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Leading second-hand car dealer AAA AUTO celebrates 25 years in business and will welcome its two millionth customer this year

Over the course of 25 years, AAA AUTO has grown to become the largest second-hand car dealer in Central Europe

AAA Auto began offering motorists second-hand cars in the Czech Republic 25 years ago. During that time, it has served 1.9 million customers in purchasing and sales and it plans to reach the figure of two million in the autumn of this year. In a quarter of a century, the company has rapidly expanded its network of branches to the current 40 branches across 4 Central and East European countries, where it employs a total of 2,300 people. AAA AUTO has also expanded its activities to West Europe in the area of exporting.

The AAA Auto name and brand originated in the nineteen nineties in response to the ordering of companies in telephone books and company catalogues, which were arranged alphabetically. The marketing technique of three “As” in a company’s name was subsequently used by a number of other companies, such as taxi services, real estate agencies or consumer goods firms. In 2012, AAA AUTO renewed sales under the iconic Czech Mototechna brand. Just under two years later it created the Mototechna Premium brand, where customers can find premium vehicles of various marques, such as the hybrid Fiskar Karma or the all-terrain Mercedes Benz G500 cabriolet. Mototechna has sold 30,000 vehicles since it was re-introduced to the market.

With the development of the Internet and related marketing techniques the company became a pioneer in the field of telemarketing and website presentations of second-hand cars. It currently realises up to 90% of its vehicle transactions through the Internet and mobile phones, by means of which most of the customer communications take place. “At the beginning of the 1990s the world was opened up to us and it seemed that, with a little effort, we could manage anything. At first, our second-car dealership simply had a small sales cabin, the owner and one salesman, who offered cars to customers item by item. But everything was still in the early stages of development at that time, and establishing a land line for example was a process taking several months, which is why the owner at the time connected telephone wires to a neighbouring house and leased telephone lines from his neighbours,” Managing Director of AAA AUTO Karolína Topolová reminisces.

“We established a call centre in Prague for customer requirements in 1998, which was absolutely unique in relation to the selling of second-hand cars at that time, not only in the Czech Republic, but also in Central Europe,“ adds Topolová, who was the founder of the call centre. Under her management, the call centre became the largest and most modern in its sector in the region. The call centre now employs over 200 operators, who take calls and answer emails in Prague and Ostrava, not only for the Czech Republic, but also for the Slovak Republic, Poland and Hungary.

AAA AUTO was the first firm to offer customers in the Czech Republic the option of selling their cars to the dealership for cash, without having to wait for sale under the terms of a so-called sale on consignment. Most other second-hand car dealerships only sold cars as intermediaries. From the very beginning, the company made a point of owning the offered vehicles, enabling it to offer customers safer sales than the competition, along with guarantees. It also gradually implemented a number of other services that were lacking on the used-car market until then, such as the option of buying a car on instalments, mobile purchasing of used cars from the owners, the option of exchanging a vehicle for another or a guarantee of the legal origins of a vehicle.

Development of the company over has progressed massively over the past quarter of a century, as has demand and customers’ wishes. What has not changed over the years is the popularity of Škoda marque vehicles, which are still the most popular used cars on the Czech market. While the Favorit was the most popular model in 1997 for example, five years later it was dethroned by the Felicia. In 2007, the Fabia became the best-selling second-hand car, and it was surpassed by the Octavia only last year.

In September 2016, AAA AUTO became the official partner to the top Czech football league, the ePojisteni.cz league, as only the second-hand car dealer to do so. It also became a partner to the Slovak Football Association. Through the Mototechna brand, Czech and Slovak football acquired over 200 new cars to a value exceeding 100 million Czech Crowns. This was historically the first partnership between a second-hand car dealer and this top football league.

AAA AUTO milestones over the 25 years it has been on the market: