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AutoTrader - I did it again!

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#11
Daniel, thanks for your feedback. Maybe you can help clarify.

You said - "since around March of this year you can now use ad manager and the vehicle will be deleted once it is deleted from the source where it originally came"

Does this mean even if I make a change to a car..like price, description, photos..the information is locked BUT if the vehicle is deleted from the feed (DMS or software feed) it will delete from AutoTrader? I have not witnessed this but will be sure to keep a closer eye to see if this indeed works.

I'm curious to see if the addition of MSN advertising will make a difference.

"Wait till next year, the best is yet to come!" Oh no..will this mean another 20-30% price increase?

-Jeff
 
#12
Autotrader Traffic Graph
(Alexa; 5 year)

Loading…

www.alexa.com
site0=autotrader.com&site1=&site2=&site3=&site4=
&y=r&z=1&h=300&w=610&range=5y&size=
Medium&url=autotrader.com

YUK, AutoTrader.com at 5 year low. That spike in late 04 must have been the Yahoo connection being switched on. Looks like that relationship is USELESS now.

NOTE: when I previewed the URL (above) the complete URL would not show so I have to cut it up. You'll have t paste all lines individually.
 
#13
Joe, I don't have a problem if you want to use HTML for linking to information like this.

I bet that spike was when Yahoo was turned on and we should maybe see another spike with MSN. I'm sure AutoTrader has had to spend some money just to maintain their market share.
 
#14
Great topic, Jeff. I too have been perturbed by the substabtual annual price hike from Autotrader for minimal increases in ability. I actually pulled the plug on them last year at my dealership for a couple of reasons, and the management came out of the woodwork! You'd think I was trying to leave a store without buying a car.

After a couple of months, I got back on board at a diminished level, and gradually increased to Premium Partner, simply because from an ROI standpoint, it makes business sense. Even if it costs you $300-400/sold car, you are still much cheaper than a "showroom" sold, and generally, you can run better gross (They picked YOUR car after all).

Bottom line, do not be afraid to mix it up with Autotrader. I think if enough stores fire them or decrease their membership, upper management might get the hint. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the CARS.com web leads- they sell fine too. Maybe move some of that cash over to Cars for a quarter and see what the results are. Autotrader will continue to push the price range envelope as long as we permit them.
 
#16
Jeff: "Does this mean even if I make a change to a car..like price, description, photos..the information is locked BUT if the vehicle is deleted from the feed (DMS or software feed) it will delete from AutoTrader? I have not witnessed this but will be sure to keep a closer eye to see if this indeed works."

Yes, this is correct, however I believe your feed provider must request this setup specifically
 
#17
Autotrader Forcing Small Dealers Out ofBusiness

The 2007 NIADA report is out and provides some excellent nuggets of information about the health of the used car market and its participants. A few rough highlights before I go into something I find more interesting:

Days supply of inventory for deale...
 

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