AutoTrader and MSN autos causes a “surge in shoppers”?

We learned sometime ago to never underestimate the influence, power and determination of Microsoft. When they focus and put their head down they are difficult to beat. They may not win 100% of the time but they do very well.

What they, Google, Yahoo are doing in India and China is amazing and they are just beginning. This is not including the local companies who when they emerge into the International market place will have profound impact on all markets.

I think give them 6 months and see what the trend and track of the venture is. Who knows they just may buy Autotrader, move the operation to India and roll the solution into their new DMS solution?

One of the beautiful things about ecommerce is the next killer application and technology breakthrough is just around the next bend.

If they are going to buy Autotrader, they might as well buy Manheim while they are at it. Bill Gates used to have a stake in Cox, he may still, I don't know, but Cox owns Manheim and Autotrader.

I feel like Microsoft may be going the way of Xerox; they make some really interesting products, do great research, but have trouble turning products into profits. Look at the xbox and wii, Nintendo got the market, took a risk, and is making a killing.

notice how Autotrader made themselves the receiving end of that plug. they sure got screwed!!!!

Go Cars.com!!!

Tom..NICE!! You are so right about that. Unfortunately I have no doubt that AutoTrader will be sure the dealers pay for this on your contract! Another $500 PLEASE. BUT..wait we now allow you to add 10 more photos of your dealership! It's a Bargain!!

You cars.com people need to stop. You sound like the guy who calls the woman a lesbian after she shoots you down at the bar. So we can expect a 8% drop in leads? Are your customers going to like this. You guys do know you are in second place, right? It sounds like the gap from first to second just got bigger.

No problem lesbo...i wasn't into you anyway.

Guess what Paul?
American manufacturers were #1 too. They built cars and trucks that were over priced, couldn't stay out of the shop and had designs that were really behind the times. Take a good look at Autotrader: OVER-PRICED, TECHNOLOGY DOESN'T WORK RIGHT AND THE SITE DESIGN IS OLD AND TIRED LOOKING!

Stay in that lane my friend...We'll be the guys passing you!!!!!

1. Overpriced? Not any more than a Mercedes is overpriced compared to a Mazda. Smart dealers consider value, traffic, results and consumer name recognition, not just price.

2. Technology doesn't work right? You're kidding, right? Other than a few tweaks to the new admin section (while leaving the old one still available and working perfectly), please cite an example of what's not working right.

3. Site design is old and tired looking? That might be a cars.com sales pitch nugget but is a completely subjective opinion. This sounds like a case of familiarity breeding contempt. For consumers who don't go to either site every day (like those of us in the business do) both home pages are equally up-to-date in terms of design. Besides, changing the AutoTrader.com site design could be accomplished overnight, but then cars.com reps would be left without a sales pitch.

Jeff, the starting price of a C-class Mercedes went from $24,300 in 2005 to almost $32,000 in 2008. $8 grand in four years! I wouldn't be too sarcastic about AutoTrader.com's price increases if I were you.

Steve, dude..simmer down. Why are you cutting on me about the price of a Mercedes. Who are you anyways?

It's great that you are defending AutoTrader. I don't think anyone here are "Cars.com" people but we all do recognize that AutoTrader likes to hike their prices every 12 months while receiving the same level or performance year after year.

And..the Mercedes C "Coupe" did start out at $24,300 but Mercedes no longer makes this trim here for the US. Again...why are we talking about Mercedes and the price relevance to AutoTrader?

Thanks for your feedback though Steve, it's always interesting to read others point of views.

While we bicker about the increase in costs the real culprit is inflation, the evils of inflation and the wage/costs spiral, which was covered in my College 102 economics class.

This will continue and will increasingly be the economic demon of the American Economy. While the economies of India and China continue to develop with their low cost solutions and economic growth the Western economies with inflation and higher labor costs will continue to feel pain.

Mean while the Shanghai Auto Show was a complete smash. I believe this year the show was the rival or maybe even surpassed the Tokyo Show. The enthusiasm, energy and excitement of the Shanghai show was unmistakable.

This year China became the number two market surpassing Japan, second only to the USA.

This is an indication of what the future holds for the industry as it becomes more International. Chery/Chrysler, if this becomes a reality, is just the beginning of the change as American Companies need to find lower cost solutions move to off shore solutions.

Companies like Autotrader, cars.com and others will have little choice then to find lower cost solutions, as they cannot continue to pass on the expense to the dealers.

Hmm... MSN Autos and AutoTrader

Better products through marketing!

Live Search (and thus, MSN Autos) is 3rd now and can conceivably be 4th in a couple of years on the search front. The only thing keeping it afloat is its default homepage setting on new computers.

Rather than join in on the Pepsi vs Coke, Cars.com vs Autotrader debate, I'd rather look at Jeff's initial assertion that MSN Autos will not provide a "surge is shoppers like you've never seen before."

It's marketing, and sadly, it may work. While MSN is growing obsolete and their MSN Autos interface is laughable, car dealers (not including astute dealerrefresh readers, of course) are prone to fall for name dropping. That's what this advertisement is.

"Wow, Microsoft. Bill Gates is rich. This is a good thing."

Will there be an increase in traffic? Of course.

Will there be a surge like we've never seen before? You tell me.

Although I won't go into all the details comparing Autotrader.com to cars.com....just do the math....Cars.com claims about 8 million uniques a month, so 8% is 640,000 per month......I think thats a pretty good surge no matter how hard it is to navigate MSN autos. You internet managers always tell me how amazed you are that you "got a call from a guy in Alaska looking at my pickup". Will those 640,000 all of the sudden stop searching for a vehicle on MSN Autos? I don't think so. Those folks don't seem to have a problem navigating. It all boils down to this...if you've got the vehicle they want, they'll find ya!

Just discovered this thread. According to what I've heard recently, AutoTrader.com will be losing it's partnership with Yahoo in December. Cars.com has evidently picked up this partnership. Cars.com lost MSN recently and AutoTrader.com picked it up recently also. Ok, stick with me on this one. Since AutoTrader.com is charging us almost 100% more than Cars.com for a similar product, same amount of vehicles listed on both products, and they still (at this current time) have active partnerships with Yahoo & MSN, where is this "surge of shoppers" that AutoTrader.com implies in the ad above????? I don't know about you but I'm paying twice the rate w/them than I am w/Cars.com and the ROI/Call Activity/Sourced Deals formula isn't indicating a "Surge" whatsoever. Why do we continue to pay them what we do??? Are we crazy??? Have they priced themselves out of the market completely??? Are they just adopting the attitiude of Bell telephone (1,000 ln gorilla) from the 1970's "We're the phone company". They go thru local Reps like it's a revolving door, never the same person for more than a year and a half it seems, why is this? The ROI isn't justifying iteslf with AutoTrader.com anymore, it used to be great (you can argue everything was at one time I know) but when premium listing products exceed the ROI most months, it's not me who's getting the axe, it's them.

When it comes to AutoTrader vs. Cars.com........it's Cars.com all the way. They just took on the partnership w/Yahoo and are advertising in the Super Bowl this year. And what is Auto Trader doing other then raising prices? NOTHING!!!

I agree with Robyn completely. Cars.com is not only running one commercial but we are running TWO commercials at the Super Bowl February 3, 2008. Also can Auto Trader say that they are spending $200 million on advertising in 2008? No.

GO Cars.com!!!!

Here is some data from compete.com -very interesting they are almost dead on with cars.com gaining/growing (due to yahoo/msn swap maybe?)

not sure for every market but have heard ATC being 2-3 times more monthly for cars.com when comparing similar packages/bells/whistles - but then again these two are the top dogs - wonder how many customers use both - I know search as many sites as possible that can provide info on my next purchase of everything.

AutoTrader.com vs. Cars.com Visits
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/cars.com+autotrader.com?metric=sess

AutoTrader.com vs. Cars.com People Count
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/cars.com+autotrader.com?metric=uv

AutoTrader.com vs. Cars.com Rank
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/cars.com+autotrader.com?metric=rank

Go Cars.com!

just had to say it Ruby's post got me fired up! plus, I gotta go for the underdog - especially with my N.Y. Giants playing this weekend and all the doubters like when they played the Cowgirls

200 million!!!??? whoa

I just tried to post an ad on autotrader, problems problems!
I searched the web after finally speaking to a "non supervisor which when asked for I was read a script about them being in a meeting" representitive after 2 days of attempts. They have a problem posting photos and then try to place blame on the customer or the internet, but there excuses don't hold water. I requested a full refund after taking all I could from some PUNK in Atlanta! Now I'll try someone else.

Autotraders customer service in Atlanta is a joke. We switched to another source for our new inventory last month and I called them to have our new vehicle inventory source switched and they informed me this could take "...up to THREE WEEKS". I called my Cars.com rep and he had the same issue resolved for me in TWO DAYS! What is going on with Autotrader????? They cost more and do less!!!

We will soon end the arguement between two giants. Between price and consumer as well as dealer relationships both sites are lacking. As a former industry professional, I've seen or better haven't seen what those sites can do for you. Stay tuned, we go live very soon!