Used Cars - CarGurus.com - vAuto and the Travel Industry

[JoePistell]

I remember to the minute when I 1st laid eyes on vAuto's platform. It went something like... "OM*G, this is so intuitive, if it gets out in the retail arena, it's a total game changer".

Well, here comes the 1st real effort: Used Acura RSX For Sale Boston, MA - CarGurus Simple, intuitive and thankfully not on a major site (yet).

Put in your zipcode and take a real good look.

[JoePistell]

CarGurus.com is a Cars.com partner. It gets it's inventory from Cars.com & Vheix. Cars.com advertisers beware, should you get a lead from CarGurus.com, it comes into your email as a cars.com lead.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THE SHOPPER IS COMING (your price is high... your price is low,you don't know., but the shopper does.)

[DrewAment]

I looked at it, neat concept. To bad they only compare on a national level? Wonder why?

IMO - I really think that if you took a hard look at your inventory, only a small percent of it should follow the "pricing guide" as set by the vehicle comparitors (like vAuto). Its a good guide, but ultimately YOU need to set and decide your price. There are so many factors that those tools don't take into account.

And, this may sound a little "old skol" - but price of a vehicle is also determined by salesmanship. I can hire monkeys to sell cars for no profit or "match" anyone's price, but it takes a real salesperson to show value in a vehicle, tell the story of vehicle and dealer (why buy from me), and hold a decent/fair price (for both the dealer and customer).

[DrewAment]

FYI....I just submitted a test lead for a couple of my dealers. Both came into the CRM as a UsedCars.com - Dealix lead, and the phone number was the same (UsedCars.com - Dealix).

So, are varies based on local market affilates and who they signed up for lead generation (who is paying the most in-market)

[AutoArchitech]

The main issue I see on this example is it is grouping all of the RSX models together and saying the S-Types are high prices....

[AndrewDiFeo]

Interesting site Joe. I saw a new site at digital dealer called ronsmap.com , vehicle classifieds combined with our favorite, social media! They also display relative prices (although not as blatant as cargurus does).

[JoePistell]

I looked at it, neat concept. To bad they only compare on a national level? Wonder why?

Probably easier to get stable prices fishing from a larger pool of data.

IMO - I really think that if you took a hard look at your inventory, only a small percent of it should follow the "pricing guide" as set by the vehicle comparitors (like vAuto). Its a good guide, but ultimately YOU need to set and decide your price. There are so many factors that those tools don't take into account.

From my seat, Each and every vehicle is an advertising unit. No vehicle, no phone call. Think about it. Your Chevy Cobalt shopper has no idea that you priced your Chrysler Town & Country's real sharp. You don't have to mark down everything, but, you do need to know which units are turning "below plan" and price them to move. Next, in units that you're deep in, you need "door busters" to make that phone ring.

And, this may sound a little "old skol" - but price of a vehicle is also determined by salesmanship. I can hire monkeys to sell cars for no profit or "match" anyone's price, but it takes a real salesperson to show value in a vehicle, tell the story of vehicle and dealer (why buy from me), and hold a decent/fair price (for both the dealer and customer).

Marketing's job is to hook the shopper, then hand off the customer to the sales rep. Marketing's job is done once the customer is in the reps grasp. If the phone dosent ring, you can't lean on your rep to use old skol techniques.

I'll add one more layer. Have you listened to the incoming calls? Old School dogs need a sh*t load of training.


Lastly,
There are hundreds and hundreds of very smart people with lots of financial backing working very hard trying to figure out how to blow up the Used Car business model (as we know it).

Change is coming.
No.... Change has been coming, the key question is WHERE is it going?

[JoePistell]

Here is an open letter that I sent to Renee Porter, in the partnership division of Cars.com. I am trying to warn Cars.com that leads from CarGurus.com (a cars.com partner) need to be clearly identified as a cargurus.com shopper.


Renee,


I recommend that you and your team take a good hard look at CarGurus.com. I am warning you, It’s not your classic 3rd party classified site. If CarGurus.com is a partner site (not a cars.com property), then let me tell you how UNIQUE your partner site is and how critical the CarGurus.com lead info is to your advertiser/customers .

Let’s take a walk… Here is a CarGurus.com listing for Acrua RDX’s in my market: Used Acura RDX For Sale Syracuse, NY - CarGurus

We are the 3 RDX’s on the bottom. Look at what the shopper sees. WE ARE TOTALLY UN-PREPARED for this shopper.

I am telling you that your team needs to take a good hard look at CarGurus.com, it’s not your “normal” listing partner (i.e. the CarGurus.com content does not parallel your site).

So let’s say you elect to not heed my plea for help and turn your head and ignore it. A fire storm is brewing (and you’re the fireman).

Think about the sale killing communications blocking wall you’ve inadvertently erected. Imagine yourself shopping to buy a RDX, you send us a lead, we call you, set up an appt, we put a dollar value on your tradein, then you smack us with a complaint that we’re $1900 high and we should know that because that’s what the page said when you filled out the form.

Shoppers are NOT ignorant. Lack of information makes us look ignorant.

It gets worse.

From the Sales Managers desk, after 30minutes of total confusion about who,what,where,why cargurus.com gets its numbers and why the lead is a cars.com lead, Management then in-correctly assumes that ALL leads from CarGurus.com are booby traps. Sales and management are now totally worried about Cars.com leads that randomly produce very bad sales experiences. Management now has to train sales reps to ask all cars.com leads if they’ve been on CarGurus.com. Customers now wonder what CarGurus.com is.

Renee, I am not surprised that you’ve never heard of this complaint. Most dealers don’t take the time to look this deeply.

SUMMARY:
CarGurus.com presents info to the shopper that no other classified site offers. It’s easy to see that it needs special attention by your department. If you elect to not act on this, or, cannot due to technical limitations, I’ll ask to be removed from the CarGurus.com listings ASAP.

thnx
Joe Pistell
UsedCarKing.com

[JoePistell]

This just in.
Cars.com is removing our 1,100 used units from CarGurus.com (as per my request above)

[DrewAment]

Joe,

Well thought out, worded, and targeted request that was sent to them (Cars.com). I am glad they saw the light and are taking action.

Just a side note that your vehicles probably won't disappear, just be posted through another provider (Like Dealix - see above). So, you might have to do this again with another provider.

Even if you were to remove ALL listing services, I wouldn't be surprised if they used some type of "scraping" to get the inventory and pricing comparisons that are on their site.