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I read with interest all the comments , mostly negative about Autotrader , their attitude, poor response, costs , and so forth , I'm ready to get my head shot off but here goes , some questions if I can get some truthful answers .. · Are you making more or less profit from car sales than you were last year? · Are you selling more or less cars than last year? · Are you getting more or less leads from Autotrader? · Why do YOU think you are getting less leads from AT? · Who or what type of business do YOU think is taking sales away from you? · Do you feel the used car market is very buoyant out there BUT you feel you are missing out on the piece of the action ? · IF you dropped advertising on AT -Would it affect your business ( Yes I know it will save you a fortune every month on bills ! } · HOW do you feel AT can help your business (without being able to lower the prices!) I'm with you guys the costs every month is crippling , but personally I've never had issues with attitude , or response from AT team, always been helpful and quick responses , yes sometimes I don't like the answers but that's business ! final thought , is that the 'used car' market is getting crowded with more and more dealers selling especially on line, non 'legit' sellers taking OUR business away or we're trying to compete on price = less profit PLUS cars being more complex costing us more to repair = less profit again. As mostly small independents we don't have 2nd/3rd avenue of income i,e servicing & repairs, added products so totally relying on 'car sales' , where as the bigger dealers/supermarkets etc get that extra top up. Are we looking at someone to blame? Don't forget the new legislation coming into force 1st October ! Just found my September 2003 -AT Contact £92.50 per week ! #GoodOldDays

Hello, I am not from Automotive world. I am trying to find out differences between AutoTrader iControl and CAP. From what I have read so far it seems both are car valuation tools. What I am not so clear is who is the end user and what is the purpose for which these two tools are used. Do they serve different purposes so that auto dealers could subscribe to both of them, or are they competitive products? Any insights would be highly appreciated. If someone could talk to me for few minutes about these products then it would be even better. thanks, Vivek

Times are getting tougher for us smaller dealers and it feels like its hard to keep your head above water. For us our main enquiry's come from Autotrader and a few from other sources like ebay, we have massively seen a decrease in response from Autotrader in the last year and its hard to pay such large bills when it doesn't return great value yet we still need them. I read their intention to float this morning which was posted in Feb. I couldn't believe what I read, as dealers we receive a terrible service, over priced products that even if we wanted we couldn't afford. We are all making far less money than we ever have done and its a struggle to compete with the larger groups and continous price increases from suppliers. They are making huge profits at the determent of our business' and are selfish and greedy and now expect to raise our prices AGAIN in these tough times. This is taken from thier own intention In FY16, the Directors expect continuing revenue growth, driven primarily by retailer revenue For us we can barley afford their bills as it is, if they increase them I don't think we can carry on advertising with them which in return will probably put us out of business. Am I the only one who feels this way? Been in the car trade for years but things have never felt this bad. http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/12262135.html Current Trading and Prospects Since 28 December 2014, Auto Trader has continued to benefit from favourable market conditions in the UK and broader confidence across the UK automotive industry. For the full year to 29 March 2015, the Directors expect retailer revenue to continue the trend established in YTDQ315. In FY16, the Directors expect continuing revenue growth, driven primarily by retailer revenue. In addition, the high drop-through of approximately 80% of incremental revenue to incremental EBITDA is expected to lead to a further improvement in Adjusted Underlying EBITDA margin of approximately 1 percentage point.

Underselling or maximising FULL profit potential. Here’s an interesting bit of info for anyone interested. Hopefully everyone on here likes to make the’ maximum profit’ on any car you've bought, don to the last £25/50 [They all add up just think if you’re selling 25 cars per month – extra £25 per vehicle = £7500 year-end profit, sorry I digress] Just trying to do a deal on a Golf Plus 2011-11 – 17000 miles, one owner FVSH + Few extras. I've valued the car with Autotrader Price £8650 Glass Guide £9060 CAP Clean £9375 [Live today £9475] Slight variance; happens on them all but what is the Retail price for this car? I use Glass Guide and the useful feature is ‘Radar’ For those who don’t know about ‘radar’ it shows same/similar vehicles either for sale or sold throughout the country , who is selling it/ sold it and days in stock and on average how many days that car takes to sell. So I check who’s got one and what they’re selling for or have sold for. Hopefully not boring you but the 1st 4 cars sold as follows £8999 14 Days in Stock Suzuki Dealer £9490 93 days in stock VW Dealer [£10490 – 2 months £9490] £8950 92 days in stock Ford Dealer [£9450 – THEN £10,000 –Reduced to £8950] £9995 86 days in stock VW Dealer [£9995 – 2 months then £8999] Is it that the car has been undersold? or is that the correct retail price , if that’s the case then are the trade values wrong? After that we have to think DO - GG/ CAP/ Autotrader ++ collate this info , look at the ‘retailed prices’ and adjust the ‘trade values’ down due to the retail values being lower? Retail values according to Autotrader £10825 GG £10800 CAP £10950 [Live £11095] So I’m sure we’d all agree retails are £11000! Have these dealers missed ‘ extra profit potential ‘ would they have been better simply ‘trading’ these cars from day one and even made more profit than retailing them ? Your thoughts ? Hope it all makes sense ? Over to you ! *PS the mileage of all the cars is not 17,000 but even taking the variance at most of £500/600 - I feel the retail value would have been £10500. Also note the vehicle i valued is today the cars were for sale since November where the trade/ retail values would have been higher ?

So we’re in the final week of February, Talking to lots and lots of dealers it’s been a tough month for leads, sales, profit (According to the majority!) So who, what do we blame – the climate, the stock, the advertising platforms i.e. Autotrader, Motors, eBay, Piston heads, local press, Google, Gumtree ,sales staff (for those who have staff!) or ourselves or maybe the weather – whatever we all blame it doesn’t change the fact we’re all not happy with the results. Sometimes I guess we need to look at what we are offering to our customers , I’m no marketing guru but I try and put myself into the customers shoes , IF I was looking for a car searched the net from where ever and eventually landed at the dealer website what do I want to see. Well believe me it’s shocking, dealers trying to sell cars with poor images , quality and quantity , dirty floor mats in the foot well, dirty cars, stains on the seats, flat tyre ( Oh Yes!) and the list continues .. Would YOU even bother to call or visit that dealer? NO! Then why do these dealers expect the customer to even call never mind visit or buy the car. Back to basics! Preparation and presentation has to be 1st surely? Now I probably go overboard with the number of images between 25/60 ! and a Full HD Video walk around of every car..But It SELLS CARS ! Only last night a customer collected a Galaxy and he told me about his experience, his words “ You would not believe the state of some of the cars I've seen , some dealers have 2/3 pictures and not even been valeted , when I saw the video of your car I knew you had nothing to hide , and that made me buy the car – I've not seen anyone else do that , think it’s a fantastic idea†I've sold quite a number of cars simply down to the video ( Now I should keep that secret to myself) In all honesty if it helps some of you guys sell more cars – fantastic ! Some of you may think waste of time and don’t have time to do them, that’s fine , some may be saying I sell loads without doing all these ..great continue with what works for you. Please feel free to check out my website and video’s AND Please shout if you think i could improve on anything – all feedback appreciated – positive or negative ! Happy Selling guys and remember keep smiling and enjoying what you do , most of all have FUN ! www.autochange.co.uk

Lets see what WE all want or don't want from the likes of Autotrader, Motors, Carcliq, AA, RAC , eBay, Pistonheads +++ 100's more We moan and groan about each and everyone , be it cost ( of course too expensive! ) attitude, lack of leads (sales) - IF you had the opportunity to change / adjust anything on any of the platforms:- what chances would yo like to see and how would that help your business? what would encourage you to advertise with that co if you're not already doing so? what would make you move away IF you were already advertising with them ? Is there a better way that they should charge us dealers i.e. instead of per car or between range i.e 1-15 16-20 50-150 etc etc Do you believe some dealers get a better deal than you ? and why? What return would you expect on your investment ? YOU Don't have to name the platform's IF that makes you uncomfortable mentioning them by name on here! I'm just very curious to know your thoughts , and if you think similar to me. Don't be shy!

If any of you have tried to manually add a vehicle via the Portal, you will probably have found the whole process deeply frustrating, as the quality of the vehicle data (spec, derivatives etc) is shockingly poor. I'm losing the will to live with it all. A/T have signed up with Glass as supplier for their vehicle data. This is a 10-year deal. Previously, when they got the info from CAP, the vehicle data was pretty good, with just a few discrepancies that could easily be rectified. Additional options could be selected and the ads truly reflected the vehicles we were trying to sell. Now, the whole thing is a joke. Complete model ranges are missing or inaccurate, standard and optional spec is generic rather than specific - Apparently, 'exterior mirrors', 'speakers' and 'clock' are attractive standard options that we have to now de-select in order to not look complete numpties. Important extra options are not shown as being able to be selected, so they all have to be added manually or shown in the 'Attention Grabber' to give us a chance of appearing in a search (and don't get me started on just how crap that is now) This change was just imposed without any consultation and with no thought to the implications. The latest from A/T is that they hope to have the data accurate 'by Easter'. Seriously. 6 months to get the data back to where it was before some fool signed a deal with Glass to buy data that they haven't got. And can't provide, as they don't have the resources to supply it. But I expect they still got a fat bonus Nobody at A/T is listening. Their own forum (now online via the smashing new 'Explore' link) is full of very angry Motor Dealers, but this is just the tip of the iceberg as most Traders don't contribute. I'm gonna wind back my spend with them in the New Year - I know they won't really care but i'm not paying them to make things worse any more. I've signed up with Motors (thanks Andy & the team) and really hope it works and they gain momentum so we can all make the jump.

Not sure if everyone has seen this ? the adverts will now show CAT C & D , But as we all know if the 'person- dealer' doesn't use registration number they will still be able to 'by pass' the system ! but at least they're listening ... https://dealerportal.autotrader.co.uk/features/cat-c-d-changes1

Yes we have talk about Autotrader ! So everyone by now would have had 'the letter' followed by possibly a phone call about the removal of DD Discount-! how does it affect you ? any thoughts on the matter?

I mention I'd heard this was happening in the US and AT were thinking of bringing it here, It appears its already started and is in trail with various dealers ? Are you one of the trial dealers? what are your thoughts with AT doing this ? will it benefit YOU or hinder? Article link: http://www.am-online.com/news/2013/12/20/dealer-ratings-and-car-reviews-under-trial-by-auto-trader/34130/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter