AutoTrader v GumTree v Facebook

[mancars 1]

I am sure this might have been cover before but a fresh look might just open few more ideas. 

Where do most of your leads come from?

For me high end deals come from AutoTrader and quality leads with usually one to two phone calls closing the deal. 

Gumtree - lower prices, lots of texts with Cash Tonight Mate to this I will normally ask for Gold Only Tonight and you can have the car. You also end up with lots of Accident Verification claims. So, gumtree is annoying. But I have sold few cars through them be it the low end ones. 

Facebook - Not sold any through Facebook but have tried. You get alot of comments, competitors jumping on the band wagon. The ones who make stupid claims, the silly offers, and £10 part exchanges. So, not had too much time for Facebook. 

What are you views guys and girls?

[andymc1973 199]

gumtree makes ebay feel like rolls royce, waste of time for me

[MrC 142]

I retried Autotrader last year. I posted 4 adverts without skimping. Number of cars sold 0, Wallet much lighter

I use eBay Classified adverts, no buy it now or auction and it works for me. Price make it a no brainer.

I also do use Gumtree with mixed results

Facebook selling pages... Hmmm what can I say about that!!!  As its free I stick everything on there. I have sold off Facebook but I really struggle with the weapons grade bellends. Offering £1500 "CASH" tonight for your £3k car wears thin after while.

 

 

 

 

[grant8064 219]

Chipped Autotrader off a year ago. Cost is mega and it's difficult to be the cheapest on there when your cars are half sensible with decent history and aren't being traded from home/ a supermarket. I charge more because the cars are better but we all know everyone filters by lowest price first.

Spent the 15k a year saved moving to a busy A road forecourt and now most sales come from drive bys and reputation/word of mouth.

The only advertising we do is ebay motors which is not especially good but improves our SEO and keeps us in peoples thoughts when searching.

Motors, Pistonheads, RAC and the like we are also on but frankly I wouldn't notice if we weren't.

Tried local paper advertising but it only attracted a few tyre kickers on the cheapies.

I think Autotrader can work if you are incredibly cheap, as in top of page one, but try buying cars to fit that criteria that aren't gonna come back and bite you.

...I forgot to add;

No real desire to try Gumtree.

Facebook is free, easy and gets your name out there. Worth doing. The way I see it; I sit at my desk bored sometimes so may as well utilise the time and if only one car sells all year because of it it has still paid dividends. 

We seem to only get sensible comments on our posts too...not too many negative comments or timewasters.

[sparky 274]

Interesting  post Grant and music to the ears of another old fashioned main road dealer

My AT rep is coming out to see my next month, if his power point presentation goes that way I think it might after hearing a few whispers I think that will be me off AT, this time once and for all.

[Tom 164]

Yes same here on a busy road most sales come from passers by! People who say forecourts dont work anymore are so wrong!

I use ebay and car gurus works well for free. 

[Tradeeagle 0]

Hi Everyone, 

Your thoughts on Shpock Motors? 

 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

6 minutes ago, Shpock ? said:

Hi Everyone, 

Your thoughts on Shpock Motors? 

 

Hahahahahaha, you are joking right ???

[Tradeeagle 0]

Nope, well at least I suppose your reaction, says it all?

They do Motors packages and larger guys are on their...

 

 

 

[David Horgan 564]

4 minutes ago, Shpock ? said:

Hi Everyone, 

Your thoughts on Shpock Motors? 

 

Tried a free trial , what a laugh that was  

Shpock uploaded from Auto trader , got everything wrong ,wow incompetence or what .

Just got phone call after call asking if the Range Rover was still for sale at £125  Yep actually missed the 00 off the end . 

That Renault is a Skoda Yeti LOL we haven't got a yeti

Then the losers that rang and emailed were just a waste of time , how fast does it go ? can i test this car at max speed . Will you £50 a week , I've only got £3,000 , 4k motor

Do you part ex watches , and the list went on ,on on and Bl##dy on 

NO THANKS from us . 

 

[Tradeeagle 0]

Thanks David, will start to think about things

 

 

 

 

[EPV 631]

26 minutes ago, Shpock ? said:

Thanks David, will start to think about things

 

 

 

 

It’s a car boot sale for cars. A place to sell old knackers for scrap money to dreamers. A shit version of gumtree. 

[Nick M.K. 574]

On 21/02/2017 at 10:12 PM, grant8064 said:

I think Autotrader can work if you are incredibly cheap, as in top of page one

Autotrader works absolutely superbly. You don't have to be top of the page. 

It's the best investment a car dealer can make, a single advertising platform that works and that is reassuringly expensive so it deters some bargain hunters but more importantly it deters a lot of bargain basement offers. Costs me £12K a year (I must have fewer cars than you) and these £12K are the only reason I even have a business. 

I also advertise on eBay Classifieds and Motors.co.uk and CarGurus have put me back on their free package after I cancelled my paid pack. 

eBay 1,2 a month

Motors 1 every couple of months

Car Gurus 2 in a year. 

Stock of 14 and around 9-10 sales a month, most from AT. And not cheap. 

 

Edited October 3, 2018 by Nick M.K.

[Nick M.K. 574]

On 22/02/2017 at 0:37 PM, Tom said:

People who say forecourts dont work anymore are so wrong!

In our leafy area just outside London forecourts work incredibly well. For the property developers that buy them to build blocks of flats on.

Around here £1000-£1500 pcm might find you a two bed bungalow to rent but certainly not a forecourt, pitch or anything like that in a decent location. 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

1 hour ago, Nick M.K. said:

Autotrader works absolutely superbly. You don't have to be top of the page. 

It's the best investment a car dealer can make, a single advertising platform that works and that is reassuringly expensive so it deters some bargain hunters but more importantly it deters a lot of bargain basement offers. Costs me £12K a year (I must have fewer cars than you) and these £12K are the only reason I even have a business. 

I also advertise on eBay Classifieds and Motors.co.uk and CarGurus have put me back on their free package after I cancelled my paid pack. 

eBay 1,2 a month

Motors 1 every couple of months

Car Gurus 2 in a year. 

Stock of 14 and around 9-10 sales a month, most from AT. And not cheap. 

 

Agree. AT simply works and you don't have to be at the top page. Anyone with half an ounce of brain cells refines the search to suite their requirements. I am of the opinion eBay is still worth having, but all the others are just a complete waste of time....

[NickGCS 14]

Location and stock profile seem to be a big factor for dealers from similar topics I’ve read 

We have a stock of around 20 on a roadside pitch 

Personally I’ve found Autotrader to be an extremely expensive waste of time, gumtree was even worse - but at least it was only 1/5 of the price! 

We have had a lot of success from Facebook, we sponsor ads and update our page regularly, do competitions etc, you have to mix it with non-sales related posts too Which seems to keep customers following you. But for what we spend on there it easily outweighs any other platform! It’s obviously not an out and out selling platform though and that’s it’s only downfall (comments/lowball offers/idiots) 

I’d just love a motors/car gurus/F&F to deliver results for the price but none seem to work for us! 

[Lakeside 94]

Being part time I’m only on PAYG with AT and EBay. I started some years ago with AT and did well but it was getting to expensive so I switched to eBay classified and still did well.

Recently though eBay has really dried up for me, cars are hanging around longer, less watchers and calls/messages have all but gone so I’m going to start putting a few back on AT.

I had an 08 Clio on an eBay classified ad for over a month without a single bit of interest, stuck it on AT and it sold to the first caller within two days.

[Marc 6]

Facebook ideal for 'traders' who buy from auction on a Wednesday and  up for sale on the thursday. I stopped looking at marketplace as it's not comparing like with like. Hate it when a customer says but the one on Facebook is 500pounds cheaper... Better cars and better clientele come through auto trader IMO 

[Dealer 54]

On 21/02/2017 at 10:12 PM, grant8064 said:

 

Motors, Pistonheads, RAC and the like we are also on but frankly I wouldn't notice if we weren't.

 

I tried pissed n sheds once and it was the worse channel I've ever paid for! 

[Rory RSC 596]

6 hours ago, Marc said:

Facebook ideal for 'traders' who buy from auction on a Wednesday and  up for sale on the thursday. I stopped looking at marketplace as it's not comparing like with like. Hate it when a customer says but the one on Facebook is 500pounds cheaper... Better cars and better clientele come through auto trader IMO 

Marketplace might currently be like that but building your own page and highlighting your stock can and does work very well for some dealers.

We are personally enjoying seeing regular sales off the facebook page. It feels great when a non paid for post on our company page sees someone tag a mate in the post, mate messages via the page, turns up to view the car and ends up buying it to the finance example provided and drives away. It involves a long game though and takes a long time to build up.

 

[Nick M.K. 574]

1 hour ago, Dealer said:

I tried pissed n sheds once and it was the worse channel I've ever paid for! 

If a customer mentions Pistonheads while they are viewing a car I go back in the office and leave them to look at their leisure with my expectations for a sale slashed by 50%. 

"Have been looking for 8 months now" 

"A mate of mine got an identical car, newer, lower mileage for two grand less" 

"Do you mind if I plug my scanner in quickly, I looked at one last week and shock-horror it had one fault code in the memory about a CAN communication problem. I really need the Bluetooth to work"

"The n/s front tyre has 5.5mm thread, the o/s 6.5mm, do you know if the car was involved in a major accident or was it something minor"

 

Edited October 4, 2018 by Nick M.K.

[Tom 164]

17 hours ago, Nick M.K. said:

Autotrader works absolutely superbly. You don't have to be top of the page. 

It's the best investment a car dealer can make, a single advertising platform that works and that is reassuringly expensive so it deters some bargain hunters but more importantly it deters a lot of bargain basement offers. Costs me £12K a year (I must have fewer cars than you) and these £12K are the only reason I even have a business. 

I also advertise on eBay Classifieds and Motors.co.uk and CarGurus have put me back on their free package after I cancelled my paid pack. 

eBay 1,2 a month

Motors 1 every couple of months

Car Gurus 2 in a year. 

Stock of 14 and around 9-10 sales a month, most from AT. And not cheap. 

 

This is the way Im heading binning the whole lot and going on A.T never been on there apart from a few payg a few years ago. 

[sparky 274]

1 hour ago, Tom said:

This is the way Im heading binning the whole lot and going on A.T never been on there apart from a few payg a few years ago. 

As far as advertising goes I guess there are two schools of thought for the smaller indies. Go all in on AT or go all in on everything else apart from AT.  Only one way to find out.

[NOACROSS 414]

Broken record here:

Unaccustomed as I am to weighing in on an Autoraper thread (;0)) - I'd not count your chickens there or get your hopes up too much! 

(I'm talking mid-size pitches here) I know a few locally that are also v. quiet and are with them.  Sometimes it's just quiet & when you're quiet WITH that giant albatross still wanting feeding, then it hurts. 

(We were busy in august and they weren't.  Don't get me wrong, last month we were quiet too like them, and this month hasn't started with a bang by any stretch of the imagination. It's a funny old game as they say.)

I'd be interested to hear if you do get results though- and good luck to you.  Maybe just try a few with them and see...but would you just have got results eventually anyway?  .....my usual line inserted here that we STILL get people telling us they saw the car on AT.

30 minutes ago, sparky said:

As far as advertising goes I guess there are two schools of thought for the smaller indies. Go all in on AT or go all in on everything else apart from AT.  Only one way to find out.

Yes indeed-but the second option is miles cheaper.  if I only had say ten in stock I might consider the robbers myself to be honest.  I can't justify it with 40 plus in stock....plus they make me so cross.

I'll go back in my box now....

[Nick M.K. 574]

53 minutes ago, NOACROSS said:

Yes indeed-but the second option is miles cheaper.  if I only had say ten in stock I might consider the robbers myself to be honest.  I can't justify it with 40 plus in stock....plus they make me so cross.

So it's a personal decision not a business one?

How can the option of multiple websites that DON'T deliver be cheaper? They still cost money. eBay + CarGurus (paid basic) + Motors will be around £650 per month for 20 vehicles and you'll get a quarter or a fifth of the enquiries... 

Is it not better to pay the "Autoraper", "beast", "robbers" or whatever else they are called their £1300 pcm, sell more cars, get more and higher quality leads and save the time and energy required to manage multiple ad platforms... You should be able to pay half of your AT package cost just from the part exes that you advertise free under £1500. 

Also, if you have a stock of 40 but don't fancy paying for all stock you can have an "auto rotation" where 20 vehicles are advertised at any one time and the ads are rotated by software. Car Dealer 5 and Click Dealer provide something similar. 

Edited October 4, 2018 by Nick M.K.