Used Car marketing

[Ike]

We are trying to increase our used car Internet sales. I was curious
what others were doing that was working. We typically keep about 40
pre-owned vehicles with a handful of Certified. I am a Lincoln
Mercury dealer. Most of our inventory is in our line, but we do keep
a variety of other makes. we have been on third party sites in the
past, primarily autotrader. Recently, we pulled out of AutoTrader and
now subscribe to the used car service by ford direct. We were
thinking about ebay, which we used about three years ago, but we
didn't do very well back then. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. I
would love insight into pricing strategies, listing services, SEM or
any other ideas you might have. Thanks!

[jmcsheehy]

My advice is take a look at your inventory. Autotrader wasn't working
well for us last fall, and we almost cancelled it. But then we went
to a 45-day turn policy on our inventory and are bringing in new,
attractive, units. We even downgraded our Autotrader package but are
still having our best Autotrader month in 5 years, with better grosses
than we've ever had online. What I'd recommend is talk to your
Autotrader rep to see who in your market is doing well with
Autotrader, and compare their inventory to yours. That really was the
key for us.

[Bobby Malatia]

I agree. Autotrader is one of the few sites that seem to work in any market
as long as you hold true to the three keys that drive success. These keys
are proper on the market pricing, personal description of vehicle, and
quality photos.

Also, the dealers who track the Autotrader search and sold results and stock
inventory accordingly, but not completely, show better results.

Bobby Malatia
KainAutomotive.com
Internet/BDC Training & Consulting
bo...@kainautomotive.com  
office 866-546-3428 
cell 214-228-7930
fax 248-928-5237
www.kainautomotive.com




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