Google cars is dead, long live google cars.

[dvMail]

Exclusive: Google Cars Is Dead | The Truth About Cars

TTAC has learned that Google is shutting down its car shopping service, which existed only in beta form for San Francisco Bay Area shoppers. Visitors to the site have received a message stating

“The Google San Francisco Bay Area car search beta program has been discontinued as we focus on building the next version of our experience for car-related searches. Stay tuned for more news!”




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Google previously tweaked their new car search in late 2013, allowing users to see results on the main search page. TTAC had previously touted Google Cars as a potentially disruptive car shopping tool, though dealers apparently had some reservations about the way their inventory and pricing was displayed (namely a lack of differentiation among different stores), as well as the higher cost of leads.
One can only wonder what’s next for Google.

Had a friend in the beta group. We were both kinda skeptical on the whole thing because it was just another portal the internet sales manager would have to keep on-top of. Anyone else here not-so-surprised by the project being killed?

 

[Richard Simard]

It's a hard sell for them. They're coming in late-game and expecting to be the point leader. Google cars is what Cars.com and other such aggregate sites are for. Considering that Google owns the digital world, I figure that if they're hell-bent on dominating any one industry, they have the staff and funds to accomplish that. It's more shocking that they've somewhat admitted defeat--unless they are simply regrouping before unleashing their assault on the automotive market.

Either way, I would definitely agree that it's a pain in the ass for the guys who work in the dealership. Showcasing your vehicle in another search engine doesn't necessarily mean more leads. So therefor it could just be another source that sales guys have to stay on top of. The question is: how does Google control its listed prices? Are they pulled from the dealership website? Are they managed separately through some Google Cars account management? If a dealership has issues with the way their inventory is displaying, can they call some account rep and get it adjusted?

 

[yagoparamo]

Shut down for now. They learned quite a bit and may come back with a reworked product in the future.

 

[dvMail]

This is their 2nd time trying to break into the automotive sales world.

IMHO, they abandoned the project because it was...

a) Pita to get dealers to try something new with no success stories.
b) Adwords team had a tantrum when they saw the potential loss of tens of thousands dollars in daily PPC sales.

 

[yagoparamo]

b) Adwords team had a tantrum when they saw the potential loss of tens of thousands dollars in daily PPC sales.

I'm with you there