dealers, has grown to encompass 267 Chevrolet, Buick and GMC retailers in the U.S., GM said. A total of 586 dealerships have enrolled in CarBravo across 96 markets, and the footprint is expected to broaden.

Dan Ahearn, preowned manager at GM, said the automaker anticipates the number of enrolled dealerships to more than double.

"Over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, we'll grow the network as we look to add additional dealers," Ahearn said. "We've gotten in a very good spot."

Participation is voluntary in CarBravo, which replaces GM's traditional certified preowned program for dealerships that sign up, the automaker said. The idea came about in 2019 to help dealerships with used vehicles before the pandemic and supply shortages upended the market, said Steve Wineman, GM's advertising and marketing manager for preowned vehicles, including CarBravo.

The platform allows GM to leverage the scale of its retail network to compete in the fragmented used-vehicle market, including against digital used-only retailers such as Carvana.

Roughly 47 percent of vehicles sold through CarBravo would not have been certified before, including older vehicles and those from other brands, GM said.

The automaker has added GM-owned vehicles, including those coming off leases, to the platform. They are stored at regional distribution centers, allowing dealerships to sell from a larger inventory.

The GM service protection plan that comes with each vehicle — one perk of the CarBravo platform — is a selling point for the staff at Shaheen Chevrolet, giving customers more transparency about what they're buying, said Matthew Platko, general sales manager.

On a recent afternoon, used Chevy Blazers, Trailblazers and Traxes were parked at the Lansing, Mich., dealership alongside Volkswagens, Nissans and Mazdas.

Through CarBravo, GM offers a six-month, 6,000-mile bumper-to-bumper limited warranty on vehicles less than 10 years old and with fewer than 100,000 miles. Vehicles 10 to 15 years old and those with 100,000 to 150,000 miles receive 30-day, 1,000-mile BravoBudget limited powertrain coverage.

All CarBravo vehicles get up to a 126-point inspection, and the report is posted on the vehicle detail page. Since GM backs the warranty, CarBravo vehicles can be serviced at any of its roughly 4,000 U.S. dealerships, including Cadillac, which does not participate in CarBravo, the automaker said.

"There's more cars and more coverage out there now than what there was," Platko said.

CarBravo is built on the same technology from automotive software provider Tekion that powers GM's Digital Retail Platform. It is available as a standalone website and accessed through participating dealerships' sites.

Customers can browse inventory, view inspection reports signed by dealership technicians, customize payments, value a trade-in, choose finance and insurance products or accessories, and request a test-drive appointment.

"What CarBravo provides to the dealer is us being able to go to market together," Ahearn said. "Pick a group, even some of the large ones that have 100-plus stores. That's really hard to establish. And now you take the power of our dealers and CarBravo as one brand, and now we get to go to market together."

CarBravo dealerships now can reach more customers, including buyers from other brands, who wouldn't otherwise be on their radar, said Andy Guelcher, dealer principal at Mohawk Chevrolet in Ballston Spa, N.Y. The dealership certifies every used vehicle it can through the platform, Guelcher said.

CarBravo might not appeal to every dealer, he said, including those with a well-run, local used-vehicle operation. But Guelcher said a model that brings more eyeballs to a dealership's used-vehicle inventory will lead to more sales, more service visits and more new-car sales opportunities.

"It's the simplicity of the program as it relates to gathering more customers," said Guelcher, chairman of the Chevrolet National Dealer Council. "More dealers will see that there is benefit here."