Cars.com Really Needs To Get With The Times.

[kcar]

I don't think this tiny link to the dealership's website is enough..
This needs to change to a call to action button.
Your thoughts. ps random dealer not mine

 

[Chris Cachor]

I think the site is due for a makeover but I'd say they want to keep the traffic on their own site to maximize revenue and reporting. They charge a nice chunk of change so they need some way to justify it to their dealers.

 

[Neil Frutuoso]

Agreed, I also don't like their pricing structure.

On the first page it goes by $1000 increments until $25,000 then $5000's from there

Problem is when the search results appear if you want to narrow search by price range it goes in $4,999 increments, an example being $10,001-$15,000

This will cut out all cars priced at $10,000 if the consumer chooses to narrow their search into that range.

More and more dealers are using a "flat base" pricing strategy to leverage other 3rd party sites by increasing exposure.

Consistency in anything is key, if your 1st page uses even thousands then next page should be in even $5k's, $2k's, or $1k's

 

[NickHummer]

Nick from Cars.com chiming in here, as this is a question we revisit often. The problem we run into from a site experience standpoint is this: when you get a shopper on a VDP, what do you want them to do? And perhaps more importantly, what does the shopper want to do? Do we push them to connect immediately or encourage them to head to the dealer’s site?

Every dealer I know talks to the conversion rate of their own site, so I understand the appeal, but from a shopping perspective it’s a little funky:

*Shopper visits Cars.com to find a car
*Shopper finds the right car
*Shopper clicks on link to dealer’s site
*Shopper has to find that same car again
*Shopper submits contact information

I’ve always dreamed of a world in which we can link directly to the dealer’s VDP from our own, but the logistics of that are still somewhat hairy. We’ll keep working on it, but in the meantime, we’d much rather reduce the likelihood of the shopper getting frustrated after step #2. We want to give shoppers the confidence to connect with the dealer immediately, which is why you’re seeing Cars.com add more and more useful dealer information to the VDP (and why we have review stars right on the page). The longer that connection is delayed, the more likely it is that they don’t connect. In fact, I always say that I’d be very happy if no one ever clicked on the Reviews link on the VDP – in my ideal world they get the information they need right there to be confident the car and the dealer are right for them.

For now, I would urge dealers to make the most of things that drive consideration and conversion, like Dealer Reviews and good merchandising. As an aside (and at the risk of being a little promotional), our reviews are also starting to show up in Google searches and Google+ Local listings, so I would highly recommend making sure you’ve got a process in place for making sure you’re showing up the way you want to. You can read more on that front here.

Neil – love the feedback and the fact that you noticed that. I’ve passed this on to our UX and Product folks to take a look.

Thanks, as always, for the feedback and suggestions.

Nick