Alex, what's it like to be a unicorn shopper?
It is a
experience. Watching Autotrader, CARS, Facebook, dealer websites, etc for something that smells a little like the right beast was my morning routine for 10 months. I'm not sure I made the right call on the car I bought, so there's that. But here are some relevant thoughts for DealerRefresh:
Autotrader sucks beyond the second page of results - it completely breaks. It is a rough experience on the other pages too because they have not optimized the site for all the damn ads they throw in your face. It is very obvious the platform is old. I got so fed up with Autotrader I wrote a
LinkedIn post about it.
Cars.com is super smooth! It lacks the private seller inventory you get on Autotrader. The photo browsing experience is my only gripe with Cars.com. That part could be a little better. It is good at remembering what filters you applied on the last search - even on mobile!
I didn't use Gurus much. It is highly price-focused, which didn't matter much on my hunt. Photos were my biggest concern as it was the only way to consistently figure out options and condition.
Facebook is a shit show of who knows what you're going to get. The sellers who had video did make things easier. Descriptions were better as they were mostly private sellers and independent dealers who could tell a story. The larger gripe with Facebook is that it locks you into a 500 mile radius. I had to change my location from Vermont to Atlanta to see what was available in Florida for example.
Autotempest became my new vehicle search gem! I really like that site. It combines most of the third party searches into one with an excellent filter system. These guys built something great!
My other favorite has been
Cars n Bids. I've been watching that site since it launched.
In my case, the GXOR community is where I ended up finding my car kinda by accident. That group is on the ih8mud forums, Facebook, and Reddit. A Reddit thread asking if a particular vehicle was a good buy sent me to the dealership that I bought from.
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Then there was the lead experience.
I submitted a lot of leads over the 10 months. I was direct with my question in the contact form every time: "can you take a photo of the undercarriage because I want to see the condition of the rust."
Not a single dealer responded with any regard for what I put in the lead form comment box. But every dealer responded to me. Not a one is using AI and some of these dealers could really use some polish on things.
Where a communication preference was asked, I always selected email or text and 80% of the time I got a phone call. That is so damn annoying.
The other major annoying thing is FullPath. OMG, the dealers using their service are blowing my email inbox up with the most irrelevant shit imaginable. The emails are pretty, but they are just throwing crap at a window trying to get something to stick. I realize they're all the hotness right now, but the consumer experience ain't good.
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But let's get back to the AutoSled experience....
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developers.google.com
