AutoTrader Trade-In Marketplace?

[Nathan Carr]

Has anyone heard about/ have opinions about AutoTrader's Trade-In Marketplace?

My understanding is it's an online used car appraiser with the opportunity to generate new/ used car leads. Basically they provide a wholesaler backed price quote on a customers vehicle and will send that lead to 3-5 surrounding dealers.

As I typed this I came across this old post off the DealerRefresh blogs (though I didn't see it in the forums):
tradein.autotrader.com | AutoTrader.com Used Car Trade In Service

Here is the link to the Trade-in site:
http://tradein.autotrader.com/Landing/Default.aspx


If anyone has experience of thoughts about it feel free to share. It's expected to go live at the end of the month in the Chicagoland area.

Thanks!

 

[danoneil]

I have heard of it and our company has looked at the product. I was under the impression that we were going to go live with it. But the cost was not discussed during the sales presentation and I'm not sure how much it cost per month. Maybe thats why we haven't gone live ?

 

[Nathan Carr]

It's about $1,200 for a Used Car Dealer without a new car franchise
and $1,500 for a new car dealer.

So yeah, pretty pricey like most Autotrader "solutions".

 

[danoneil]

It's about $1,200 for a Used Car Dealer without a new car franchise
and $1,500 for a new car dealer.

So yeah, pretty pricey like most Autotrader "solutions".

Thanks for sharing. I know our dealership turned it down.

 

[joe.pistell]

AutoTrader Trade In Marketplace is coming to our market. Anyone use it yet? Thoughts?

 

[Nathan Carr]

We decided to pass on it. Can't see the value based on the cost. Plus the presentation to us was rather lackluster.

 

[Stefan]

The problem I see is that AT will sell the leads to 3 or 4 dealers plus the buying center. Now you have 5 dealers calling...

 

[danoneil]

The problem I see is that AT will sell the leads to 3 or 4 dealers plus the buying center. Now you have 5 dealers calling...

The trade in market place is based & hosted on the dealers website and generates a guarantee value of trade for that particular dealer. The value is only guaranteed if the information received on the vehicle traded is pretty close to accurate.

Basically the service generates a certificate that customer are to print and bring to your dealership.

 

[Stefan]

The leads generated by your website are yours only. In addition to that you can opt to get the leads for up to 3 other franchises. This are leads that are being generated by AT.com and will be sent to 3 different dealers.

I am curios to hear from dealers that are using this tool on their website already ... i am wondering if it increased the conversion ratio ...

 

[eag818]

The reason why we would NEVER do that is simple... why not brand ourselves? Why put a link up on your homepage that allows a customer to REDIRECT TO ATC -- which can ultimately result in the customer not finding interesting in your site and browsing ATC.

I also have a feeling, like the post above from @stefan, that this is a trick to collect customer data for distributing it to other dealers as third party leads.