We Buy Any Car is a vehicle purchasing and wholesale company with branches in the UK and the United States. The UKcorporate office is headquartered in Farnham, Surrey, England and the US corporate office is headquartered in Media, Pennsylvania in the Greater Philadelphia region. The company was founded in 2006 by Noel and Darren McKee. In May 2010 the company expanded into the market of buying vans, through the brand webuyanyvan.com. The company has had over one million customers. In 2013, the company was purchased by British Car Auctions. In 2015, BCA was floated on to the stock market.
We Buy Any Car is well known within the United Kingdom for its advertisements that make use of repetitive beats. In October 2015 the webuyanycar.com 'Break-dancing Newsreader' advert was voted as having the 7th most popular jingle of all TV ads over the past 60 years in The Sun newspaper. In recent years We Buy Any Car have developed their advertising campaigns, showing various customers sitting on plush sofas detailing their experience with webuyanycar.com. The well-known jingle has evolved into a more subtle xylophone chime played at the end of each advert. The TV adverts have led to numerous parodies including We Hatch Any Egg and We Buy Any Cat. Since 2017, adverts for We Buy Any Car featuretelevision presenterPhillip Schofield.
Research
We Buy Any Car undertakes regular industry related research. In late 2010, it released research highlighting the reduction in car maintenance skills amongst UK males. At the beginning of 2011, We Buy Any Car completed research into the most commonly used car names; concluding that the most common car name is 'Betty'. In March 2012, through analysis of more than 410,000 cars purchased, webuyanycar.com discovered that in 2012 for the first time, more women than men sold second hand cars. It also identified that the current "average" car sold in Britain is a five-year-old Vauxhall Corsa with 57,000 miles on the clock. In 2014 the company released the results of a mock Driving Theory Test on their website, revealing that 6 in 10 people who sat their test failed.
We Buy Any Car sponsors the charity Brake. In October 2012 it launched ‘See Me Stay Safe’ a campaign supported by Brake, to encourage children to stay visible as the days get darker. webuyanycar.com distributed 5,000 hi-visibility vests to 5,000 children from Chester before the clocks went back.