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AOL Autos and Vast partner - something a little different?

Without breaking out my tin foil hat, it is interesting this relationship has eventuated when a former AOL executive is the CEO at Autobytel/MyRide powered by VAST.

When I was at ABTL we were under the impression this was to be exclusive to ABTL. Even then they were touting that MyRide would have the largest used car inventory on the Web. Interesting now to see it's basically everyone other than 'Trader and Cars will now have a huge used car "vehicle" to sell to their dealers.

BTW, when I was at ABTL pay for performance meant the more you pay the higher in the waterfall your listings will come up.
 
It occurs to me (like most in this blog, I'm sure) that the dealers actually "own" the inventory and photos...not Cars.com or AutoTrader.

Therefore, anyone who can "aggregate" on behalf of the dealer could easily show "all" the inventory. This benefits the dealer, of course, who wants as many as possible to see their inventory and provide the contact info. As an in market buyer, I'm very dissatisfied with the current search aggregation sites. Hard to use and slow (my $.02...you may not agree). If Vast can provide fast/easy search with photos and prices, they will quickly make a serious dent.

I do like their simple interface and fast search...despite the buzzwords. :)
 
Big Mistake on aols part vast as the worst of all car dealers using their
services nothing but nightmares to deal with .They advertize cars at low
ball prices And dont even have the car when you get there,isnt
that against the law ,Bait and switch?
 

✨ AI Highlights

The thread covers the 2008 announcement that AOL Autos dropped AutoTrader in favor of Vast.com to power its used car marketplace, with Vast's web-spidering technology aggregating over 3 million listings as its key differentiator. Commenters debated Vast's pay-for-placement business model, noted a potentially telling executive connection between Vast and Autobytel, and raised concerns about bait-and-switch inventory accuracy. The general consensus was cautious optimism about Vast's technology disrupting established players like AutoTrader and Cars.com, tempered by skepticism over marketing language and real-world dealer conduct.

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