AutoTrader.com’s Vehicle Purchase Program

15 Comments

• Tweets that mention tradein.autotrader.com | AutoTrader.com Used Car Trade In Service -- Topsy.com

  October 24th, 2009

  [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeff Kershner, Pacific Dealers. Pacific Dealers said: AutoTrader.com’s Vehicle Purchase Program: AutoTrader.com’s Vehicle Purchase / Trade-in Program (VPP) .. http://bit.ly/1lY0H [...]

• Cars are past

  October 24th, 2009

  HUH! U went trough wizard of 6 of 7 steps and it is tons of clicking and selecting options… also ajax do not work very smooth… whole process was quite boring but if I would really sell my car maybe it would not be hard to finish that survey that has something like 500 options.

• Rob

  October 26th, 2009

  If AT can get this program working, they will steal a ton of thunder from Cars.com …. lately AT has been slacking in the traffic department ( at least from a dealer standpoint ), being blow away by Cars.com for less money.

  If customers can get an actual cash offer for their vehicle online, that can only be good for dealers. On one hand, customers are more likely to visit AT, since only they offer it. And of course, customers are more likely to be reasonable in how much they want for their trade, since they have a cash offer in hand. If the dealer can’t offer that much, a buyer is ready and waiting.

  Killer feature, no doubt about it.

• Richard

  October 27th, 2009

  Went through the process. Not impressed. Seems like a glorified Black Book On-Line tool.

• Patrick

  October 27th, 2009

  I talked to a dealer friend out of Lawrence, KS. Apparently the trade-in offers are not instant and are being handled much like any other internet lead. The above commenter is correct, it’s akin to a sight-unseen black book quote. The offers they are throwing out seem low enough that it may actually deter customers from coming in. Not a surprise considering it’s generally a bad idea to commit to trade-in value to customer who’s never been on the lot.

• Mark Scott

  October 28th, 2009

  Mark from AutoTrader.com here. Thanks for the positive comments and more news to come on the Trade-In Marketplace product (which it’s now called) in December, so keep an eye out. Just wanted to note one thing per above related to our site traffic and the foot traffic that ATC generates related to our competition. According to both our internal and industry-standard measures, AutoTrader.com’s site traffic has continued to grow during 2009, routinely hitting north of 15 million unique monthly visitors for most of 2009 and routinely beating monthly totals when comparing a month in 2009 to the same month in 2008. This comes at a time when many of our competitors have seen monthly traffic declines. Additionally, a study conducted by Northwood University with AutoTrader.com showed that AutoTrader.com was responsible for more dealer walk-in traffic than any other third party site. Thanks!

• Bruce Hartz

  October 28th, 2009

  I’ll be suprised if this trial works out for either party. In all my years of selling I have rarely ever had a customer tell me, Hey thats a really fair trade value you just gave me! We have to sell the trade value, the cost of our vehicle and payments.The Black Book spread is good for us and the customers expectations. Next will be the issue of the customers perception of their trade condition it won’t always be accurate. Did not see any mention of a history report weighing on the final value. I’m also guessing it will be overpriced and will we have to decide on different tiers of service!!

• Chris

  November 3rd, 2009

  I just went through the whole process, and although I am in Buffalo NY – it gave me a quote. Using a very nice 2007 Altima 3.5SE with everything but NAV I have here on the lot, according to my GM – the number was almost spot on as far as accuracy is concerned. So I guess it could work – and pop a bit of reality and sensibility into buyers.

• vancouver autotrader

  November 23rd, 2009

  i do not have much trust in auto trader. they have repeatedly failed to deliver on their promises. but will have to wait to see this one in action.

• Mark Scott

  November 24th, 2009

  Just to clarify “vancouver autotrader,” AutoTrader.com, the U.S. company, does not operate in Canada, so I believe you are referring to AutoTrader.ca, the Canadian on-line auto site that is not connected to AutoTrader.com. If you are an AutoTrader.com customer and you are having some problems with us, please contact your sales rep to have them resolved.

• B

  November 24th, 2009

  …think this is similar to Autotrader auction-style listings…

• Ray

  November 24th, 2009

  Does Autotrader guarantee the acv?

• Mark Scott

  November 24th, 2009

  Ray, can you spell out acv? Not sure what that means and I’ll need to know that to direct the question to the right person.

• Scott

  November 24th, 2009

  ACV is Actual cash value. Yes it is guaranteed! The condition ,must be what the customer represented.

• Gerald

  November 28th, 2009

  Sounds like a great idea from AT standpoint to help show how much traffic they help bring in. 2 observations- many customers are “coached” to wait until the last second to “spring” their trade on a deal to ensure the best possible deal. So until you get to negotiations, you may not be entirely aware of their source if the customer chooses to hide the source as well (assuming it is a walk-in). Secondly, we all know from past experience just how objective customers are about their vehicles. I have met a couple of people in my years who are somewhat honest about the condition of the vehicle. I think this may potentially put the dealer in a position of trying to “discredit” Autotraders’ ACV of the vehicle. The appraisal of the vehicle is topical at best. Perhaps that is by design. It will be interesting to see what happens. Not sure if it will help/hurt a dealer. My money is on the latter