Challenge

[Arthur thicken 13]

We have 2 sites one on a main road and one on a trading estate, they both have 60 used cars, they are both authorised repairer status with manufacturers, one does ok off Autotrader, they both do about the same with motors. I’ve cancelled AT for one and cancelled Motors for the other. Both sites are long established and have advertised with both for years. We’ve cancelled motors for the main road site and AT for the other. I’ve put a challenge to both AT and Motors, measure sales for three months and compare the results against numbers sold historically, I believe we can then gauge the value for both, Motors are keen and up for it, no reply yet from Autotrader. I’m doing it anyway as on the non main road site we’ve only sold 10 this month with only 2 from AT at a cost of £1600 per month. The price of AT was going up in April and it made me think what have I got to lose, I really believe people do multiple searches and often forget which site they saw the car on. This is not an attempt to beat up Autotrader or Motors it’s purely an exercise to see how many we sell at each site with only making one change. I know last years not this year but it’s the only transparent way of gagueing value for money. If I get negative feedback I won’t bother posting the results, if you’re genuinely interest I’ll post the results monthly. Good luck to all in these tough times.  Arthur Thicken, driving the prices down.....

Edited March 22, 2018 by Arthur thicken

[umesh 336]

Very intereted to see the results, as you rightly say sometimes customers do multiple searches and never remember which site they saw the cars on. ! Keep us posted, cheers Umesh  

[Trident 24]

AT are money grabbers, no question, and we did a trial here too, had AT, Ebay,Gumtree and Motors - We reduced stock and level on AT first... that lost us business, then we cancelled motors and gumtree and increased our stock volume and level on AT and hey presto it's picked up alot, tied in with Ebay for however long, but will be cancelling them eventually...hate hate hate the AT treadmill, but can't seem to get off it... we are a main road site as well!! be interested to know how your test goes..

[trade vet 703]

Famous quote from the guy who founded Macy’s 100 years ago.’Half the money we spend on advertising is wasted,the trouble is we do not know which half ‘. Keep us posted Arthur about this and anything else,your experiences are needed !

[justina3 518]

Well done for being brave and taking control of the situation instead of listening to the reps bull**** as above look forward to your results.

 

[peter..o 8]

Yes,brave and interesting idea,good luck,would be very interseted on results,good luck and keep in touch.

[AVON VALLEY 3]

1 hour ago, Arthur thicken said:

We have 2 sites one on a main road and one on a trading estate, they both have 60 used cars, they are both authorised repairer status with manufacturers, one does ok off Autotrader, they both do about the same with motors. I’ve cancelled AT for one and cancelled Motors for the other. Both sites are long established and have advertised with both for years. We’ve cancelled motors for the main road site and AT for the other. I’ve put a challenge to both AT and Motors, measure sales for three months and compare the results against numbers sold historically, I believe we can then gauge the value for both, Motors are keen and up for it, no reply yet from Autotrader. I’m doing it anyway as on the non main road site we’ve only sold 10 this month with only 2 from AT at a cost of £1600 per month. The price of AT was going up in April and it made me think what have I got to lose, I really believe people do multiple searches and often forget which site they saw the car on. This is not an attempt to beat up Autotrader or Motors it’s purely an exercise to see how many we sell at each site with only making one change. I know last years not this year but it’s the only transparent way of gagueing value for money. If I get negative feedback I won’t bother posting the results, if you’re genuinely interest I’ll post the results monthly. Good luck to all in these tough times.  Arthur Thicken, driving the prices down.....

Go for it Arthur!

[Earunder 69]

1 hour ago, Arthur thicken said:

We have 2 sites one on a main road and one on a trading estate, they both have 60 used cars from  ... ---> ... AT at a cost of £1600 per month.

Have I misread this?

You have a golden goose if your paying AT £1,600 to advertise 60 cars.  That's over £5,000 in the South East.

We do this and have this in place for the last 3 years.  In our area Motors was the worst value for money as they only sold 3 cars in the whole of last year. 

CarGurus was most value and AutoTrader 2nd.  

[EPV 631]

Motors has been poor for me as well, their website is fkin awful, just clangs around the place and makes you want to click off it straight away.

Anyway, interesting challenge and look forward to the results!

[Grantlfc81 88]

Auto trader for me and eBay classifieds. We do very well from both. Most of our customers we ask say they saw us on both sites.

[Arthur thicken 13]

2 hours ago, Earunder said:

Have I misread this?

You have a golden goose if your paying AT £1,600 to advertise 60 cars.  That's over £5,000 in the South East.

We do this and have this in place for the last 3 years.  In our area Motors was the worst value for money as they only sold 3 cars in the whole of last year. 

CarGurus was most value and AutoTrader 2nd.  

Apologies, we pay £1600 for 45 cars, we stock 60 cars.. £5,000 is madness that’s £19.23 per week, we’re dumping it at just under £10 per car per week.

3 hours ago, trade vet said:

Famous quote from the guy who founded Macy’s 100 years ago.’Half the money we spend on advertising is wasted,the trouble is we do not know which half ‘. Keep us posted Arthur about this and anything else,your experiences are needed !

It’s easier to measure now, calls are recorded on both dealer portal and the eye as are emails so it’s easy to match calls and emails to sales, I’ll have a Big Mac please,,in fact I’ll go large.. cheers.

[whitestone679231 113]

Bet the one you cancel AT on still gets buyers saying they saw it on AT 

[Arthur thicken 13]

9 minutes ago, whitestone679231 said:

Bet the one you cancel AT on still gets buyers saying they saw it on AT 

Yes I’m sure we will, cancelled for a 18 month period about 8 years ago when we had one site and it happened then.

[NOACROSS 414]

And, remember, you've gotta sell what- three cars a month (notwithstanding allowance for their famous never ending five week months/confusing invoicing) just to pay the robbing so and so's? (Assuming your net profit per unit is apx.£500 after VAT etc) 36 units a year 

(is your website an AT one?)

[MSP Motors 39]

4 hours ago, Arthur thicken said:

Apologies, we pay £1600 for 45 cars, we stock 60 cars.. £5,000 is madness that’s £19.23 per week, we’re dumping it at just under £10 per car per week.

It’s easier to measure now, calls are recorded on both dealer portal and the eye as are emails so it’s easy to match calls and emails to sales, I’ll have a Big Mac please,,in fact I’ll go large.. cheers.

£1600 for 45 cars!!!!! I mean WTF is going on here. I pay 1800 inc for 20........

[trade vet 703]

27 minutes ago, MSP Motors said:

£1600 for 45 cars!!!!! I mean WTF is going on here. I pay 1800 inc for 20........

Oh dear ! You may have started something here Arthur.I will check what other guys pay.

[Hugh Jardon 0]

Arthur, you are right, Autotrader is making us pay more and selling cars for as cheap as possible and the costs of buying are increasing with auction fees!! Very soon I will have to sell double the amount of cars to stand still.

[Stalker 180]

We pay more than that!

[trade vet 703]

13 minutes ago, trade vet said:

Oh dear ! You may have started something here Arthur.I will check what other guys pay.

I have just spoke to our guys and been told £1600 for 45 cars on AT is impossible.So Arthur would it be possible for you to post your AT invoice on here ( with your pitch name ,acc no.blanked out ) then  game on !

[Hugh Jardon 0]

Arthur am I right in thinking you set up the MTAU a few years ago taking on Autotrader then it all went quiet? Guess you had a deal with them? Obviously your disgruntled again now how about getting it going again? I am happy to get involved and let's open up to everyone who pays them top dollar the truth?

[Arthur thicken 13]

50 minutes ago, Hugh Jardon said:

Arthur, you are right, Autotrader is making us pay more and selling cars for as cheap as possible and the costs of buying are increasing with auction fees!! Very soon I will have to sell double the amount of cars to stand still.

Hello Hugh, yes it’s certainly getting harder, I started the MTAU several years ago with a friend and prices paid per car ranged from £6 to £20, they charge what they think they can get away with..

39 minutes ago, trade vet said:

I have just spoke to our guys and been told £1600 for 45 cars on AT is impossible.So Arthur would it be possible for you to post your AT invoice on here ( with your pitch name ,acc no.blanked out ) then  game on !

I can get an invoice tomorrow and post it if possible our contract say 38 with 25% free I’ll also screen shot our dealer portal, one thing I can assure you is I’m totally honest, perhaps all the fuss I’ve caused over the years with the MTAU I got a cheap deal, which is still too expensive. It’s actually a bit less than £1600. I don’t know what you mean by ‘your guys’ but I’ll put it on here, if I can’t do it I’ll put my mobile number, business name and web address on and email it to you for your perusal..

[Stalker 180]

I predict a riot.....

[Hugh Jardon 0]

In my opinion everyone hates Autotrader for all the right reasons but are terrified to come off, if enough people would do it then believe me they would react and then all of us would benefit. Arthur lets go again with the MTAU dealers are closing every week and it's going to happen week in and week out I think the support will be even bigger than last time. People multiple search now and if less cars on Autotrader they will look elsewhere.

[Arthur thicken 13]

10 minutes ago, Stalker said:

I predict a riot.....

Or perhaps the transparency Autotrader are so precious about. We all have different ways of selling cars and running a business, I’ve had three new car franchises, still got aftersales, sell over 1,000 cars per year, turn over in excess of ten million, I’m not bragging, because we’re struggling to make a profit, I’m just saying I’ve been doing it a long time and seen it all, I’ve sold bangers out of a lay by and represented global brands, I’m open to other people’s opinion, whether they trade from home, aren’t vat registered, or run huge dealer groups. I pay AT what I say Ipay them, I’ll prove that tomorrow. Good luck all.

[trade vet 703]

16 minutes ago, Arthur thicken said:

Hello Hugh, yes it’s certainly getting harder, I started the MTAU several years ago with a friend and prices paid per car ranged from £6 to £20, they charge what they think they can get away with..

I can get an invoice tomorrow and post it if possible our contract say 38 with 25% free I’ll also screen shot our dealer portal, one thing I can assure you is I’m totally honest, perhaps all the fuss I’ve caused over the years with the MTAU I got a cheap deal, which is still too expensive. It’s actually a bit less than £1600. I don’t know what you mean by ‘your guys’ but I’ll put it on here, if I can’t do it I’ll put my mobile number, business name and web address on and email it to you for your perusal..

Hi Arthur

‘Our guys’,they took over our business or in corporate bullshit terms ‘management buyout’.After 50 years in the job,I am now just a periferal,but I still get involved with the daily problems.I think they cough up over £3k per month for 50,I will find out and get back.