Interesting news about auto trader, now I know. But for the last two years almost we were paying $3000 a month, but yet we were right on top of many other adds from dealers. I finally decided that if they were going to really want a certain vehicle they would just scroll down and look for my inventory. We got the price cut to $1700 without all them other features. within the same month I was just going to quit on them and I said I needed to the price to be closer to $1000 per month. They rep said that she didn't want to lose our business so she would just do it right now and keep us with the same package.Not a bad deal. Whats crazy is all this time where it say's click to view website, it was not our real website, it was an ugle templete built by autotrader and when I finally got that corrected I finally started getting 3 times the leads then ever before. Now I just have to wonder if 3 to 5 car deals a month might really be worth even the $1000 dollars I am paying, yea maybe so, at least I'm paying $3000 no longer.. Have a good day..

Wow,
I just read this entire thing... I have had a hard time figuring out the value of AT since I started here. I like my rep. but most of the time when they pitch new material I have no clue as to what benefit it could really have... I think we pay too much for the amount of leads generated and the credit center is junk... I just got the yearly review for AT in the mail.. not sure what I will say this year?

Hammer your rep--reduce your costs yourself....you're all paying too much for this "product" that hit it's peak about 2.5 years ago. The "Partnership" dealers are stealing your leads and paying thru the nose for it. If you all just paid the minimum...keeping the playing field level...you would win/lose on the merits of your product offered. Get together at your dealer meetings and talk...collusion is not an evil term here. YOU set the prices based on the value you percieve from the ATC offering. This thing used to be a bargain in the old days. It's all profit for ATC at this point...they've added NO VALUE to the product in several years---yet the price keeps moving north.

I feel your pain laid off. I was on June 30th from ATP,no luck at all still and my city was always in the top 10. I guess all that good talent will start flipping burgers.

I just got laid off from ATC for no good reason. Anyways, I have 7 dealers in an A market that are paying $399 a piece for the feature plus program. This included 9 pics, thumbnail and all the goodies. So, if you are paying more than that call your AC and tell him you want to pay $399 like other dealers. Also, I have 3 dealers paying between $1,200 and $1,800 for a partnership with 10 monthly spotlights. Some of these dealers are renewals that we needed to charge less money to keep them but the majority are new business. The bottom line is, ATC will charge you as much as you are willing to pay, it's like a Vegas BJ! cheers!

Dave L,

How many cars do you sell/month? If your only selling 10/month than your not seeing ROI from ATC. However, if you're selling 30/month this equates to 6 from ATC. At $1500/car it appears that you are getting 3 times your money in return. You can look at this 2 ways...How much does it cost or what is my return? I'm sure you are but make sure you are accurately tracking your floor traffic.

I use Autotrader as a dealer. They charge me $2800 per month for a 60 car inventory for the premium package. Cars.com $950. 40%sales from CARS.com and only 20% from AT. They will not lower the price so after 4 years I downgraded. Do any other dealers have good tested ideas for better lead generation? Any good, any good sites or publictions for independent pre-owned dealers? Thanks, dave

Very sadly, Autotrader became drunk on their own "brilliance", and on the too-frequent bar visits after work; where back-slapping, high-fiving and self-congratulatory excess were the norm. The solutions and ideas of those who were not in the narcissistic inner-circle of the anointed were dismissed; although those solutions and ideas were truly creative, intelligent, practical and easy-to-implement. It's all about whether or not your knee-pads are well-worn... if you get my drift.

I never understood why I had so many damn sales reps for AutoTrader.

We are paying more for Cars.com than we are for AT, primarily bc we are not Premium members and have not signed up for the EMP program they are hammering us for.

I did notice that the "leads leads leads" argument quietly converted to "exposure exposure exposure".

But here's the thing... Cars.com and AT are good lead generators for prospects (except for the past two months we have been on with them.. its been dead). Nowadays, both sites are bombarded with competitive dealer banner ads, on the front page, search results, and even on your personal vehicle info page! How will this benefit the used car dealerships who are on the Featured plans? Again, we are being pressured into the Premium/EMP program, but I feel like I should back out of it.

This is a great read for people who are seeking answers on C.com/AT measurements and ROI lately.

Dale Pollak is looking for AutoTader.com traffic stats from dealers all over the USA for a facinating project.

ATC hasn't had any price increases in over a year. They have also announced no price increases for another year! However, there are new solutions that can dealers can take advantage of.

The Auto Trader price hikes are a concern. Greed is not a favored trait, sadly it's this type of greed that gives the industry a bad name.

ATC is probably decent at inventory aggregation and benefits independent and individual sellers more than branded dealerships, and provide terrible returns to dealer groups compared to SEO efforts on individual inventory records. How much more for my logo? Can I be above the fold? what if they highlight my ad? Give me a break, I'd rather use windshield paint!

Re: Skip Dillard.
You're weak at negotiating, a wimp and probably got your head chopped off by a good salesman at some point. Get over it. Go back to your cube and dream of a day of "civilized" car buying process. You’re too weak to have it any other way!
If the CarMax model works than:
1- They wouldn't be losing money
2- Didn't have to reduce the inflated price of their cars
3- All dealers would do business the same way as them.
But this is not the case; CarMax relies on people afraid of confrontation, hires pencil pushers not salesmen, offer mediocre prices and shaky warranties. The end game in the car business remains the same, buy for A and sell for B, everything else is just BS.
As far as the ATC reps are concerned, they need to get used to making less than 100K per year, their female reps need to get off the boob jobs and the Louis Vuitton Bags, corporate needs to stop spending millions on useless training and meetings and trainers need to stop getting trainees high on the ATC kool aid.
ATC’s profits have flat lined, they are at a plateau, changing the website’s fonts and colors won’t cut it anymore.
God forbid craigslist Autos get their shit together and make their auto search a little better, ATC will be history.

If the "Former ATC SalesRep" offended you...so be it. Your type should be used to it. YOU offend every INTELLIGENT person that walks into your showroom. 10 yrs from now you will all be playing the "Carmax" game with all car sales--new and used. No more sending the sheep "TO THE BOX". Much more civilized process--you will still send your kids to Ivy League schools if you can still buy them in. Oh...but by then 1 in 4 of you will be a used car lot. As another "FORMER" ATC sales rep--price increases are what YOU deserve. Crying back in the day when each sale "Cost" you about $125 per copy--burn in hell. Liars...are your lips still moving?

Yeah the Auto Trader is a bunch of greedy bastar**. Mhy friend who owns a dealership contacted them to advertise before my website came up and they would not leave him alone for advertising on the magazine. He finally hung up cause they would not stop.

Auto Trader sucks.

Last year we did a test with a local website and organic SEO only. We drove more traffic to the website than AutoTrader did and at $2600 per month. The funny thing was the AutoTrader rep tried to take credit for the traffic, but we had our stats to prove otherwise.

I heard the AutoTrader is in trouble right now, buying out their competition. I heard on the local radio station in Edmonton here that a new site is evolving and i've been looking at it's progress and it is growing each day. www.canadasautos.ca is the website.

Bye Bye Auto Trader…

I used to work for the company, and was very shocked (well, sort of) from recent events.

So I found some information online, have been in contact with a lot of old co-workers, one of whom made it to the national cut, and will transition to AutoTrader.com.

As you’ll see in this article in the first link, they will be closing ALL AutoMart and AutoExtra publications in all markets, and shifting to strictly online. While the article STATES that they will be keeping all Auto Trader and Truck Trader Magazines that are currently running, still running, one of the survivors indicated on yesterday’s conference call, with Ian MacDonald, the Vice President of Sales Ops, in not so direct terms, that the Auto and Truck Trader titles will be eventually out too—that they are shifting them to strictly private party ads, but because that will shrink the books dramatically, and lack substantial content, it will give them their out to do away with them altogether. The only reason they are leaving them for now, is due to distribution/rack agreements with Dominion Enterprises/Landmark Media Enterprises. The second link indicates a pending lawsuit between the two companies, due to this whole mess.

The rep also said that Ian indicated that all reps coming over from AutoTrader/AutoMart will all be HEAVILY bonused on whatever business they can bring from where they were, onto the AutoTrader.com side.

Furthermore, according to the grapevine, the apparent reason for the final doing-away with the print components, is due to the fact that in recent months, when AutoTrader.com/Cox Auto Trader was put up for sale and then taken off, was because they were contacted contacted by big companies like Yahoo, Google, as well as some other large companies, with POSSIBLE interest, but no one was interested in the print division. By doing away with that division now, it will make them a better product overall to sell to either company, or to any other high bidder.

There’s also speculation that they will group together any and all print debts under the Cox Auto Trader/Auto Mart division (which of course includes AutoMart.com and AutoExtra.com), separate AutoTrader.com out into its own completely separate entity more-so than it is now, and file bankruptcy, leaving only AutoTrader.com remaining, and leaving an entity with little-to-no debt—prime to put to market.

This in itself would obviously mean bye-bye AutoMart.com and AutoExtra.com(which was already known), and would make sense, as with the cancellation of their print products, their databases would shrink IMMENSELY, with no more basic feeds from print. And who would sell it? The print reps who sold for them before are gone by January 23rd. And the reps going to AutoTrader.com (only 140 or so out of like 1400 sales reps), are being bonused to take business AWAY from the other units, AutoMart/AutoTrader/AutoExtra.

For example, the majority of Auto Mart listings in my area come from the book, as their online penetration is MUCH weaker than their print penetration. The listings now in our area will be a joke…

The links below:



For dealers who are getting tired of the on-going Trader Publishing saga (separating Auto’s and Commercial Trucks), the Cox Auto Trader saga (Auto Trader versus AutoMart versus AutoTrader.com), and the continued, unreasonable price increases, my advice is simple:

Look to your LOCAL forms of classified advertising…they are market-based, they have their own brands and reputations, hopefully have been around for a while, and in turn, have business models that will keep them strong and in play for a long time to come, without succumbing to corporate greed.

Good luck to all! (Dealers and Auto Trader and Auto Mart victims.)

Wow, this is a great fourm and suggested reading for all involved. I have been in print and online media for the automotive industry for more years than I care to express. Your comments are all correct although, a few of the reps reporting their experiances with AT and ATC sound a bit more like sour grapes than appropriate. Senior management at most companies can be at times misunderstood but yes, they are concerned with shareholder value, afterall that is their main job description.

Dealers have a difficult task in driving new sales in todays economy versus any other time in thier history. Additionally, their marketing dollars are stretched to the limits. Today however, the dealer is aforded many more choices for advertising than ever before. The 800 pound gorilla i.e. Newspapers of the past have given way to Radio, than Television, targeted print, i.e Auto Trader the internt and of course ATC.

One post suggested investment in their own web page, smart! it's easier to control content and manage inventory and yes, it requires some attention by a dedicated staff member. Invest the time! ATC is also a viable and valuable tool assuming you understand how to use it properly. My pappy always said, "don't keep all of your eggs in one basket" well, he did'nt say it that way but I got the point. Set a marketing budget and stick with it. Use multiple channels of marketing and run reasonable and knowing ROI's on every source. Even sources with a lower ROI are viable to a point. In classic fasion, GM's and Sales Managers skip the homework necessary to make these decisions are more drawn to the sales pitch by a good ad rep. I say this with the upmost respect for those reading these posts, I would classify you as the exception to this generalization.

In time however, history always repeats itself and the 800 pound gorilla of today will be replaced by something more affordable and with better results tomorrow. Who knows, it maybe here today.... Keep looking!

I wish all of you, current and past ATC/ATP reps and of course, the dealers who depend on marketing solutions not classified advertising, the best of luck in 2009

DSMM - Funny!

Simply outrageous Stupidity - Hmmm I wonder what that would like like?

I can't wait to see how many millions they spend on their annual Las Vegas sales conference. In Jan 2008 they went all out, I think the bill was 1.7 million. I think the AIG party planning committee has moved over to ATC!!!

A set of ear plugs, a tinfoil hat and rose colored glasses are given to every management person at Autotrader.com.

Here is a tip: private sellers get a better deal than the dealers do.

You can read this article at

I just found this link from WARD, Cox is offer Autotrader.com for sale????
AT claim that their rev. hit 650M, and up 23% from last year. Why Cox want to dump it???