Dealership Marketing

AutoTrader announces a Partnership NADAguides.com

Jeff Kershner
Posted onSep 13, 2005 at 1:19 PM
Updated onUpdated on Oct 23, 2008 at 12:13 PM

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AutoTrader.com and NADAguides.com announce a strategic partnership. AutoTrader.com will be powering NADAguides.com vehicle listings on both the New Car Center and Used Car Center at NADAguides.com.

So now when your dealer advertises with Autotrader your vehicles will now be listed on NADAguides as well. Actually, the basic search feature is located on NADAguides.com then once you click on the "search" button it links you to the detailed search page on AutoTrader.com

NADAguides.com will now be the "premier" vehicle pricing source at AutoTrader.com. When shoppers are looking for used cars to purchase, they can instantly access NADAguides.com vehicle pricing as part of their research process.

I quote – ”The NADAguides.com and AutoTrader.com brands are two of the most trusted, well-known brands in the automotive industry,” said Lenny Sims, Director of Operations, NADAguides.com.  “Both organizations have a longstanding relationship.  It makes perfect sense for us to create this partnership to provide car buyers and sellers with the most comprehensive vehicle services available on the Internet today.”

I’m not sure how I feel about that! We all know that NADAguides are NOT the "standards" that most dealers go by. I’m located in the Northern Atlantic region and we have NEVER use NADA for anything other then loan values for the banks. I have always found NADA to be too high for Trade-in and Retail values.

This might not be a great move for AutoTrader. I always wondered how much real research these companies do before they make their decisions. Are they gathering "real" information from dealers in different regions of the United States??

Whats your opinion??

Jeff Kershner
Founder of DealerRefresh - 20+ Years of dealership Sales, Management, Training, Marketing and Leadership.
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I believe that you are correct in your thinking.

I have used Autotrader.com for over two years now in my Internet marketing plan, and I have not once used NADA for anything other than LTV's for bank loans.

I believe that this is a bad move for Autotrader, if they are going to merge with anyone I would think Kelley would be the more appealing partner.
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Here in the Inland Northwest NADA is the only book we use. Nothing else represents our market, at least not here in Washington State.
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    Pappy Penton
  • January 28, 2006
I travel all over the country doing dealer development and absolutly agree with your point of view.


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This is another example of how good companies go bad as they grow. Autotrader used to be a good resource for both dealers and customers..until they started growing. NADA has always catered to the banking business and never had realistic values for dealers use. Blackbook and Manheim are as accurate as you can find, at least in the southeast. Autotrader caters to the big dealer groups and customers. When doing a search for a vehicle, who needs to see 4900 different Malibu's? I agree with you I think that this union is a mistake, just more misinformation that us dealers have to spend 2 hours overcoming.
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Of the dealers with which I have conversed about price look-up tools, fewer rely on NADA Guides for their trade-in pricing than Manheim and KBB, but they are a player and I am sure there are markets where NADA Guides is the standard. Manheim seems to have the most credibility with auto dealers themselves and KBB for consumers. I would be curious to know, like you said J.K., what sort of research went in to this partnership. It seems to me that AutoTrader would be a natural fit with Manheim b\c of their Trader ties, but who knows these days.
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