AutoTrader Trade-In Marketplace?

[eag818]

Plus have you seen the process for filling out those forms? Takes forever!

 

[joe.pistell]

Plus have you seen the process for filling out those forms? Takes forever!

GREAT POINT!

 

[Matt DoCampo]

Just a quick bump. Is this paying off for anyone?

 

[lmillz]

Okay...we've been using the AutoTrader Marketplace Buying Center for about 60 days....and I don't know about all of you but I can't even begin to tell you what we're charged per month. It's outrageous and we haven't even sold one vehicle from this. More times than not the customer is not happy with what was offered and then gets upset and then we lose the customer totally. I personally think its a great idea if it works but so far its not working for us and wondered what anyone else thought that HAS gone with it. I do not see the ROI on it whatsoever. For the price, all it seems is that we're promoting AutoTader on our website and each individual vehicle and for thousands of dollars for them! This is just my opinion. Any one had a different experience that has been using it?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Thanks for the feedback eag818 - I'm hearing a lot of the same across other dealers. I think it's going to take a few more months (being in the WashDC/MD region) before I hear any more. I was looking into the service for my Nissan dealer (they were asking about it).

It's no doubt something you need to work entirely into your sales/trade process to see any benefits. Hopefully we will hear from some more dealers.

@danoneil - are you set up on it yet? I thought MileOne was going across the boards with it. I don't see it on your site anywhere.

 

[John Douglass]

Cannot recommend this one, the reps don't even know exactly how it works. We are a TIM dealer and have rec'd much action, but have not rung the bell. Most are just researching their own vehicles and none are serious about trading. As far as procurement, nothing again. A local Autotrader rep. brought their vehicle in and it still wasn't enough...we are cancelling.

 

[Craig]

After reading everyone's experience with the newest "Why you need to pay tons for little" product in the Autotrader arsenal.......I'm glad we decided against this one. I'm not into ranting online, however Autotrader and their continuous plundering of dealer traffic as well as "he who pays the most gets their cars found (sometimes)" techniques. continue to make me hate them.

Having Dealers advertise their nonsense for them only to drive traffic from our own websites to Autotrader helps us how?

Our hate/have to have relationship with Autotrader continues to be almost completely one sided with the ROI being continually the lowest. Autotrader's answer to ROI questions is classic......"Here's a sheet of paper you can have F&I give customers to check off what they used when they were looking for a car" really??? is this 1986????

These cats remain some of the biggest stick-up artist amongst the parasites we all get "sales calls" from daily. I'll save my CARFAX rant for a later post, but I love their "Ask your Dealer for your FREE? Carfax report" if anybody gets theirs for free please hook us up with your rep, we'd love to get the same deal..........that way we could spend more money with those blowers at Autotrader

 

[Alex Snyder]

Wow! Could this really be another silver bullet that doesn't work? I'm shocked!

 

[danoneil]

I have no comment.

 

[InternetManager]

I have found it to be a GREAT product. We signed up as a buying center when it first came out in April and on average bring in about 3 vehicles per week. Last week for instance we bought 6 thru it. The real purpose of the Trade In Marketplace is to use it for retail closing and inventory management. We have really embraced it and made it a crucial part of our processes which I think is the difference from it being the bomb or a bust for you. Every trade goes thru it. Reply time is crucial because you want to be the first to contact the person. Anybody thinking strictly "sales" from it is mistaken. We have it incorporated into our website and its iFramed it in so never does a shopper leave our site. We used to have KBB for our site and the problem there was we sometimes couldn't give then customer the price that our website generated. This way everything is transparent and our csi is perfect.