AutoTrader.com Agrees to Buy HomeNet Automotive

[Lightnup (blog)]

Michael - I guess if ATC removed the prominent and valuable dealer branding (bold dealer name, dealer logo, marketing tagline(s)) from their SRP listings and eliminated the ability for dealers to grab the shopper's attention with pertinent comments in the SRP about a car's unique history/condition, they could squeeze in 50 cars per page too. By your logic, why doesn't cars.com just increase to 250 cars per page and claim 10 times the SRPs?

 

[Advisor]

I am a former HomeNet employee, and my suggestion to all Dealer Principals is to make sure you are very clear and precise as to your NDA terms, and accesses to your inventory data. I have never seen any unlawful use of information personally there. I am bound by many NDA requirements myself, any will not speak specifically about anything here. I only caution, that there is a wealth of information in any dealers DMS system, and that it is controlled by the access granted. I would advise that specific reports be created for polling, and that no "standard" polling scripts be permitted. I would advise that, while Autotrader claims that they will run HomeNet as a separate entity, they are still the parent company, and thus privy to all data that passes through HomeNet.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

That is a very valid point. Example: if you are working with ZAG, there is a very good chance they are pulling your transactional data to determine a sale. What's then happening with your transactional data?

From my conclusions, there's a very chance it's being fed to TrueCar and being used against dealers for the consumer to then see in the TrueCar pricing charts.

Most dealers are totally clueless to this and allow just about anyone to grab data from their DMS without have any true knowledge of exactly what data is being pulled from their DMS.