Inverse Relationship Between CarGurus and Cars.com SRP/VDP Conversions?

[Dan Sayer]

I know your operation, and know you guys run a tight ship. I am in Columbus, NE and grew up between Columbus and Grand Island.

This is what I see with Car Gurus. When my inventory gets twisted up and ages, we drop prices. As we drop prices, our SRP>VDP>Leads go way up. The down side of this is of course that Gross Profit goes way down as Car Gurus leads go up. I don't have the ability to systematically analyze this. I simply have to look at each lead individually. Generally speaking, my fresh inventory leads (units with Gross in them) on Car Gurus are more commonly non responsive leads.

So, yes I do get inventory views and leads from Car Gurus. Unfortunately they aren't typically leads that convert to much Gross Profit. But hey, they are better than a loss at the auction!

Cars on the other hand hasn't proven to be a good Lead source. There is certainly more to it than Lead count alone. My SRP to VDP percentage runs about 1.25% on Cars. Car Gurus runs about 4%.

I do not see the reverse correlation between the two like you do. You hate to write it off as coincidence because you have such a large pool of data supporting something otherwise. Interesting to me.

Aging = Price Drop = Leads = low gross LOL Thanks @Tallcool1 I was just shocked when I saw @flosho chart and wondered if more were seeing the same trend. We have luck with both CG and Cars. One is heavier in leads and one is heavier in referral traffic that converts on the sites. They are a little ying and yang from what we see at our locations.

 

[Tallcool1]

Aging = Price Drop = Leads = low gross LOL Thanks @Tallcool1 I was just shocked when I saw @flosho chart and wondered if more were seeing the same trend. We have luck with both CG and Cars. One is heavier in leads and one is heavier in referral traffic that converts on the sites. They are a little ying and yang from what we see at our locations.

I really never gave the end summation of my Car Gurus experience. Of course we all know that lead traffic on specific units increases as we drop price. What I didn't say is this: For the most part, I really don't get much attributable sales via Car Gurus unless the vehicle is priced uncharacteristically low for what it is. I am not saying this as a bad thing, because I am the one continuing to pay them every month. They bring value to my store, it just isn't the value one would typically associate with a lead provider!