Autotrader price increase

[NOACROSS 414]

25 minutes ago, lastyboy said:

Greedy bastards. Id love to see them go under.

Not a nice thing to say but i genuinely would

I’m soooo with you there! 

[A & S 20]

We have today reduced our package with AT from having 19 on there to 12. We advertise on Ebay motors as well where we get 25 slots for about 10% of the price of AT. It kicks in a months time, going to see how it goes, it is a reduction of about £700 a month. We know that we are not getting as many on there. We are going to try and steer customers to our website from adverts from AT website ads, FB and Ebay. The last 4 cars sold, 3 from Ebay and 1 from AT. We also do the freebie on Car Gurus where we have sold the odd car. 

Also what we are going to try is that we get some quality 'bargain buy' cars. To buy extra slots from AT for bargain buys (cars advertised under £1500) which is £14.55 per month per slot that's only an extra £87.30 incl. vat  per month for an extra 5 slots. We sometimes find we make more money out of lower, affordable budget stuff than we do out of £5k - £10k stuff and they turnover quicker as well.        

[SuperLease 13]

Ive called and spoke with my rep this morning and my bill is going up by roughly 5 or 6 percent. I dont use anthing else other than AT for used cars so its not really that big of a deal for me. Dont get me wrong I would be happier if it wasnt going up but that is never ever going to happen. If I was on other sites then I suppose I would have to reconsider but all the others that I have ever tried just dont cut it. Interestingly I recieved two emails this week notifying me that my Mobile Phone contracts are going up by about 4% too. I am with two differnet providers EE and O2 and tbh O2 is poor by comparison so guess what I have cancelled my O2 contracts. Will I increase my spend with EE? Probably because it works better for me. Its not rocket science just run your bsuiness how you see fit and if you dont feel that youre getting a decent roi or value for money then can it off. If you dont then more fool you I say.

[Tadams 29]

Another post that's turned from someone asking a question to people moaning about AT... 
I genuinely don't understand why people moan, no one has a gun to your head and force's you to sell with them, if you don't want to pay then it's simple don't !

The fact that people complain but still pay just shows the value to your business of what they can offer or you would have already jumped ship, no ?

I completely agree its expensive.. very bloody expensive but without it we certainly wouldn't sell what we do so can i moan .. no, We will grin and bear it until one day something changes with the way we advertise online or we knock the whole thing on the head    
 

[metcars 395]

4 hours ago, Tadams said:

Another post that's turned from someone asking a question to people moaning about AT... 
I genuinely don't understand why people moan, no one has a gun to your head and force's you to sell with them, if you don't want to pay then it's simple don't !

The fact that people complain but still pay just shows the value to your business of what they can offer or you would have already jumped ship, no ?

I completely agree its expensive.. very bloody expensive but without it we certainly wouldn't sell what we do so can i moan .. no, We will grin and bear it until one day something changes with the way we advertise online or we knock the whole thing on the head    
 

I think a lot of guys are expecting it to 'die' at any moment so they can dance on its grave, but it's still hanging on in there. I think I remember reading about an expert from AT talking at the recent Scottish motor trade summit thing?

[andymc1973 199]

with all due respect we'd all do the same if we had the market monopoly

[AVON VALLEY 3]

AUTORAPER is what they should be called,back in 2012-2013 my friend and i started the "THE MOTOR TRADERS ADVERTISING UNION" I started this because at that time they were trying to get it to £15 per car per week,we beat them and the prise increase was canceled  and only a moderate rise was implemented,this is a cruel and unnecessary rise,in our area (Bristol) garages are shutting down,4 so far this month,if you are with auto trader its about being the cheapest and they advertise on you pages finance shutting down another of our revenue streams, a race to the bottom i call it.I WILL be starting this up again but i am not going to pay for it all AGAIN the last time it cost my friend and I .If you car dealers want to start a sustained attack plenty of bad press for Autotrader join, we need to stick together the last time our membership was up to over a 1000,Car Dealer Magazine took up the story and so did the Times i only stopped last time as i had a personal tragedy,Iam back on my feet and ready to do this again, if any of you want to join please send your Details to email avg@avg123 "ITS TO EASY TO DO NOTHING AND THEN MOAN"My stats for last month for leads were 2800ish google leads 700ish direct to my website about 90ish auto trader gumtree about 80 ish FOR FRACTION OF THE COST OF AUTOTRADER then ebay then aa.

DON'T MOAN LETS STICK TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[EPV 631]

38 minutes ago, AVON VALLEY said:

AUTORAPER is what they should be called,back in 2012-2013 my friend and i started the "THE MOTOR TRADERS ADVERTISING UNION" I started this because at that time they were trying to get it to £15 per car per week,we beat them and the prise increase was canceled  and only a moderate rise was implemented,this is a cruel and unnecessary rise,in our area (Bristol) garages are shutting down,4 so far this month,if you are with auto trader its about being the cheapest and they advertise on you pages finance shutting down another of our revenue streams, a race to the bottom i call it.I WILL be starting this up again but i am not going to pay for it all AGAIN the last time it cost my friend and I .If you car dealers want to start a sustained attack plenty of bad press for Autotrader join, we need to stick together the last time our membership was up to over a 1000,Car Dealer Magazine took up the story and so did the Times i only stopped last time as i had a personal tragedy,Iam back on my feet and ready to do this again, if any of you want to join please send your Details to email avg@avg123 "ITS TO EASY TO DO NOTHING AND THEN MOAN"My stats for last month for leads were 2800ish google leads 700ish direct to my website about 90ish auto trader gumtree about 80 ish FOR FRACTION OF THE COST OF AUTOTRADER then ebay then aa.

DON'T MOAN LETS STICK TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Turn it in. If you don’t want to pay AT’s fees, don’t use them. It’s a business and not a public service. 

[justina3 518]

2 hours ago, EPV said:

Turn it in. If you don’t want to pay AT’s fees, don’t use them. It’s a business and not a public service. 

I kind of agree if you dont like then do something else put up or shut up kind of thing, you dont see poeple starting up groups against apple or amazon for doing well.

[Tadams 29]

18 hours ago, AVON VALLEY said:

AUTORAPER is what they should be called,back in 2012-2013 my friend and i started the "THE MOTOR TRADERS ADVERTISING UNION" I started this because at that time they were trying to get it to £15 per car per week,we beat them and the prise increase was canceled  and only a moderate rise was implemented,this is a cruel and unnecessary rise,in our area (Bristol) garages are shutting down,4 so far this month,if you are with auto trader its about being the cheapest and they advertise on you pages finance shutting down another of our revenue streams, a race to the bottom i call it.I WILL be starting this up again but i am not going to pay for it all AGAIN the last time it cost my friend and I .If you car dealers want to start a sustained attack plenty of bad press for Autotrader join, we need to stick together the last time our membership was up to over a 1000,Car Dealer Magazine took up the story and so did the Times i only stopped last time as i had a personal tragedy,Iam back on my feet and ready to do this again, if any of you want to join please send your Details to email avg@avg123 "ITS TO EASY TO DO NOTHING AND THEN MOAN"My stats for last month for leads were 2800ish google leads 700ish direct to my website about 90ish auto trader gumtree about 80 ish FOR FRACTION OF THE COST OF AUTOTRADER then ebay then aa.

DON'T MOAN LETS STICK TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Perhaps rather than writing the same old tripe about the costing of AT and starting another group of "Samaritans" to take them use your time to increase knowledge of different ways you can advertise, social media etc.. 

There are some guys ion here who's social media work is amazing and really is something we should all explore i guess, Umar, Blakedown, Transparency Cars to name a few. 

In short as above if you don't like them don't use them.. if it doesn't work for you then the fee's are really of no concern to you... ?  

[Ocsltd 133]

30 minutes ago, Tadams said:

Perhaps rather than writing the same old tripe about the costing of AT and starting another group of "Samaritans" to take them use your time to increase knowledge of different ways you can advertise, social media etc.. 

There are some guys ion here who's social media work is amazing and really is something we should all explore i guess, Umar, Blakedown, Transparency Cars to name a few. 

In short as above if you don't like them don't use them.. if it doesn't work for you then the fee's are really of no concern to you... ?  

I really don't understand this attitude or mentality?! 

Just because something works (let's not forget we are paying for a service, so it should work!!), it shouldn't cost an absolute fortune, nor should we be happy with constant price rises!! All this b*llocks about if it works suck it up, if doesn't go elsewhere, I find bizarre!! Yes Autotrader works, which is why most of us stick with it, but a) it really shouldn't have to cost so much, and b they really don't need to be putting their prices up by so much....

Just because something works, doesn't mean we should have to pay through the nose for it!!!!

[Tadams 29]

You don't have to pay for it that's my point.. there's a wealth of knowledge on here and the majority of the time i really enjoy reading through the different post's (some of you guys are actually quite funny ) but it just get's tiresome. 

Yes i agree we shouldn't have to be constantly thinking about when the next increase is coming and sorry if there was attitude in what i wrote (lack of coffee and the Monday blues) but i struggle to understand when people say "AT is far to expensive, they are cowboys and would love them to go under" but then still advertise all the stock on AT, the fact that people do it just shows it works....Yes its expensive and if we didn't have to pay them what we do i'd have a far nicer car on the drive, but it works and until it doesn't not much will change.

  

[EPV 631]

13 minutes ago, Ocsltd said:

I really don't understand this attitude or mentality?! 

Just because something works (let's not forget we are paying for a service, so it should work!!), it shouldn't cost an absolute fortune, nor should we be happy with constant price rises!! All this b*llocks about if it works suck it up, if doesn't go elsewhere, I find bizarre!! Yes Autotrader works, which is why most of us stick with it, but a) it really shouldn't have to cost so much, and b they really don't need to be putting their prices up by so much....

Just because something works, doesn't mean we should have to pay through the nose for it!!!!

But that is ENTIRELY the point. Used correctly, it works. The fees are what they are. Are AT the only way of advertising a car? Far from it. Do you have to use them? Definitely not. They are a business and entitled to charge what they like. 

[Stalker 180]

So basically all of those that Worship Autotrader wont be interested in any price drops in the future.... and will actually request that they should actually continue to have price increases forever more.

[Tadams 29]

1 minute ago, Stalker said:

So basically all of those that Worship Autotrader wont be interested in any price drops in the future.... and will actually request that they should actually continue to have price increases forever more.

Now your just being daft... no one has defended AT prices at all, i just accept them as what they are because i need them to have a business... IF it got to a point where what i spent didn't help me run a business then i wouldn't pay it...it's really quite simple. 

The fact people moan and pay shows that in reality you need it, people need stop moaning and crack on, one day i'm sure they will be their own demise by putting up the prices because when something does come along that can provide me and my stock the exposure it needs for me to survive i'll be first in line to go BUT until then i grit my teeth and use the tools I pay for and sell what i can.  
 

[Earunder 69]

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)

[RH Trading 80]

20 hours ago, AVON VALLEY said:

AUTORAPER is what they should be called,back in 2012-2013 my friend and i started the "THE MOTOR TRADERS ADVERTISING UNION" I started this because at that time they were trying to get it to £15 per car per week,we beat them and the prise increase was canceled  and only a moderate rise was implemented,this is a cruel and unnecessary rise,in our area (Bristol) garages are shutting down,4 so far this month,if you are with auto trader its about being the cheapest and they advertise on you pages finance shutting down another of our revenue streams, a race to the bottom i call it.I WILL be starting this up again but i am not going to pay for it all AGAIN the last time it cost my friend and I .If you car dealers want to start a sustained attack plenty of bad press for Autotrader join, we need to stick together the last time our membership was up to over a 1000,Car Dealer Magazine took up the story and so did the Times i only stopped last time as i had a personal tragedy,Iam back on my feet and ready to do this again, if any of you want to join please send your Details to email avg@avg123 "ITS TO EASY TO DO NOTHING AND THEN MOAN"My stats for last month for leads were 2800ish google leads 700ish direct to my website about 90ish auto trader gumtree about 80 ish FOR FRACTION OF THE COST OF AUTOTRADER then ebay then aa.

DON'T MOAN LETS STICK TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I remember advertising in the midlands autotrader in 2004, about 10 emperor spots (£35 a week) at first, then went to a half page at £680 for one week with 20 cars on it. for that I got a grainy black and white half page with about 15 words maximum on each car that went out to the Birmingham area. I remember Gerry the rep taking my photos on a Monday to get them in for that Friday and by the time it came out, about a quarter of the cars had sold so wasted cash, and a lot of the time the photo would be wrong or phone number wrong and theyd just say, have a free credit for next week.

Anyway point being it cost a lot then for a pretty shitty magazine but it worked and we made money. today it costs me about the same for a decent website that sells me more cars and I'm still making decent money. Its not a question of suck it up, if you don't think its working and you're not making money from it cancel and try something else. I'm not a fan of the prices, wish it was cheaper as does everyone but it WORKS! if someone worked half as well like motors or fleabay or Scumtree theyd charge just as much wouldn't they? the dearest advertising is the advertising that doesn't work - findmycarfun.com - DIDNT WORK for me and cost me money, Motors - didn't work for me and cost me money. AutoTrader works for me and makes me money. and you don't need the Motoring Advertising Union as you've already got the IMDA to sort things like this out. btw Ive never known them to drop their prices or not have an increase Avon Valley - when was this? have I missed something?

[sparky 274]

2 hours ago, Earunder said:

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)

 

Oh feel free, being a Wrexham fan I'm still dining out on what happened all those years ago 

I'm a huge fan of Wenger but he really is in danger of tainting his legacy at the moment. Announce this will be his last and then maybe one or two players will find some backbone and hopefully give him a european swansong that he richly deserves. The team as I see it needs major surgery (as did Utd when Fergie left) so I just can't see the in him staying beyond the summer.

 

PS. No apologies from me for going off thread, the AT debate got boring a long time ago. Sigh.

2 hours ago, Stalker said:

So basically all of those that Worship Autotrader wont be interested in any price drops in the future.... and will actually request that they should actually continue to have price increases forever more.

[RH Trading 80]

2 hours ago, Earunder said:

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)

I feel your pain, Birmingham fan here and surrounded but Wolves fans

[It's me 612]

2 hours ago, RH Trading said:

I got a grainy black and white half page with about 15 words maximum on each car that went out to the Birmingham area.

im sure it was 18 words

used to spend minutes finding the right words whilst the useless rep took crap pictures and then as you say on the day the photo was totally wrong but you got a free credit

happy days

[Tadams 29]

Most of the AT reps stopping visiting dealers to take photos after they watched "making a murderer" on Netflix... (if you haven't watched it ignore me)  

[sparky 274]

8 hours ago, RH Trading said:

I feel your pain, Birmingham fan here and surrounded but Wolves fans

So now Gary Monk. Possibly the most overrated manager on the circuit. Your owners really have made a complete pig's ear of things. 

Good previous post by the way.