whitestone679231

I used to sell 20 cars a month when I was with Autotrader (60 cars advertised) The cost and arrogance of them got too much for me so I cancelled, at the time the rep said no one leaves AT for good (he came in a few months ago..... he had left and was touting for a finance company) I advertise everywhere else e-bay, motors, car gurus, local paper, facebook, and have a good web site provider, since leaving AT I have still sold an average of 20 a month but saved £1000,s on advertising and increased my margins as I am not competing to be on page 1, Facebook really does need working at and takes a long time before results come through, you need to build up your audience and ensure all your past customers are fully engaging with you, time consuming but inexpensive and in my opinion is a no brainer.

I have been learning this job for 35 years and one thing I will never do is source a car for a private if I am not prepared to end up owning it myself, something I learnt many years ago when a "customer" wanted a red Porsche 924, at the time they were at a premium, the guy made all the right noises money waiting definite buyer etc etc, obviously no one was going to lend me one so after giving him full details of one I had located I bought it on his say so,,, go to deliver it to him and his wife says........ wrong shade of red,,,,, Guards Red is Guards Red..... Never again.....

www.autotrader.co.uk !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The country cant cope with the electric surge at the end of Coronation Street when everyone puts the kettle on,,, how will they cope at 5pm when everyone plugs their cars in?? another ill thought scaremongering govt release, these people really do need to get in the real world and earn a living And wait till they realise that sitting on a pile of batteries causes some form of cancer....

Autotrader got where they are by initially offering a web presence for free to dealers who advertised in the magazine, (at the time I laughed and said internet wot a load of bollox it will never catch on), even though I no longer give them any money I acknowledge that they are the market leaders and only a very well established cash rich existing company can build up to the level that will compete with them,,, the likes of e-bay, car gurus, motors etc are the ones that should be the credible threat, I doubt an unknown new comer could get a foot in the door, many have tried but soon given up.

I have been with them a few years now, originally V-Cars then AA cars, I pay £155+VAT a month, for that I list all cars (60) on there website and customers can have free AA membership plus all that AA dealer promise stuff, I have sold from it but not enough and it will probably the next to go in an advertising cull.

Many of us are happily earning a nice living without worrying about how we can make enough to pay AT bills, it amazes me how people moan about feeding the monster but do nothing about it, after what they have done in the past and with the default search I don't know how any independent trader could ever trust them again, they will shit on you and tell you the aroma is part of a new package that makes your stock irresistible to customers and charge you an extra 50% for the privilege, in the future I see Autotrader as a site for supermarkets and franchised dealers after they have bled the rest dry.

I am still laughing at a previous post where it was mentioned that Autotrader would piss on you and convince you that it was raining.. I can only thank Autotrader for making customers think that all cars on their site are too expensive and making said customers look on car gurus, e-bay etc instead ;-))

I do a couple a month with them and although I begrudge paying them £100 a car its them that's paying for the advertising and bringing me the customers etc so its cheaper and sale guaranteed before they take their "commission". I used to think it would be dodge pots without a pot to piss in that went to them but I do sell good cars to good people through them, last month was a £15k BMW 7 series guy had £10k dipper and borrowed 5,,, other was a 14 plate Leon at £9k ,,both customers that wouldn't have come to me from any other form of advertising etc so Its not like robbing peter to pay paul....

Thanks for all your input folks, I have signed up for the all singing all dancing package with them so will see how it goes, I did have some success on the free trial but like everybody else I didn't like the anonymous e-mails, lets hope they do grow into a credible competitor for the big hungry monster

I ask everyone of mine the same question,,,, 40% say autotrader even though I don't advertise on there!!! How do you get round the days in stock??

Cheers justina3 I have just been quoted £337.50 pm for the standard package or £517.50 for the dogs bollox package,, similar with AT would be moving the decimal point one way.

I posted on another topic this morning that I had some success with Car Gurus and low and behold they have just telephoned me with the upsell, I am currently on the free package and do sell cars from it, but has anyone else signed up for full package and how much are they paying and with what success??

I posted on another topic this morning that I had some success with Car Gurus and low and behold they have just telephoned me with the upsell, I am currently on the free package and do sell cars from it, but has anyone else signed up for full package and how much are they paying and with what success??

I love the bit about autotraders "free finance tool" is this next years price increase ;-)))

If everyone was forced into paying to be sponsored then the search results would be the same as it was in March,,,, except Autotrader would be millions better off,,,

As mentioned previously, I am sure most dealers that do not advertise on Autotrader will agree that customers still say that they seen it advertised on Autotrader even though it isn't on autotrader. Like Jim and others who have left AT I still move the same number of cars as when I had a package with AT, it is hard to break away but market yourself correctly, do the job right and work at it and you do not need to work for AT, your business can once again be your own and you don't have to dread the next big idea from your advertising partner.... and you can be tens of thousands of pounds a year better off.

Amazes me how the trade allows them to get away with it, if I tried to con a customer or move the goal posts after I had agreed a deal my customer would probably sue me and most certainly would never deal with me again but Autotrader have been conning the trade this way for years and most dealers just accept it, and if you keep paying they will keep doing it, I am fortunate that I have set my stall out in a way that I don't need them and at the moment this latest AT move is helping me as customers are stopping searching on AT stating that cars are too expensive and looking on Car Gurus, e-bay, motors etc etc the sooner more dealers jump ship the better.

Wow nice clean car, that will go well with my new marks n sparks suit ,,,and I can hand them both back for a refund after 7 days,,, HAPPY DAYS... Will you fill it with fuel as well,, oh not forgetting 7 day drive away insurance

could be a useful APP will save time having to get onto DVLA site, don't you just love privates who say they just had car MOT recently but cant find certificate, their recent was 9 months ago,,,,

Plod, DVLA and the motor trade need to get together and decide what is correct and what isn't. I agree with plod that they shouldn't be in screen, how many do you see in screen that you cant read... I use the sucker type that cover the plate and although DVLA rules say this is incorrect can they tell me how else to display them??

Wow is Bethany still there, she must be their longest serving non existent employee, I haven't been allowed onto their biased forum for a long time now but it was good for reading the propaganda bull sh@t

Well done Phil, pity you don't own the domain webuycars then I could ask your permission to use it and tell them to go bully someone else, there argument is that there are no spaces between words so I copying them!!!! oh and also that the shade of green on sign is similar to one they use and word font is similar to theirs !!!!

Just had a "nice" 20 page solicitors letter from we buy any car.com claiming that our webuycars sign outside our showroom infringes the copyright that they hold for webuyanycars, we have had signs outside stating that we buy cars since 1981, they state that we are taking advantage of there clients strong reputation,,,,,, (anybody googled a review of webuyanycar.com lately? glad I don't have there reputation), Just wondering if anybody else has had similar dealings with these people??

popped in to paint valeting bay floor,, (because I am sick of turkey n looking at the wife) and had a walk on after selling a mint A4 Avant and sold a Mini diesel so worth popping in ;-)