At the end of the day there is no point being bitter and arguing with ourselves over what another company are charging. Everyones comments and opinions on here are in actual fact mostly correct. On a cross subject along the same lines in my personal aspect I am an avid Arsenal supporter and until 3 years ago had a season ticket with my father and a few friends which would have extended to an additional 1 due to the coming of my son ( End on June ). We all cancelled our season tickets due to the insane prices and lack of "value for money" which Arsenal were so quick to throw down our throats as an excuse to charge so much. There used to be a waiting list (7 YEARS!) for the season tickets and even though we cancelled 3 years ago, this season already I've had 2 reminders of "Don't miss your season ticket chance for 2018/19 season..." It goes to show if you charge sooo much for soo little things will back fire. Arsenal stopped spending money on good players, over paid for average and now have a manager who dictates if and when he will go. That's just pure ignorance and a lack of business acumen and sadly for us supporters things are going to get worse before they get better. The point is that Arsenal are now not getting the income from merchandise, food sales, drink sales, etc from the crowd as it's getting lower and lower with less people turning up. Yes they still have the seats sold but they lose on the rest of the products to be purchased and in turn their performances will have an effect on the commercial deals that are due to be re-negotiated. Autotrader are not doing that, they are spending, they are trying to stay ahead with new products, like the finance search they just launched and spent millions advertising.
Everything has cycles. At the moment and in the last 10 years AT have been on top and they have rightly been on top due to the amount of research and money they put in to be there. It's not luck, it's not chance it's them doing their job correctly and ensuring they have the audience to be able to promote themselves and in turn the dealers that advertise with them. They are a platform, nothing more and nothing less, but we don't have the budgets to do all these huge advertising packages. Yes they are expensive, yes I've cancelled with them as it worked out we were spending just over £1,000 per sale. Until you sit down and work out what the stand in value it costs per sale then you actually really do not know what it costs you to advertise with them.
Like I say, everything has cycles and where they are they have to spend fortunes to stay there as it doesn't take long for a cycle to shift. I know many a dealer who love AT as they only advertise with AT. I know a few dealers who only advertise with Facebook. I also know a few, like myself, who advertise with CarGurus, Ebay, AA and Facebook and all do ok. AutoTrader is not the be all and end all, far from it. Just do your numbers and try other things as what works for one doesn't always work for all.
AutoTrader are top, but that doesn't mean people stop then and there. They search like most of us do. When I book a holiday do I just go to Virgin? No I go to BA, Holiday Supermarkets and google for more as I want the best deal and to make sure I've checked out all my options. It's the same principle in everything involved in shopping. Hardly anyone just checks on 1 site.
(PS - Sorry to throw a side subject of Arsenal in to the mix but thought it would be a good example)