WHAT DO DEALERS ACTUALLY WANT?

[CRW 73]

2 hours ago, Earunder said:

72 + 8 "Bonus"

I think the term "bonus" might be taking it a bit far!

What price sector of the market are you in?

On those figures, I would have thought its costing you the profit on the first 7 deals each month, just to cover the AT bill? 

If it works for you, well done, but I don't envy you.

 

[Earunder 69]

1 minute ago, CRW said:

I think the term "bonus" might be taking it a bit far!

What price sector of the market are you in?

On those figures, I would have thought its costing you the profit on the first 7 deals each month, just to cover the AT bill? 

If it works for you, well done, but I don't envy you.

 

Yeah the "Bonus" cars are a silly gimmick to make you think you're getting a good deal.  We all know we're not haha.

From £4k upto £30k.

Yeah, overheads are a killer, literally got to move a car a day.  Mad that 1 advertising platform accounts to 1/4 of your monthly expense.

Always times when you think I can earn more money with less stress having around 15 cars doing it on my own and by appointment.  

Unfortunately anything over £15k doesn't seem to sell anywhere else at the moment, although the stock turnaround has gone from an average of 45-55 days to around 75-90 days with less bonet margins.

[CRW 73]

18 minutes ago, Earunder said:

Always times when you think I can earn more money with less stress having around 15 cars doing it on my own and by appointment.

That's where I am, around 15-20 units, but in the £4k to £10k bracket, anything heavier is buy to order.

Run it by myself, working 7 days a week, by which I mean tied to the site unless i'm away collecting.

Always aspired to go bigger, but these days can see the benefit of holding steady. Have never advertised with AT or had any contractual form of advertising (Gumtree, Ebay etc).  Perhaps I have missed out on something, who knows.

 

[Earunder 69]

38 minutes ago, trade vet said:

72 @11 grand per month,I think you need big refund,they are ripping you off.

They are ripping off everyone but it's the only platform that gets customers for vehicles over £15k over the line.  Put it down to trusting the platform, the huge brand awareness of AutoTrader, I don't know.  I can't remember the last time a customer that bought a vehicle from over £15k came from anywhere else other than Auto Trader / Recommended By A Friend / Existing Customer / Local Customer.  This and the fact we have spent thousands on our own Brand Awareness, Local Advertising, Social Media Advertising and SEO.

From what I've heard from other dealers advertising around my level we are all on pretty much the same, although some aren't with Premium and are on Standard.  I do believe there are still some different prices for different parts of the country or for those who they think HAVE to do it.  I'm not quite sure why dealers don't ask dealers at the AH what packages each are on.  For me and a few I know, we are always discussing expenses and deals we get from Lenders and every now and then AT pop up in convo.  Should seriously get talking with each other, otherwise everyone is just assuming everything without knowing the full story.

One of the dealers I know swears by AT and advertises 100 vehicles, only dealing with cars between £3k and £15k but only uses AT and a free Facebook page and doesn't spend on anything else.  He has been around for the best part of 20 years also and seems to be doing very well still.

I've always said, it works for some and not others and am a firm believer in that "motto" as it's very true.  We came out of AT about 18 months ago but noticed our heavier cars were not moving as quickly and after 3 months out decided to go back with a 30 number advertising package with just our highest priced cars and low and behold, they moved quicker with a higher margin.  Due to that we moved back to an 80 car package within 6 months and have been on that now for over a year.  As I mentioned previously though I'm looking at other potential advertising sources now as the margins in this industry are getting smaller and add to that the incoming price increase with AT something has to change or give.

I will in no way say AT is the be all and end all by any means.  There are dealers out there with no AT who do very well for themselves off social media and SEO alone.  We also spend A LOT using those mediums too and they do provide very good ROI.

8 minutes ago, CRW said:

That's where I am, around 15-20 units, but in the £4k to £10k bracket, anything heavier is buy to order.

Run it by myself, working 7 days a week, by which I mean tied to the site unless i'm away collecting.

Always aspired to go bigger, but these days can see the benefit of holding steady. Have never advertised with AT or had any contractual form of advertising (Gumtree, Ebay etc).  Perhaps I have missed out on something, who knows.

 

I wouldn't say you've missed out on anything.  Only advice/recommendation I could give would be to try a 5 tier package, (Pay as you go I think, not sure but call them and see) then only advertise your oldest stock.  That way you've got the photo's, the video, basically everything ready to go.  Use them as like a last resort and see if it helps move the cars that seem to stick after 61 days or whatever you're release days are.  You've got to always try advertising platforms, advertising mediums, etc to see if they work.  Budget for a 3 month stint and if you can afford to, then try it and see.  Some will pay off, some won't.  Don't stretch yourself.

At the current climate, I wouldn't recommend jumping into getting more overheads, as I mentioned previously I'm looking at ways to cut our over heads as I can see a testing time for the industry this year.  Hopefully I'm wrong, but with the prices at the AH's at an all time high and the retail prices still dwindling it usually only leads to 1 thing.

[trade vet 704]

What I don’t understand is how are AT allowed to charge wildly fluctuating rates for different customer accounts for offering the same platform service.I have never heard of anyone being charged anywhere near the equivalent of £11k for 70 cars per month.I think Earunder would be better off using an agency if you can still do that.

[Earunder 69]

15 hours ago, trade vet said:

What I don’t understand is how are AT allowed to charge wildly fluctuating rates for different customer accounts for offering the same platform service.I have never heard of anyone being charged anywhere near the equivalent of £11k for 70 cars per month.I think Earunder would be better off using an agency if you can still do that.

As I said, I do quarterly checks on where our leads and sales come from and I am lowering our package with AT as it is too expensive to keep 3/4 of our stock on there.  

Maybe it's the area I don't know.  It equates to £139.41 p/m per car including VAT which is from what I have heard, under the local average for the package we are on.  Still absurd, I agree.  Smaller cheaper cars that sit around for 3 months means your selling at cost or a loss, makes no sense, but that's been this industry for the last 18 months.  Getting crazy now though with the AH prices with the majority over CAP clean.

On the heavier vehicles I never had any concerns due to them selling every 6 weeks but now the margins are shrinking and turn around days rising it means the advertising costs are going up even without the April price increase.