Used-Car Retail: From Loss Narrative to Profitable Reality

When Amit Jain from Cardekho said a couple of years ago that making money in retailing used cars is a tough proposition with poor unit economics, he was right. We had a plan but it was a plan. Since then our retail team has made a turnaround to prove making money is indeed possible in used cars. 

Many companies have exited used car retail in India, claiming unit economics simply don’t work. And at first glance, they’re right — the traditional model burns ₹30–35K per car. But at CARS24, we’ve flipped the script by rethinking where true value lies.

India’s used car customers are aspirational

• 70% are first-time buyers. What they really want is affordability and trust. 

So instead of squeezing higher margins, we enable affordability through consumer financing, and build trust through value-added services like warranty, insurance, service packages, and roadside assistance.

The result? A fundamentally different P&L while taking 20% lesser margin from the customer and while our competitors lose ₹29.5 crore!

This is real progress but it’s not the finish line.

Next phase:

Covering corporate overheads and delivering full P&L profitability at scale.

We’ve proven the unit model. Now we build the business above it with discipline and leverage.