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It gives me bad vibes

@Carsten, just a passing thought.
I totally get your genuine personal feelings, but, Beware 'shopper-centric-solutioning' (is that a word?? ;-). Your commitment to this space is admirable, but, you gotta see the other side to understand how blinded dealers are to the 'big picture' (see link below). Possibly find a dealer in your area and become their tech guru. The dealer insights and your brain power will make you priceless to our industry.

I spent a decade inside giant tech vendors filled with well meaning devs and their leaders. Very few worked inside a store and joined the team. Another idea is to seek out those dealership players that moved into tech. There are several here.

Selling cars is a team sport. Make your vendors join your team.
 
So I've been playing around with my website trying to get it set up how I would like and to try to get it as user-friendly as possible and I've come to the realization that, truth be told, I just want a whole new website. And before all the web providers tied to the foot of the OEMs start messaging me telling me how they can help, please stop. You can't. Because all of your websites are all the same. And it's not your fault. It's what most dealers and, obviously, the OEMs want. But it's not what I want. I'm tired of all of these cookie-cutter sites. I looked at about 20 and they are all redressed up carbon copies of each other. Lipstick on a pig, as they say. It's no wonder that Carvana and hgreg.com just kicked everyone to the curb and had their own sites made. So who have you guys seen that is actually making a modern, customer-centric dealer website that isn't just some code that is basically a copy-and-paste job? Is there such a thing or are we just stuck with this?
We have been using AutoFusion for the last 12 years, we have built a pretty great partnership. We are constantly upgrading and changing the site based on the voice of the customer.
 
So I've been playing around with my website trying to get it set up how I would like and to try to get it as user-friendly as possible and I've come to the realization that, truth be told, I just want a whole new website. And before all the web providers tied to the foot of the OEMs start messaging me telling me how they can help, please stop. You can't. Because all of your websites are all the same. And it's not your fault. It's what most dealers and, obviously, the OEMs want. But it's not what I want. I'm tired of all of these cookie-cutter sites. I looked at about 20 and they are all redressed up carbon copies of each other. Lipstick on a pig, as they say. It's no wonder that Carvana and hgreg.com just kicked everyone to the curb and had their own sites made. So who have you guys seen that is actually making a modern, customer-centric dealer website that isn't just some code that is basically a copy-and-paste job? Is there such a thing or are we just stuck with this?
Hey,

I understand your frustration completely. It's disappointing to see so many dealership websites blending into one another. If you ever want to brainstorm ideas or just vent about the state of things, I'm here to listen.
 
Does your DMS feed into your site?
I'd like to ask about price but not sure if that is ok here.
Motive permitted me to discuss the price. I have their mid-level package which includes their AI tool. The price is $2,100. I was only paying $600 for my old site, but with them having a trade tool, a chat tool, a backgrounding application, and a payment tool all built-in I was able to eliminate $2,000 worth of other applications, so I'm actually saving $500. And, of course, I think I now have a far superior site to what I had before.
 
We've had/have our fair share of 'forced by OEM' providers and our own choices, many of which were poor choices. It's been the 'devil you know'. I have found all of them are about the same. Promise the world, fail to deliver. All sites look the same and so on.

Then you have to start to consider "what are they doing with that data they are collecting from your site and the other sites they provide?". Great example: trader canada capturing your site user info. If your competitor is also with them as a site provider (and that customer is in that dealers DB as well), they will notify your competitor that their customer is now/still in the market. They don't say what site.. but you can guess often
 
Motive permitted me to discuss the price. I have their mid-level package which includes their AI tool. The price is $2,100. I was only paying $600 for my old site, but with them having a trade tool, a chat tool, a backgrounding application, and a payment tool all built-in I was able to eliminate $2,000 worth of other applications, so I'm actually saving $500. And, of course, I think I now have a far superior site to what I had before.
Thanks for the information!

Saving money is definitely a win!