Drew, thanks for adding to the conversation. Please don't take my using your comment in the wring way. You have some great opinions and commentary around the subject.
You're right, TIM is all about people and process. I won't argue with you when you say process is what most dealers lack. It's unfortunate.
There might not be a NEED for TIM for dealers that have a solid process, however I still believe (and witness) it can add to any dealers process while help adding to the bottom line.
Offering the consumer a "guaranteed price" from a 3rd party source that WILL indeed stroke a check for the car is a win IMO, no matter how you roll the dice as long as its presented to the consumer correctly.
TIM under bids - most of the time but NOT always. I know this first hand.
True story. The lease was up on my Mazda CX-9 but the market value exceeded the buyout by thousands. So I decided to trade it in. I ran the CX-9 through TIM and the returned value was higher than what 2 dealers were willing to give me (dealers I worked for mind you). So I traded and they sold it to TIM. I've seen TIM step-up to the plate many times on select vehicles.
Wanna know what's funny (or just plain sad) - the used car managers still bitch about it. They bitch when the values are too low and they bitch when the values too high. Yeah - Seriously???
What they're bitching about is change. Nothing more.
The values comes in low - GREAT! Use this opportunity to establish a ground value on the trade. In return getting the customer off the obnoxious value they received from edmunds or KBB. Any hey, it was AutoTrader that placed the value on the vehicle, not YOU the dealer. If presented to the customer correctly I don't see how on earth this wouldn't be a benefit to the dealer and help with the negotiating.
The value comes in high - GREAT! Sell the car to TIM and make the deal. How can you loose here? You're used car manager wasn't willing to put the number on the car to make the deal anyways.
If there were anything to possibly bitch about, it might be the fact that the used car manager wanted that particular unit for their lot but was "out bided" by TIM/Hollingshead. So what - it's rare when happens. Take it and move on.
Ehhh - Doesn't this apply to all online trade tools that deliver the value to the customer by email?
For most dealers TIM is a showroom tool ONLY. It's doesn't belong on your dealers website for capturing leads. If it's on there, I say take it off.
I've seen dealers remove their BlackBook or KBB trade service in favor of adding the TIM service. #FAIL
About as far as I would go would be to have some light branding of the service on your website to help set the expectation for the consumer visiting the dealer in person after researching your dealer on your own website.
Drew, I agree. Barry has a good product with getautoappraise. I'd never advise a dealer to not go with it.
I've personally, have become a fan of PureCars and their trade tool. I've used all the services out there and if obtaining more leads is your goal, this one out performs the rest. I like it so much so - well, I can't talk about that quite yet. 
What headache could potentially come from allowing the consumer to perform the appraisal walk-around on their own vehicle before having it appraised my a manager?
QUICK WORDTRACK -- Mr. Smith, here at ABC Motors we recognize the trade-in of ones vehicle is a delicate and sometimes emotional part of the car purchase. We have teamed up with AutoTrader to help us, and you the customer to acquire a fair cash market value for your trade-in.
Here is how it works (as you hand the iPad over to the customer and walk out to their vehicle), follow me....
AutoTrader is going to ask you questions about your vehicle. These questions are very important and need to be answered with honestly. I'll be here to assist if you are uncertain and we can put out heads together to up with a reasonable response.
Once you have competed appraising your own vehicle, AutoTrader will send your information to a team of analysis that place cash values on cars for a living, so they're usually very accurate.
Once the value has been established, they will either email or call us to give you and I the value.
The process usually only takes a few minutes.
Fair enough?
From what I have collected, consumers can't even remember what website they were on just minutes ago before visiting your dealership. I'm not going to worry about "branding" Autotrader nor have a fear of loosing the customer to them remembering to shop on AutoTrader.com 36 - 48 months down the road. Let's also consider that AutoTrader.com is already a known and recognized brand amongst most people. That's the last of my fears.
I still believe TradeIn Market place is a great service for dealers looking to add to their bottom line while also giving their sales people a tool to help with trade negations.
Remember this is a showroom tool. If AutoTrader hasn't figured this out themselves and are allowing their reps to still pitch it as an online conversion tool, then shame on them. They'll continue to have dealers fail and cancel and in another year or two we'll all be like "remember that trade in service that AutoTrader had? ....what was that called again?"
