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This article is correct in that you are comparing apples to oranges.  Each has unique customers but also shares customers.  What they do not mention is Autotrader's newest rival whic does share of many of the 

same prospects and closely mimics its original model of classified ads:  Craigslist.  The dirty secret is that craigslist probably has more automotive visits for used cars than cars.com and autotrader.com combined.  Most dealers are not able to get much out of it because they want to take the turn key approach and just pay and receive leads.  Even with Cargigi, I didn't get as much out of it until I learned to work it.  You need to approach it differently.  When you do this and combine it with cargigi, it is very powerful.  A difference is that craigslist is regional.  With cargigi, it costs about $250 per region to list a car. depending on your listing service  I pulled out of Philly and went into a smaller northern suburb and have gotten higher results.  I am considering expanding into more suburbs with 250 miles and it will be much lower still that what the "premier" sites want to charge us.


When combined with Cargigi, it not only gives me a lead, but it also provides me with what they also looked at on the site which allows me to switch them to other brands.  for example, I recent had one looking at a '10 civic.  they also looked at an audi, passat and elantra.  I had two of those in stock, and was able to build enough value in the cars that we have to bring her in from about 45 minutes away that night.  She is driving a passat we had in stock now for about 60 days.