Dealcar moves the showroom into the phone — without losing the dealer
Car buying still happens in two eras at once. The customer has compared everything online, but the deal itself is done with paperwork and waiting. Spanish startup Dealcar ties the process together — and now faces a choice: sell features, or sell experience.
Buying a car is still an odd mix of 2026 and 1997. The customer has usually compared models, prices, financing and reviews online long before she walks into the showroom, yet the transaction itself can still involve paper, waiting, and systems that don't say much to each other. Spanish company Dealcar is trying to connect the process, and appears on Wired UK's list of hot startups.
The platform helps car dealers combine digital selling with their physical operation, handling payments, servicing, financing, inventory and vehicle presentation.
Omnichannel is easier said than done
Retail has been talking about seamless customer journeys for years, but car sales show just how hard it is in practice. The customer wants to start at home, continue in the showroom, and return to her phone without the information disappearing somewhere along the way.
That gives Dealcar a position that could become much bigger than software. The company can help dealers define what modern car retail should actually feel like.
BBMB's recommendation: make the customer experience the product
I would dial down the volume of system features in the brand communication and show instead how Dealcar changes the customer's experience. One concrete before-and-after scenario says more than a page full of integrations.
Dealers' own brands also differ enormously. A premium Porsche retailer doesn't need the same customer experience or tone of voice as a high-volume dealer, which means Dealcar should get very good at letting the technology adapt to the client's identity.
BBMB works with brand strategy where every touchpoint has to support the intended positioning. Digitalisation shouldn't make all car dealers more alike; it should help the best ones express their own profile more clearly.
Technology is allowed to be invisible
The best version of Dealcar is probably the one the end customer never thinks about. She simply notices that the process works, the information is there, and the dealer seems unusually well organised.
As a business idea, that's rather elegant. You don't have to become a celebrity just because you're a software company.