The Continuing Cars.com Controversy and Public Discourse
Initially, I was totally against Cars.com sending emails to customers showing the competition's vehicles especially on the timetable they were using. I didn't appreciate the fact that they "sneaked" it out without discussing it with their dealers or even their field reps. I was even less thrilled that they sending inventory feeds to TrueCar, Cargurus and God know where else.
As far as the email program, with the proper timetable, I can see how dealerships, that know how to market their vehicles properly, could benefit. Most dealerships don't have a clue on how to market their vehicles. Poor descriptions, marginal pictures, high prices and weak follow-up processes is the rule and the dealerships that actually "get it", will win more than they lose. This is my opinion and I respect others that don't agree with me.
What has Cars.com done to resolve this? They have cancelled the email program and dealers that don't want their vehicles pushed to other sites, can opt out.
As far as I am concerned, Cars.com's "turnaround" has ended it for me. I am not alone in having this opinion and have stated such on several of these threads. Our comments (mine and at least one other), in opposition to the continued bashing of Cars.com, have been removed from some of these threads. This is no longer discussion. It is a one sighted viewpoint that makes the authors, in my opinion, look like school yard bullies. Again, in my opinion, this is unfair and has no place on a public forum. I never said that my opinion matters.
Feel free to disagree. I won't remove your comments.
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Comment by Doug Davis on May 16, 2013 at 11:42am
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David, that is outrageous. They obviously don't care what you and others think.
I was doing Google searches on various popular models in several different markets and cargurus and Cars.com dominate the organic search. Dealers need to understand that this is where the third party leads come from. These leads are being sold to various lead providers and thus to multiple dealerships. There should be no mystery as to why these leads close at such a poor rate. Until they learn how to dominate their own organic search they are going to spend too much and be dependant on other folks marketing efforts.
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Comment by David Sharp on May 16, 2013 at 10:44am
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Doug, I completely agree that censorship should not be allowed except in extreme cases such as the one that Jim referred to.
Having said that, I think it is important to let you know that Cars.com has NOT followed through with their promise on stopping sending my inventory to cargurus.com. In fact, I talked with them last Friday and was told that they would stop sending my inventory to cargurus.com but as of today, coincidentally (or not so much so) our last day as their customer is also today, but they have NOT stopped our feed. My inventory is still on there and now the same email campaign that Cars.com was doing in sending the follow up lead with other dealers cars is happening EXACTLY the same way on cargurus.com. Cars didn't stop anything, they didn't stop my inventory even though I told them explicitly that if it wasn't done I would cancel and they didn't stop sending the emails, they just do it from cargurus.com now.
So much for transparency on their end.
Again, having said all this, I do agree with you about having competing posts deleted.
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David, the real issue at the root of it is I have found that all of these vendors, most of them anyway, are selling regurgitated leads to the dealers and then to each other, then back to the dealers and then to the lead brokers back to the dealers....
Bingo! James, I have caught lead providers sending me the same leads they sent me 90 days earlier. That is nothing less than theft. This is the bigger story and one, that I hope you will also address in a new thread. Why don't dealers understand this is the reason why third party leads close at such a low percentage? I quit buying third party leads, years ago. I didn't even buy the one's from the manufacturer. As absurd as it might sound, the rep told me that I should be paying for the leads because I closed more of those customers than the dealers that did pay for them. Why would you want to polute your database with junk? You have your employees chaising their tails.
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Comment by James A. Ziegler on May 13, 2013 at 10:41am
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David, the real issue at the root of it is I have found that all of these vendors, most of them anyway, are selling regurgitated leads to the dealers and then to each other, then back to the dealers and then to the lead brokers back to the dealers.... and they set up a thousand little jack-leg website lead farms who are double-crossing them and us trying to convert the leads away from the original vendors cars as well as away from the dealers' unit to their other inventory.
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James, I know who you are talking about and we are rarely on the same side of an argument. I find it easier to call him out on why his is making those comments and what direction he is trying to take my thread. If he wants to go there, start his own damn thread. On that forum, you can't delete any comments. Actually, I think that is best.
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Thanks for clearing that up Doug, I wouldn't want anyone thinking I was censoring comments. There was one person I DID delete his comments but I said so right out front and said why I did it because he was deliberately filabustering the thread in order to disrupt it. Thank you... I consider you a decent guy and your opinion is always welcome.
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James, It wasn't a thread that you started so NO, you didn't remove my comments. I don't think that anyone, including the admins of the site should be deleting someone's comments unless they are outrageous.
I actually commend what you are doing. It is a good thing to bring out issues like this. I think demanding a public apology is a bit much and I don't think that the websites that Cars is running is really anti-dealer.
I am a strong believer in having ISMs and another thinks that BDCs are the answer. We go after each other, on a different site but remain close friends. I think people benefit from hearing both sides.
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Doug, I never removed any of your comments. The only reason the press continues on Cars.com and others. They have made no effort to change anything they're doing.
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Comment by Bill Cosgrove on May 13, 2013 at 7:17am
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Doug- you are right. It is wrong for anyone for whatever reason to delete ideas or information simply because they don't agree with a view.We all know what that leads to. My statement was a generalization and my intention was not to point fingers at anyone or group in particular but the act in general.
It appears that Cars.com only cease and desisted after being vetted and for the way they reacted. This in my judgement is the cause of the aftermath that followed.
I just hope that This chain of events gets everyone to stand up and take notice to the fact that putting to much control to in the hands of a few will always lead to arrogant and self-serving acts. This is what I see happening in the industry across the vertical
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Bill, Initially, I was one of the strongest critics of Cars.com. If you read my post, you will see that I said that they "sneaked" this program out without talking to the reps or consulting the dealerships.They have cancelled the program and you can opt out of having your inventory fed to other sites. At this point, I'm not sure what dealers want them to do. If you chose to cancel them, so be it. It won't effect me, one way or the other.
I object to people coming on the forums and slamming vendors then deleting posts of anyone that doesn't agree with them. Do you think that is fare? Is that a discussion when only one point of view remains?
Robert, I don't understand why Cars.com isn't straight forward unless this could somehow compromise their intellectual property or trade secrets. I'm trying to understand why the administration wasn't upfront in their discussion over Benghazi. If they had said that our embassy was attacked by terrorists linked to al-Qaida, I think it wouldn't be discussed now.
I'm not trying to defend what Cars.com did. For me, it is over. I don't think it is appropriate to have a vendor lynching, on the forums, and delete other people's comments that don't agree with you.
Understand, it wasn't only my posts that were deleted.
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