It is silly to even believe that the Alan/Chip clip is sincere. Auto Trader is laughing all the way to the bank! As a former seven year regional manager with AT.com I can tell you that we made silly, stupid money on our commission/bonus from dealers spending WAY TOO MUCH with an under achieving 3rd party site. Dealers continue to trip over themselves to spend $$thousands$$ monthly on a dinosaur product that requires self service PLUS over promises and under delivers. The site is old technology. Look at interactive media options for greater ROI. That's the hot new wave...
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A Message from AutoTrader to Dealers
- Thread starter Jeff Kershner
- Start date
Lightnup, seems like your on the defense here for AT?
I was referring to the new video that was announced, which was a worthless effort and boring, imho.
Facts are facts, I loved AT back in the day, but they have left a bad taste with alot of dealers over the last few years with price hikes and trying to spin truth.
Hey it is what it is, if they can give me leads again for a fair price I'd consider going back, but I get 3X more than AT gave us using free sites and solid in-house seo.
I was referring to the new video that was announced, which was a worthless effort and boring, imho.
Facts are facts, I loved AT back in the day, but they have left a bad taste with alot of dealers over the last few years with price hikes and trying to spin truth.
Hey it is what it is, if they can give me leads again for a fair price I'd consider going back, but I get 3X more than AT gave us using free sites and solid in-house seo.
- May 1, 2005
- 5,999
- 1,914
- Awards
- 12
- First Name
- Jeff
@Ron, common..great way to represent KBB! I thought you would know better. I mean there is a whole posting about the new KBB offering.
@Frank, sorry you feel that way. I think we still "let it all hang out" (if not I would have deleted your comment
).
David Metter's post was nothing more than another perspective and is not a representation of myself. I can tell you that MileOne was onboard with AutoTrader way before that post and even before I was an employee with MileOne.
Prior to MileOne, I was using and very successful with AutoTrader for years at prior dealers.
No doubt AT has made some huge mistakes and I'm not here to defend their actions but I think there "could" be some sincerity in what they are trying to achieve (or maybe they're just trying to fix their PR before another attempted sale). Who knows really...but it's a huge ship to try and change direction with and it doesn't happen over night.
Time will change and AutoTrader with either adapt and keep afloat or they will sink. Only time will tell.
As for Metter's trip to Vegas...I wasn't apart of that.
@Frank, sorry you feel that way. I think we still "let it all hang out" (if not I would have deleted your comment
).David Metter's post was nothing more than another perspective and is not a representation of myself. I can tell you that MileOne was onboard with AutoTrader way before that post and even before I was an employee with MileOne.
Prior to MileOne, I was using and very successful with AutoTrader for years at prior dealers.
No doubt AT has made some huge mistakes and I'm not here to defend their actions but I think there "could" be some sincerity in what they are trying to achieve (or maybe they're just trying to fix their PR before another attempted sale). Who knows really...but it's a huge ship to try and change direction with and it doesn't happen over night.
Time will change and AutoTrader with either adapt and keep afloat or they will sink. Only time will tell.
As for Metter's trip to Vegas...I wasn't apart of that.
- Apr 26, 2009
- 155
- 17
- First Name
- Brian
Putting aside the content of the video, this is hard to watch. Jeff, I did take the time to watch it completely since you asked us to.
The video is poorly framed and too many segments put both men in a "box" with a bobblehead effect.
The video mood is tense, stark, uncomfortable and monotone. What we did not see were the shock pads that must have been under their seats is they strayed from a tight legal script.
The video does not delivery any "optimism" for car dealers that are using AT in my perspective.
I like the idea of creating a video message to customers about changes in any company but this amateur low budget video feels like a police lineup confession.
If this video was to convey a encouraging messages for AT customers looking out to the next 10 years of innovation, this video is DOA.
The video is poorly framed and too many segments put both men in a "box" with a bobblehead effect.
The video mood is tense, stark, uncomfortable and monotone. What we did not see were the shock pads that must have been under their seats is they strayed from a tight legal script.
The video does not delivery any "optimism" for car dealers that are using AT in my perspective.
I like the idea of creating a video message to customers about changes in any company but this amateur low budget video feels like a police lineup confession.
If this video was to convey a encouraging messages for AT customers looking out to the next 10 years of innovation, this video is DOA.
ok, so I just realized ATC brought over the top 140 print reps in Jan 09 to use them to convert all of their print dollars into ATC.com dollars. Now that it has been done [I heard it was over a half million in GA alone] 140ish reps were just laid off. They were print and .com reps combined, but still interesting huh? Master plan all along maybe???????????
I’m glad to see the video we put out has sparked a lot of conversation about AutoTrader.com and the state of the industry. That was our hope and the feedback we’ve gotten both publicly and privately has been both honest and helpful. As we said in the video, our efforts are all designed to help dealers sell more cars. We’re continuing to hit record traffic numbers, routinely attracting more than 15 million unique monthly visitors to our site, visitors who spend about 30 minutes on average looking at your listings. This is up about 2 million from our average unique visitor count around this time just last year. So car buyers are definitely responding to AutoTrader.com and turning to the internet in general more and more to find information about cars they might want to buy. And dealers are responding too. Even in this tough environment, where the total number of auto dealers is shrinking, the number of dealers using AutoTrader.com has increased for the past few months as more dealers follow the customers to the internet and out of traditional media. We’re happy to have a discussion on the benefits of internet advertising at any time. Just give a call at 866-545-4065.
Mr. Perry,
A little less than a year ago we issued our cancellation letter to autotrader.com. After years of poor service, times when it seemed there was no rep in our area, and price increase after price increase, we finally had enough. Then not 30 days later, the new District Manager and Rep came to introduce themselves and talked about an autotrader with a new focus and better value. An autotrader where 40%+ annual price increases would be a thing of the past. But the catch was we had to get on "current rate card pricing" So we took nearly a 90% increase AGAIN and gave you another chance.
For the first time we truly experienced SERVICE from your company in the form of Rep Paul Liolios. We saw increases to our used car sales and traffic specific to AT.com. Then a new product, Alpha, was made available. This product had not been proven and there was no indication this would make any difference in our market place, but we put our faith in our rep, who was convinced this would make a difference in our declining market. While we were already experiencing strong performances in spite of the decline that was taking place all around us, we decided to take a shot and added Alpha to our marketing strategy. Just to recap for a moment, Our little rural Nissan dealership with 40 employees went from canceling our $2,900 monthly featured listing to becoming a $4,800/month partnership and adding $3,000/month alpha product in a three month span. The following month we added a second alpha spot, new car partnership and edmunds.com bringing our total monthly spend with your company to $12k.
Then a few weeks ago, when we called Paul to come in knowing full well we were going to add another alpha zone but, he informed us that our biggest competitor bought all the zones we already has as well as the additional zone we intended to add. We were, to say the least, stunned. Here we are a dealership that was almost lost to autotrader for good, and 6 months later we're spending 50% of our total advertising budget with your company only to find that you were taking it away and giving it to our competitor, who had no interest in your product when it was new. Who wasn't willing to put their faith in an unproven product. Just when we thought we had a "partnership" we found that in fact we were used again by the vendor with the worst name in the automotive vendor space. Once again, autotrader.com has shown their true colors. It should be obvious to any ethical business, that selling out one company for another or attempting to create bidding wars is not the way to retain customers.
A little less than a year ago we issued our cancellation letter to autotrader.com. After years of poor service, times when it seemed there was no rep in our area, and price increase after price increase, we finally had enough. Then not 30 days later, the new District Manager and Rep came to introduce themselves and talked about an autotrader with a new focus and better value. An autotrader where 40%+ annual price increases would be a thing of the past. But the catch was we had to get on "current rate card pricing" So we took nearly a 90% increase AGAIN and gave you another chance.
For the first time we truly experienced SERVICE from your company in the form of Rep Paul Liolios. We saw increases to our used car sales and traffic specific to AT.com. Then a new product, Alpha, was made available. This product had not been proven and there was no indication this would make any difference in our market place, but we put our faith in our rep, who was convinced this would make a difference in our declining market. While we were already experiencing strong performances in spite of the decline that was taking place all around us, we decided to take a shot and added Alpha to our marketing strategy. Just to recap for a moment, Our little rural Nissan dealership with 40 employees went from canceling our $2,900 monthly featured listing to becoming a $4,800/month partnership and adding $3,000/month alpha product in a three month span. The following month we added a second alpha spot, new car partnership and edmunds.com bringing our total monthly spend with your company to $12k.
Then a few weeks ago, when we called Paul to come in knowing full well we were going to add another alpha zone but, he informed us that our biggest competitor bought all the zones we already has as well as the additional zone we intended to add. We were, to say the least, stunned. Here we are a dealership that was almost lost to autotrader for good, and 6 months later we're spending 50% of our total advertising budget with your company only to find that you were taking it away and giving it to our competitor, who had no interest in your product when it was new. Who wasn't willing to put their faith in an unproven product. Just when we thought we had a "partnership" we found that in fact we were used again by the vendor with the worst name in the automotive vendor space. Once again, autotrader.com has shown their true colors. It should be obvious to any ethical business, that selling out one company for another or attempting to create bidding wars is not the way to retain customers.
Wow, presentation skills 101. I thought I was watching a funeral. Where was the marketing Dept and P.R. for this video? I am in the Video business and the Automotive business, and this would not even make it to YouTube! This could have been presented on a such higher level. Not "gloom and doom". Who did the story board for this? It is a shame, they one chance to make this message very effective and mean something, and they Failed. Remember MIU????
Dealer Consultant is right. As a former manager with ATC we were taught MIU (Mediocrity is Unacceptable.) That lesson fell short with this Video. It is my assumption that the intent of this video was to go viral. The only thing viral about this video is it could make you ill, or to put a positive spin on it,it could be the cure for insomnia. Who ever put this video together should be the next one out of the revolving door on Peachtree Dunwoody Road. WOW!! I am shocked, it is sad to see how far the mighty have fallen.
