We’re trying to revolutionise the way people buy cars on the Isle of Man and that’s not going to happen overnight,’ says Ian Drake, founder and director of Rex Motor Company.

He is speaking less than a week before the launch of his latest venture, Manx Vehicle Auction.

MVA is a new and unique way to buy and sell cars. The idea for it came about when Ian spotted a gap in the market, one where he could provide a useful service for both himself and other car dealers.

Ian, who is 34, has already achieved considerable success which began with his induction into the motor trade when he was working as a sales manager for Conister. This gave him a good grounding and many contacts and he saw the possibilities of setting up in business on his own account, providing vehicle leasing on the island.

He recalls: ‘We were born as Rex Leasing and started in a very small office on Victoria Street. Originally we were just a leasing broker, introducing business to a UK leasing lender. And then as more and more cars started arriving, keeping them on my mum’s drive and washing them in the Milestone [Garage] was no longer practical so I had to try and find a unit.’

White Hoe provided the ideal location for his move and the business was soon thriving.

Ian recalls: ‘We started getting some customers that liked me but didn’t want to lease, or lease didn’t work for them, and they started asking if they could buy something instead, and finance them.

‘One thing led to another and we started selling as well leasing.

‘Then we started to sell a lot more and in the first lockdown we rebranded to Rex Motor Company, to make it clear that we weren’t just a leasing company anymore and we kept growing.’

Their next acquisition was the well established J G Corkill service centre at White Hoe. When Rex Motor Company took it over John Corkill also joined their team which now stands at 12.

Last year, Rex Motor Company won the award for Customer Service at the Isle of Man Newspapers’ Awards for Excellence, the first car dealership in the island to do so.

The idea for MVA came about as a way for Ian to solve an ongoing problem, as he explains: ‘When we sell a car we might also take one in in part exchange. And this is not just us, this is every other dealership on the Isle of Man.’

Because Rex Motor Company specialises in premium vehicles, they always seemed to have around five or six of these part exchange vehicles that were not suitable for their market.

Ian says: ‘I thought there was a bit of a gap on the Isle of Man for some sort of auction, to help dealers but also the general public as well. So Manx Vehicle Auctions is ultimately an online marketplace for dealers and the general public to buy trade priced vehicles.’

All the cars are cleaned and appraised, both cosmetically and mechanically, and then uploaded onto the Manx Vehicle Auction website, www.mva.im. It operates in a similar way to Ebay with the option to bid for the vehicle or ‘Buy it Now’.

Both buyers and sellers are charged a flat fee based on a percentage of the value of the vehicle.

Ian has hired more staff and taken on another unit at White Hoe, to house the offices, reception and showroom for MVA. The other significant investment has been in the development of the website.

Ian says: ‘We’ve been building the website since March and a lot of thought and time and changes went into it. It’s very safe, it’s very secure, it’s very automated.’

You need to register on the site in order to view the vehicles for sale. When I log in the Buy it Now section shows a 2010 Suzuki Alto which is under offer at £2,100. I download the mechanical appraisal and discover it needs new brake discs. The condition appraisal tells me that the bodywork is in good condition apart from scratches on the rear bumper and there is a photo showing these marks.

The auction pages include a 2010 Mercedes E Class estate at a start price of £7,000. The appraisals tell me that it has problems with its lights and handbrake and a number of minor scratches and scuffs on the bodywork.

Despite this information the website urges ‘buyers who are themselves not expert are strongly advised to seek and obtain independent advice on any vehicle and their value before bidding for them’.

On November 1, the day the website went live, four cars were sold which was a solid start.

Ian says: ‘My prediction for MVA is that it will be adopted quite quickly by dealers but maybe a bit slower from the general public because it’s totally different. We’re trying to revolutionise the way people buy cars on the Isle of Man that’s not going to happen over night but we’ve got good investment to get us through any period of growth and we’re confident that over time it will sell of vehicles, solve a lot of problems for dealers, and save the general public a lot of money if they want to take control of things themselves and fix up a car themselves.

‘There’s a few places in the UK appearing now that are really trying to revolutionise how people buy cars and I suppose this is what we’re trying to do here.’