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Auto Trader aims to lower used car disposal times

Date: 14 October 2013   |   Author: Tristan Young

Auto Trader is aiming to reduce the time taken for a car to find its way from the point of de-fleet to reach an end user.

Speaking at September's Vehicle Remarketing Association Conference, Auto Trader's group strategy director, Tim Peak, said he hoped to reduce the disposal cycle from the current 118 days using new technology.

Speeding up the time between fleet and private buyer would help fleets reduce disposal costs.

Auto Trader's current focus on the disposal chain is to help dealers with their pricing strategy as it has found that not only does pricing a car too high slow down its sale, but also pricing it too low has an even more marked impact.

Peak said: "Dealers aren't changing their prices based on the number of days they've been on sale. Speed of sale is critical.

"We spent three years researching this and found that if dealers buy the wrong car, price it wrong in the wrong place, then it doesn't sell.

"Those selling cars need to understand that everything is driven by consumer demand and getting the price correct is the secret."

Peak highlighted that 40% of cars for sale on Auto Trader were priced at either less than 90% or more than 110% of the average for that car, and as a result weren't selling.

As part of the aim to speed up the disposal cycle, Auto Trader has also launched a new service to maintain contact with private car buyers during car ownership, rather than only dealing with them when they are changing cars.

The new service, called My Car, has the end-goal of delivering more customers to retailers when they want to change their car, so speeding up the sale process. The system also brings to the fore Auto Trader's pricing advice.

This offers private sellers both a price at which to list their car in an advert and also the price Auto Trader estimates a seller would receive if they sold the car to a dealer.

The My Car service is then also set up to capture reminder dates for MoT, insurance, service, tax and warranty expiry. Initially this will serve simply as a reminder service, but the aim is to partner with companies in these areas so that they can offer their services to car owners.

Beyond this, Auto Trader hopes to use the My Car data to allow retailers to target car owners with offers while also advising car owners of when is the best time to change their car in terms of offers available from retailers and in terms of the best point in the depreciation curve.

 



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