Grantlfc81 88 Posted March 29, 2019 (edited) The firm is an absolute Pisstake with their pricing. was paying £1300 a month for their services. we are now doing eBay motors pro and car gurus amd marketplace and the enquiries are flowing in compared to auto trader. £650 compared to £1300 and the other 2 are giving us triple the leads. Auto trader really need to bring their prices down as they are a joke good riddance! Will do 3 month trial without them and see how we are. Edited March 29, 2019 by Grantlfc81 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
David Ayers 171 Posted March 29, 2019 Good luck. Keep us updated please. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Area 51 33 Posted March 29, 2019 Reading with interest... Some real cock ups coming out of there this week across the threads... Trying to wring too much out of the traders.. GREEDY Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mark101 536 Posted March 30, 2019 8 hours ago, Grantlfc81 said: The firm is an absolute Pisstake with their pricing. was paying £1300 a month for their services. we are now doing eBay motors pro and car gurus amd marketplace and the enquiries are flowing in compared to auto trader. £650 compared to £1300 and the other 2 are giving us triple the leads. Auto trader really need to bring their prices down as they are a joke good riddance! Will do 3 month trial without them and see how we are. I did the same Grant, served notice and package actually finished on Monday. Currently having my second best month to date but with NO AT bill. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grantlfc81 88 Posted March 30, 2019 Car gurus has been doing well for us. eBay motors pro been doing well. Had a few from gumtree also. we have a meeting with motors.co.uk on Tuesday. They are very cheap but are they actually any good? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
justina3 518 Posted March 30, 2019 I would play hardball with motors as they have only just been bought out by ebay/gumtree my rep thinks it will be a matter of months until there all under one banner, just like ebay and gumtree did last year, so do not sign up for anything lengthy i know they offer month on month rolling contracts offered us one when we cancelled last year. We where with Gumtree then they said for £30 a month more you can have ebay /gumtree package a no brainer signed up for it straight away and we have decent enough leads from both now, so i am waiting for the motors package to come live which it is bound to happen. They seem to be adding value to there brand all the time last add on's where an ebay motors pro shop and 4 featured adds on gumtree for £20 a month the featured adds have been a great add on for us and worth the £20 x 5 times more on its own. PS this isnt a dig at autotrader never used them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arfur Dealy 823 Posted March 30, 2019 Isn’t it about time Amazon joined the race and blew everyone else’s away. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dealer 54 Posted March 30, 2019 Grant, seeing my £3300 a month bill going out of the bank really boils my piss, I've been thinking about doing it for a while but fear the enquiries will dry up and haven't had the balls to do it. Definitely interested to hear how you do over the next 3 months and I will certainly make a decision should your situation be positive. As David said, keep us updated please. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rory RSC 596 Posted March 30, 2019 I think you will be absolutely fine without it. Really do. AT is not quite as dominant as it once was. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mark101 536 Posted March 30, 2019 5 minutes ago, Dealer said: Grant, seeing my £3300 a month bill going out of the bank really boils my piss, I've been thinking about doing it for a while but fear the enquiries will dry up and haven't had the balls to do it. Definitely interested to hear how you do over the next 3 months and I will certainly make a decision should your situation be positive. As David said, keep us updated please. Remember, you can turn the AT tap back on within minutes if enquiries dry up. 30 days to cancel though - not daft are they. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dealer 54 Posted March 30, 2019 1 hour ago, Mark101 said: Remember, you can turn the AT tap back on within minutes if enquiries dry up. 30 days to cancel though - not daft are they. I asked you about this the other week when you said you were cancelling Mark, in another 2 months or so I'll be in touch to see how it's gone as I'm definitely looking to reduce my outgoings Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mark101 536 Posted March 30, 2019 2 minutes ago, Dealer said: I asked you about this the other week when you said you were cancelling Mark, in another 2 months or so I'll be in touch to see how it's gone as I'm definitely looking to reduce my outgoings My enquiries are coming from all angles, FB, Ebay, CarGurus and Google itself. If this continues, AT will remain in the past for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ocsltd 133 Posted March 30, 2019 50 minutes ago, Mark101 said: My enquiries are coming from all angles, FB, Ebay, CarGurus and Google itself. If this continues, AT will remain in the past for me. Well played! I'm sure there are many of us that would love to see that AT bill disappear!! Will also be interested to see how things pan out for you.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grantlfc81 88 Posted March 30, 2019 Autotraders dominance is coming to an end due to their self reliance on Their name. I very rarely see them advertise and I dont even come up with my own company name on google anymore 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Area 51 33 Posted March 30, 2019 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Grantlfc81 said: Autotraders dominance is coming to an end due to their self reliance on Their name. I very rarely see them advertise and I dont even come up with my own company name on google anymore That could be pretty importantly really, they rely on their name as a platform.. but how much do they spend with search engines to advertise and draw punters to the platform? The lads here stating improvements who are OFF AT contracts could well be highlighting the likes of EMP/Gurus etc are all bringing in leads as these platforms are spending on advertising/clicks.. Oh to understand that ruddy vipers nest.. Edited March 30, 2019 by Area 51 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AGS 0 Posted March 30, 2019 13 hours ago, Grantlfc81 said: The firm is an absolute Pisstake with their pricing. was paying £1300 a month for their services. we are now doing eBay motors pro and car gurus amd marketplace and the enquiries are flowing in compared to auto trader. £650 compared to £1300 and the other 2 are giving us triple the leads. Auto trader really need to bring their prices down as they are a joke good riddance! Will do 3 month trial without them and see how we are. Can I ask what sort of cars you stock as I've been thinking of doing the same thing but I find ebay works very well for certain cars and not so much for others I do a mix mainly German stuff £5-10k but often performance stuff which gets a lot of interest on ebay but so many time wasters where as autotrader I will get fewer calls and emails but normally leads to the one that counts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sparky 274 Posted March 30, 2019 5 hours ago, Grantlfc81 said: Car gurus has been doing well for us. eBay motors pro been doing well. Had a few from gumtree also. we have a meeting with motors.co.uk on Tuesday. They are very cheap but are they actually any good? I have to say, the Motors package has really been performing well this year so far, really well in fact. Unlike previous years, I won't be looking to get rid of it any time soon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NOACROSS 414 Posted March 30, 2019 Welcome to the dark side everyone and I wish you well! As I have mentioned (and been shot down) many times over the last couple of years: life goes on just fine without them. Nearly three years now and we stock 5 up to 10 grand mostly, with a few up to 20. You need to work ebay MP and Bookface to get results and spend a little on SEO - PM me if you need any pointers. 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mojo121 229 Posted March 30, 2019 We signed up to autotrader two months ago and couldn’t be more underwhelmed. We survived on eBay, CarGurus and Facebook before on the assumption that people look on al platforms and to be honest I’m regretting convincing my business partner to try it. I say survived. We do bloody well without. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lastyboy 23 Posted March 30, 2019 On 29/03/2019 at 10:25 PM, Grantlfc81 said: The firm is an absolute Pisstake with their pricing. was paying £1300 a month for their services. we are now doing eBay motors pro and car gurus amd marketplace and the enquiries are flowing in compared to auto trader. £650 compared to £1300 and the other 2 are giving us triple the leads. Auto trader really need to bring their prices down as they are a joke good riddance! Will do 3 month trial without them and see how we are. How do you sign up to marketplace if you are a dealer and not with motors? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arfur Dealy 823 Posted March 31, 2019 (edited) 19 hours ago, Mark101 said: My enquiries are coming from all angles, FB, Ebay, CarGurus and Google itself. If this continues, AT will remain in the past for me. I wish you and Grant the very best of luck Edited March 31, 2019 by Arfur Dealy 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DPF 18 Posted March 31, 2019 12 hours ago, Mojo121 said: We signed up to autotrader two months ago and couldn’t be more underwhelmed. We survived on eBay, CarGurus and Facebook before on the assumption that people look on al platforms and to be honest I’m regretting convincing my business partner to try it. I say survived. We do bloody well without. People always look on all platforms Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nick M.K. 574 Posted March 31, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, DPF said: People always look on all platforms Except when they don't. Different people do different things so it makes a lot of sense for us to constantly try different things. I'll be the first to admit that I never found the patience to work hard and master Facebook / Shpock / Marketplace / Google+ / YouTube / Snap Chat or Instagram. I am 41 and on the old side for some of those For free CarGurus is a no brainer. I get leads but almost no sales from it. For a hundred quid a month Motors is a no brainer. For another £175 + vat eBay also delivers well for me. And for the last £1180 (up from £1105 this month) AT brings me the best quality leads. The fast buyers for the dearer cars that get little interest on eBay. The same buyers that are not overly fussy about how much or how little they get in part-ex and that quite often want finance. The people that leave their deposit in advance for an unseen car, pay it in full by transfer when they see it and OF COURSE I do get some lunatics who can still be found everywhere... I have no forecourt, no passing trade, no "walk-ons" (some of them have actually seen a car online before they walk on) and if it isn't for AT I'll have a nice little part time business sourcing cars to order for friends (slit my wrists now) or repeat / referral customers and ping ponging emails with the eBay last price brigade. I am sure that a lot of people do and will continue to do very well without AutoTrader and I wish everyone great success and easy trouble free sales. That's what we all want. But it ain't free Edited March 31, 2019 by Nick M.K. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NickGCS 14 Posted March 31, 2019 Whats peoples thoughts on stock profiles performance on different platforms?? We have around 20 cars on a 12 car package on AT, rotate the stock. Tend to do up to 7 years old under 70k, mixture of ‘everyday’ cars, up to £15k retail and 5/6 vans signed up to AT before Xmas on the deal, now paying circa £900 a month, we recently got ‘match data’ back from Jan/Feb and I did exactly the same as many here and handed my notice in on Monday, something like 4 direct sales and 2 Non direct ( we sold 15 Jan & 17 in Feb ) I was completely underwhelmed. However on reflection I’ve gone back and looked at the actual profit we have made over these 6 extra sales (unit net profit/finance comms/trade ins profit) and it had more than covered the cost. My thinking now is that while the numbers were poor without AT we wouldn’t have sold those 6 cars to those exact customers and made the extra profit we did. I’m really torn wether to leave the notice in place or to keep the package going now, we’ve sold 21 this month, our best month since we started and I can’t help but think AT has somehow helped that. I know it works for some and not for others I just can’t decide if it’s working for us or we’ve just been lucky! March Match Data may be the decider! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nick M.K. 574 Posted March 31, 2019 1 minute ago, NickGCS said: Whats peoples thoughts on stock profiles performance on different platforms?? We wrote our posts at the same time and I kind of touched on that. Different stock performs differently on various platforms and it's a case of you monitoring that closely. You can switch off AT to measure the difference in your sales just in case there isn't any. 30 days notice to switch off, you can then switch it back on immediately. For my stock for example, for my pricing positions one platform clearly performs better at the moment. 8 minutes ago, NickGCS said: something like 4 direct sales and 2 Non direct ( we sold 15 Jan & 17 in Feb ) I was completely underwhelmed. Do you have the Call Whisperer that tells you "This is an enquiry from Autotrader?" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
