dealermatch.com Good for a laugh

[adastra]

Anyone using it? Had a rep give me a brief demo then a VERY hard sell that I passed on. Sort of a smart auction, ove setup with fixed prices... and NO buyer fees. You can purchase buyer protection for a few hundred and return the car to any manheim location for any reason if before 21 days since purchase or 200 miles. They claimed to have a million vehicles to choose from. They want a fixed monthly fee of $400 a month, other than the optional protection fee, no buyers fees.

Obviously sounded way too good to be true, so during the demo I asked him to search for some common cars I buy. Over 1000 turned up, but all at retail prices and almost all from used car dealers. I asked him to show only cars from new car stores, as that usually sifts out most of the crap. He could not do that; I asked if they are getting their data from another website, and sure enough, it was Autotrader. They are copying retail dealer listings from autotrader, posting them on their website, then acting like its a million car wholesale only front line ready at our fingertips. The only thing is, 99% are priced at their autotrader retail listing price.

The rep told me I had to make on offer on a vehicle I wanted. What a freakin' waste of time. I could go on Autotrader and do that on the very rare occasion I'm trying to track something specific down for a client. The only benefit is the buyer protection. Some dealers are active on the site and list a wholesale "ready to deal" value, but of the car I was searching for it was 1 out of 1000+. Really laughable.

When I explained this to the rep, he said if I only buy two or there a month it would be worth the $400 versus paying auction fees. At least at auctions you know the seller is ready move some metal. I can imagine spending hours searching for a car and making wholesale offers that go unanswered or rejected as they're really just retail listings from autotrader that dealermatch offered to put on their site for free.

After a lengthy back and forth that wasn't getting anywhere, I finally had to tell him he is completely wasting his time telling me more about it. I would never sign up. About an hour after getting off the phone I get another call from his manager asking why I didn't sign up and what would it take to earn my business. I explained how I thought it was a time wasting scam and they were quick to hang up.

Very doubtful any dealers are using it, but I was curious.

[Lakeshow]

We've been using Dealerslink for almost five years now, and it's well worth the monthly fee for us. We buy multiple units a month off there and have developed some great relationships with other dealers. We do sell some from the site, but I don't list our units until they hit 30 days, just because it's hard enough to get good inventory. Most of the dealers are west of the Mississippi, but it's growing east everyday. I recently had a pickup shipped out of Indiana for a customer. No buy or sell fees, just a flat monthly rate. And no middle man, all dealing is direct dealer to dealer. Might want to give it a look.

[XDCX]

adastra - Thanks for creating the thread - it's an interesting topic.

Concerning DealerMatch, here's a link to a story that ran in Automotive News earlier this year - click here .. Not surprisingly, DealerMatch is part of Cox Communications which also owns Manheim Auto Auction and AutoTrader.

My impression is Cox developed DealerMatch because they see the business model as a threat to their auction volume and they want to establish a presence in the "Dealer to Dealer" market before someone else does. In some ways it's like EBay's decision to buy 25% of Craigslist because they feared that Craigslist could evolve into a strong competitor.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by Lakeshow

We've been using Dealerslink for almost five years now, and it's well worth the monthly fee for us. We buy multiple units a month off there and have developed some great relationships with other dealers. We do sell some from the site, but I don't list our units until they hit 30 days, just because it's hard enough to get good inventory. Most of the dealers are west of the Mississippi, but it's growing east everyday. I recently had a pickup shipped out of Indiana for a customer. No buy or sell fees, just a flat monthly rate. And no middle man, all dealing is direct dealer to dealer. Might want to give it a look.

Good information - thanks for the post.

[adastra]

If all the cars were active members listing their cars it would be one thing, but they use every dealer on autotrader.com

I'd bet that 1 offer out of 100 would get a reasonable response.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by adastra

I'd bet that 1 offer out of 100 would get a reasonable response.

I totally agree.

You figure the reason the dealer has it on AutoTrader is because they've done the reconditioning/detailing and the vehicle is frontline ready. Most dealers are probably not going to be too receptive to a wholesale bid just because the vehicle is now 30 - 40 days old.