Should I cancel Cars.com? I heard Carmax has.

[Todd Caputo]

They are asking for a rate increase.

The reason they say is because I pay way less than anyone else.

My site and my marketing directs 60000 visits a month or more. I stock 1000 used cars at all times. I'm wondering if anyone out there in Refresh Land has cancelled Cars and Auto Trader and seen a decrease in their business as a result of it. My website is Syracuse's Used Car King | New & Used Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, Jeep & Kia Cars |.

I have had about enough of these 3rd party lead companies and their nonsense. Without our inventory they don't exist. They fill our VDP's with ads they get paid for. They offer credit to consumers on our VDP's through Road Loans and expect us to pay for them if not they sell the road loan lead to our competitors. They are exporting our inventory to other 3rd party sites without our permission and these 3rd party sites make money on our VDP's.

I look forward to anyone's experience with canceling. BTW my Cars.com rep told me Carmax cancelled them.

 

[yagoparamo]

They are asking for a rate increase. The reason they say is because I pay way less than anyone else. My site and my marketing directs 60000 visits a month or more. I stock 1000 used cars at all times. I'm wondering if anyone out there in Refresh Land has cancelled Cars and Auto Trader and seen a decrease in their business as a result of it. My website is Syracuse's Used Car King | New & Used Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, Jeep & Kia Cars |. I have had about enough of these 3rd party lead companies and their nonsense. Without our inventory they don't exist. They fill our VDP's with ads they get paid for. They offer credit to consumers on our VDP's through Road Loans and expect us to pay for them if not they sell the road loan lead to our competitors. They are exporting our inventory to other 3rd party sites without our permission and these 3rd party sites make money on our VDP's. I look forward to anyone's experience with canceling. BTW my Cars.com rep told me Carmax cancelled them.

Todd,

Asking to cancel because Carmax has doesn't make sense. Keep it if you have a good ROI and cancel if you don't.

I would also say that to my Cars.com rep, you shouldn't care that you pay less than others. That is not your concern. Your concern shroud be your own ROI.

I can tell you that you having 1000 cars hurts them because other dealers will tell them things like: "I can't find my cars, all I see is those usecarking cars everywhere", so as one account you are a bad one for them.

 

[benmynattnissan]

Todd, You are an awesome dealer and business man for sure you are just as annoying as your Buddy Billy Fuccilo, however I don’t think you are viewing cars.com correctly. Cars.com and Autotrader.com aren’t lead source providers they are your online classified provider. How much do you pay Syracuse Post each Sunday to post your classified ad? Is it doing just as bad?? 1000.00 bucks for cars.com is freaking awesome given your size and the market up there I am in a much smaller market and I am paying over 2k for my monthly with cars.com Which this is far cheaper to list all of my units then it would be in the Salisbury post (North Carolina) and my market is as big as Auburn. Just sayin Todd you have made a great name for yourself when I lived there every other TV ad was either you or Billy and every Sunday the info show but what about those that come in from Rochester Buffalo or even PA to buy from you how do they find you since they dont get the newspaper or the info show on Sunday morning?? How do they find that Nitch car that you have no one else has??

Just Sayin!

 

[Todd Caputo]

Really has nothing to do with Carmax...the ROI is poor as far as I am concerned

 

[Todd Caputo]

You really think I am annoying as Billy??

 

[Nick Sennett]

I always thought your ad's were great, and this is coming from a guy who used to work for Billy!

 

[benmynattnissan]

Todd, Honestly YES! Hey Folks Todd Caputo here your used car king located right here in the heart... And Folks Ive got 23 of these in stock from all different colors for you to choose from.

Ive been away for over two years now and every time I see or hear your name of even see the word KING It brings me right back to you LOL You have done a great job at marketing though I mean that was the whole goal right branding and marketing!

 

[Blake Arbogast]

Todd,
I've pondered the same question. At the end of the day I always end up pussing out.

My dream is to get a bunch of local dealers together create a small DealersUnited type group. Go at Cars.com and Autotrader.com as a unified front.

It pisses me off when dealers sign up for more and more 3rd party sites. For example Edmunds.com just released used car listings in our area. I held off for months hoping dealers would be smart and not sign with another vendor. WRONG!

They saw a shiny object and couldn't wait to sign. Now I'm at a crossroad, every dealer within a 75 mile radius is on Edmund's. When does it stop? How do we get all the dealers on the same page.

Car dealers are their own worst enemy.

 

[ddavis]

I wouldn't even consider cancelling Cars.com or AutoTrader. Most of the traffic going to my website came from one of those two sources. I spent a great deal of time personally interviewing customers to determine the correct source.

At $1000, I spent more taking my ISMs to lunch and happy hour. I bet you spend more than that on balloons. What is your ROI on that?

 

[joe.pistell]

I hear of the success stories from velocity dealers (because that's good marketing from the vAuto team , but, has anyone canceled 'Trader or Cars.com and have a story to tell?