Car gurus

[Rory RSC 596]

12 minutes ago, MattR said:

My only theory on that is that if you are not British then you may not automatically think Autotrader and so would search for a car a different way? 

 

Nail on head.

Additionally to this younger buyers who perhaps don’t care about autotrader.

also if you google Fiesta ST / Landrover Freelander Black / BMW 320d M Sport CarGurus pulls up higher than autotrader.

they then adjust search to 10/20/50 miles based on postcode and CarGurus may just drop your car under their nose.

after that they then retarget the hell out of the customer. 

 

Strong platform.

[BHM 994]

On 17/05/2019 at 2:36 PM, MattR said:

Back on to this thread as I wanted to look back at how everyone else gets along with CG. I've had more than a few CG leads in the last 4 weeks which has resulted in a 'new account manager' from CG calling this afternoon to 'introduce himself'.

I havent given him a hard time because I'd like something for nothing from him and did spend 11 minutes discussing why, despite very prompt responses from me to an email enquiry, I generally didnt hear anything back. 

The stats he gave me were to expect a 1% hit rate from having the free package and around 9-10% from a 'paid for' package. I'm waiting for a cost from him on that. I'd actually be more interested in whether I still get a large number of enquiries from (as was described above) exotically named individuals on a paid for package, as those are the ones I think may be fakes. I could however be entirely wrong. My only theory on that is that if you are not British then you may not automatically think Autotrader and so would search for a car a different way?

Anyway, it might be worth a go now that I'm not paying for extra AT stock since the half price offer stopped. I'll see how cheap they are. 

 

I’m interested whether you’ve upgraded or not and if so have you seen an increase in traffic?

I’m considering joining CG as EMP is producing f.a. punters, AT isn’t an option, Gumtree seems to be a glorified internet jumble sale, although I must confess to not yet investigating Motors.

From what I see/understand the FREE package looks fairly poor - tbh I’m surprised any punter can be bothered filling in their details in order to send an email. 

The middle package, ENHANCED, is the one I’m considering although as an unknown (to me) entity if I take the plunge I’ll expect a deal, with a reduced contract, to entice me in.

[NOACROSS 414]

We’re on the paid package. Its ‘alright to good’. 

There is a price increase coming though, so I’ve called their bluff and not renewed yet. 

Gumtree is hopeless I think, but it does get a lot of views compared with just ebay MP. I was happy on just the EMP contract to be honest. However it turns out the phone number they’d given us wasn’t working!

Each time I think about cancelling Motors, it sells a car. The RAC Cars part of it seems to be performing well. They’re quite up the google rankings. 

EMP has been quiet recently but over the years has done well. 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

5 hours ago, NOACROSS said:

We’re on the paid package. Its ‘alright to good’. 

There is a price increase coming though, so I’ve called their bluff and not renewed yet. 

Gumtree is hopeless I think, but it does get a lot of views compared with just ebay MP. I was happy on just the EMP contract to be honest. However it turns out the phone number they’d given us wasn’t working!

Each time I think about cancelling Motors, it sells a car. The RAC Cars part of it seems to be performing well. They’re quite up the google rankings. 

EMP has been quiet recently but over the years has done well. 

EMP is a coffin, but I just can’t give it up, eBay’s been such a big part of my life over the last 17+ years. It’ll be like a divorce.... thing is I’ve fallen out of love...

AT sell my stock.

[SC Derby 259]

Finding similar - very little through eBay

[NOACROSS 414]

32 minutes ago, SC Derby said:

Finding similar - very little through eBay

It’s odd isn’t it? Bit of a coincidence that, once Gumtree came to the fore of their focus, then EMP starts to under perform. 

Wonder what the story is. Maybe they’re not spending on the eBay google rankings anymore? ( a quick search seems to prove me correct:

Used cars local & up Pops my site, the competition and then Gumtree first, then Motors, Exchange & Mart, Autovillage (Motors), RAC Cars (Motors) and then a little fledgling company-Autotrader.)

Ebay is nowhere!

 Smoke, fire?

Interesting that the head company- Ebay isn’t promoting themselves, but they are pushing their purchases of Gumtree and Motors. 

Edited July 17, 2019 by NOACROSS

[SC Derby 259]

Younger generations just not using eBay perhaps

I still use it as always had an account and just find it easy but a group of my friends found it highly amusing I still ordered things from eBay and not Amazon or elsewhere? 

[NOACROSS 414]

5 minutes ago, SC Derby said:

Younger generations just not using eBay perhaps

I still use it as always had an account and just find it easy but a group of my friends found it highly amusing I still ordered things from eBay and not Amazon or elsewhere? 

Yeah, maybe. Her Indoors is permanently welded to Amazon. 

I’m talking about a google search though. eBay is no nowhere by the looks from my non-scientific search. 

[SC Derby 259]

1 minute ago, NOACROSS said:

Yeah, maybe. Her Indoors is permanently welded to Amazon. 

I’m talking about a google search though. eBay is no nowhere by the looks from my non-scientific search. 

Yes sorry I think you make a great point too. 

[Nick M.K. 574]

One car does well on AT, the same car gets almost no view on EMP and vice-versa. 

I still sell from eBay but a small fraction compared to AT. I pay them a small fraction too so that’s allright. 

CarGurus is my biggest disappointment to date in terms of ROI. Middle package, £234 per month, NO sales and I mean none. 

Will ditch them. 

My theory is that they used to send fake leads, now they focus their efforts to promote the stock of specific dealers so the word gets out there. 

I am speculating of course but how come I haven’t had a single sale from this well known strong platform??

Edited July 18, 2019 by Nick M.K.

[NOACROSS 414]

It is weird that Nick.  Have you asked them?

For example, I know Rory has said he does alright with them also.

[BHM 994]

20 hours ago, NOACROSS said:

We’re on the paid package. Its ‘alright to good’. 

There is a price increase coming though, so I’ve called their bluff and not renewed yet. 

Gumtree is hopeless I think, but it does get a lot of views compared with just ebay MP. I was happy on just the EMP contract to be honest. However it turns out the phone number they’d given us wasn’t working!

Each time I think about cancelling Motors, it sells a car. The RAC Cars part of it seems to be performing well. They’re quite up the google rankings. 

EMP has been quiet recently but over the years has done well. 

I’m fairly ignorant but I see others mirror what you say about placement in Google rankings - I’m sooooo behind the times I assumed punters just go to a particular site & searched for a particular (or price of) car.

EMP has served me very very well, indeed apart from the very occasional spot ad here & there that’s been my only advertising cost. However, like you, EMP has gone quiet again & it’s clear it’s not a front runner any more - possible due to the Google rankings you & others commented on. Perhaps they see Scumtree as the way forward 

[Nick M.K. 574]

Yes I did ask them when I went on the paid package for the first time in 2017. 

They refused any notion about fake leads of course (why would we do that, they said) but I am 100% sure there was something untoward going on. 

I know Rory is very pleased with their performance which leads me to believe that they take from some dealers to give to others. Just like WarrantyWise did. 

This is even worse than AT who simply take from all dealers to give to their shareholders:-)))

 

Edited July 18, 2019 by Nick M.K.

[NOACROSS 414]

26 minutes ago, tradex said:

I hate the Car Gurus adverts, for me, it paints the wrong picture of vendors

I’ve been moaning at them again today. Days in stock etc and, as you say, their whole ethos is skewed the wrong way. They forget that we are the customer, not the punters. Same with Autotrader, but I’ll resist my bi-monthly hate-rant for now. ;o)

Back to CG, I was also moaning about the upcoming price increase (it’s still cheap in comparison). The account manager is nice enough and agreed with me, but, of course can’t do anything about any of my gripes. 

I’ll put up with it a bit longer. Think I’ll end up spending some of the money with Facebook in the end as that’s doing well surprisingly. 

[Mark101 536]

Well guys, I know one or two of you will be dissapointed in me but I have just signed up to AT again from the 1st August.

Car Gurus started well for me but the last couple of months have been rubbish and Ebay never came to the party to match the price other dealers are paying, so that leave AT.

I will give it a few months to compare and contrast and for those interested, will post results.

PS:  Sorry NOA 

[justina3 518]

I had an odd phone call from CG today, lady said hi your on the free package yep i know, well you wont get any leads that way the system is designed not to send you leads in your area so your better off paying us £280 i said well they way you have tried to sell it to me you can take a running jump. 

 

[CRW 73]

To be fair to Car Guru's, I have sold two or three recently without ever having subscribed, so I cant really knock them.  However, what did make me laugh the other day was a Seat Ibiza alongside one of mine, with a whopping "Great Deal" message alongside it. Mine said "Fair Deal". However upon checking out the "Great Deal" the car was Category S, mine a one owner HPI clear example. Not sure that really was that "Great" a deal and certainly not a fair like for like! Then again, maybe they were a paying customer, so don't suppose I can complain!

[NOACROSS 414]

57 minutes ago, Mark101 said:

Well guys, I know one or two of you will be dissapointed in me but I have just signed up to AT again from the 1st August.

Car Gurus started well for me but the last couple of months have been rubbish and Ebay never came to the party to match the price other dealers are paying, so that leave AT.

I will give it a few months to compare and contrast and for those interested, will post results.

PS:  Sorry NOA 

Ha. Et Tu Brute?! ;o)

No worries mate, was brave of you to try to give up the addiction and you did really well your first month without them as you say remember  

I still sell cars via AT apparently. According to the odd punter every so often. 

It’s been a quiet few months for many (on and off AT) so will be difficult to gauge scientifically, as peaks and troughs are the name of the game. Just because you may (I honestly hope) get busy soon, may or may not be a consequence of going back on with the robbers of course. 

Did you try Motors Mark ever? 

I think if you’re not on AT, you need to be on a few others (still at considerably less spend of course in my case with 50 plus stock). 

Maybe (and probably) if you are on AT, you don’t need to be on anything else. 

Edited July 18, 2019 by NOACROSS

[BHM 994]

1 hour ago, justina3 said:

I had an odd phone call from CG today, lady said hi your on the free package yep i know, well you wont get any leads that way the system is designed not to send you leads in your area so your better off paying us £280 i said well they way you have tried to sell it to me you can take a running jump. 

 

£280? They’ve tried pumping £379 out of me, tied in for 6 months, but I told them I need to be attracted in with a preferential rate.

At least you got a phone call today. My 11.30am telephone appointment never materialised. A fine start 

[Nick M.K. 574]

Proud of you Mark. 

There is no point to know that an advertiser out there works well and not be signed up to them. It’s expensive but if it works then it’s worth the stretch

[Mark101 536]

20 minutes ago, NOACROSS said:

Ha. Et Tu Brute?! ;o)

No worries mate, was brave of you to try to give up the addiction and you did really well your first month without them as you say remember  

I still sell cars via AT apparently. According to the odd punter every so often. 

It’s been a quiet few months for many (on and off AT) so will be difficult to gauge scientifically, as peaks and troughs are the name of the game. Just because you may (I honestly hope) get busy soon, may or may not be a consequence of going back on with the robbers of course. 

Did you try Motors Mark ever? 

I think if you’re not on AT, you need to be on a few others (still at considerably less spend of course in my case with 50 plus stock). 

Maybe (and probably) if you are on AT, you don’t need to be on anything else. 

You might be right Noa but being solely on CG isn’t providing enough traffic (except on one very cheap car) and EBay has burned their bridges with me I’m afraid.

I am also starting to increase my stock value (vs. Quantity) and want more finance business to help compensate the larger ad bill.

The biggest thing for me is the nonsense way CG rank listings, trying to be clever and ranking on value over price (which is far too subjective). For example, in my opinion, my 2012 Passat Bluetech Sport with 80k, 1 Owner, FVWSH inc recent belt in black fully loaded is better value than say a 2013, 4 owner with patchy/no history at a grand less. How can you rank listings on value?

3 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

Proud of you Mark. 

There is no point to know that an advertiser out there works well and not be signed up to them. It’s expensive but if it works then it’s worth the stretch

Cheers Nick.

I am waiting until August allowing me time to get all my ducks in a row, reword ads, start videos again (CG didn’t host them, so couldn’t be bothered to do them).  Being on AT at great expense needs to be fully utilised and I don’t want any wasted time, these next two weeks will push me to get things “ready for the launch” on 1st August.  

Onwards and upwards.

[NOACROSS 414]

Car Gurus is years away from being able to be the sole advertiser solution for sure. If ever. 

I’m interested to see what happens with the Motors/Gumtree/eBay merger and how much dough they throw at it. 

They’ll probably just put all the prices up rather than streamline and reduce. 

Edited July 18, 2019 by NOACROSS

[sparky 274]

2 hours ago, justina3 said:

I had an odd phone call from CG today, lady said hi your on the free package yep i know, well you wont get any leads that way the system is designed not to send you leads in your area so your better off paying us £280 i said well they way you have tried to sell it to me you can take a running jump. 

 

Personally I'd never tell a women with an Irish accent to take a running jump.

[Arfur Dealy 823]

3 hours ago, tradex said:

I hate the Car Gurus adverts, for me, it paints the wrong picture of vendors

With you 100%

[Mark101 536]

21 hours ago, Mark101 said:

Well guys, I know one or two of you will be dissapointed in me but I have just signed up to AT again from the 1st August.

Car Gurus started well for me but the last couple of months have been rubbish and Ebay never came to the party to match the price other dealers are paying, so that leave AT.

I will give it a few months to compare and contrast and for those interested, will post results.

PS:  Sorry NOA 

Well, that's typical.  Really quiet then out of the blue - one sold (pre booked) and two further walk-ins SOLD.

AT doesn't kick in until August, so all CG