How passion led to the success of WeBuyCars

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GEORGE NEWS - WeBuyCars is well-known as South Africa's number one car buying service, buying and selling more than 12 000 vehicles a month.

The story behind the company's incredible success is not only fascinating but also inspiring.

Brothers and founders of WeBuyCars, Faan and Dirk van der Walt, took their childhood lessons and experiences and developed it into what we know today as WeBuyCars.

From a very young age, the Van der Walt brothers developed an interest in cars. Growing up with an old, unreliable family car led to many hours under the hoods of cars, soaking up their father's knowledge about fixing cars.

In 1988, Faan bought his very first bike, a Yamaha XT500. He eventually sold the Yamaha, where he realised, "this could be something". Faan's first car was a blue Volkswagen 412, which he later improved and sold for a profit.

During the 90s, Faan and Dirk followed their individual paths, studying and establishing themselves as adults. Faan studied education, married and moved to the UK to teach for two years. The money made in the UK was used as the initial capital investment in WeBuyCars.

In the meanwhile, Dirk graduated with a degree in marketing.

In 2001, Faan and Dirk established WeBuyCars. For many years, they did everything themselves. Eventually, they bought WeBuyCars' first premises in Pretoria east, where they stored the vehicles.

Soon after, they bought the neighbouring land for more space.

The need for their services kept growing, which led their team of two, growing to 25 in 2012. Now, only 10 years later, the company has about 2 500 employees.

Expanding and buying pieces of land became their forte and today, WeBuyCars has a total of around 70 branches and buying pods across South Africa - not to mention expanding their services internationally for the first time in 2022, buying and selling cars in Morocco.

The company's adaptable nature to digital trends, and capacity to set trends themselves, has always set it apart. Their website and app not only allow customers to conveniently buy and sell vehicles online.

Applying for vehicle finance, bidding on auction, accessing used vehicle reports and much more can all be done online!