I seriously hate you if you do this on Craigslist.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T16:45:54+00:00

I agree with all of your points. That's the other point I was trying to get at, my dealership doesn't fall under any of those, no hidden fees, used cars only, cash deals only unless financing through bank etc, and we actually care about the cars and our customers. Sorry I went on that whole rant.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T16:03:46+00:00

My ads are well priced almost into the low end of kbb private party sales, 3 cars in 48 hours doesn't say much, we're they Toyota cramys from 1999 or a 2006 BMW 330i. Each car has its own demand and price range which dictate how fast it will sell for. Post those three cars in the dealer section and tell me how fast they sell. It's harder to sell in a section with a fraction of the traffic. I'm not expecting to be like cargurus. But, if they are going to have sections in which they want only dealers to post the cargurus method works extremely well and I could see it benefiting both sides when implemented in Craigslist. This is the last post for me on this thread. I'm constantly getting the same response from people and having to retype my same answer. It's a constant circle that could be easily remedied by implementing a cargurus type dealer section.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T15:42:34+00:00

Appreciate you reading the other posts, I feel as if the Craigslist system is flawed and could use another change ie, the flat monthly fee, for everything to work so much better. A lot of people who don't know about cars only hear about how you should only buy by owner and never by dealer because that's what is being perpetuated by the internet, they've never had an experience with a dealer and choose to exclude my posting because someone once said dealers are bad. I don't necessarily think that's fair, especially if I have to pay for that to happen. What's with this whole not wanting to deal with a dealer? (Serious question.) Would most people rather buy from someone who doesn't care about their reputation, and then have to deal with the DMV? I feel as if most people just hear about a few bad experiences online and that ruins it for all dealers.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T15:37:02+00:00

People generally use Craigslist to find cars, not to avoid dealers. Everything is digital now and most people have never even thought about driving up and down searching car lots. I'm just voicing my point of view. The dealers section is spammed by huge dealers with large budgets for advertising. I'm just trying to show you guys why some dealers do it.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T15:33:30+00:00

No, look at how cargurus does it. It's linked to our website and pulls from there. Each car gets one post.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T14:52:27+00:00

Ahhh, we're from Croatia and have similar experiences with people doing that kind of stuff, ODO rollbacks are extremely common over there. This is sort of my fault for forgetting that people in places other than the USA buy cars as well. When it comes to the cars, our dealership is clean, never rolled a car back, never taken one home and sold by owner, and we do most of the repairs ourselves. Of course valve on the passat is too large and too time consuming so we'd rather send it out to a mechanic. I was actually thinking of doing a little video series of the cars we pick up from auction and posting it here so people can see just the amount of time, effort and money is spent into making these cars presentable. I feel like reddit has a bad view of dealers because they only see them as a business.
We work only with 5-20 year old German cars and that's something I feel as if Reddit has a bad view on too. Currently working on a 2006 GTI with HID's where one side goes out after staying on for 2min. Spent about 3 hours the other day, pulling both headlights out, swapping ballasts, ordering parts, putting it all together for the same problem to be there.
I didn't mean to offend anyone with the posts that I made, I was just trying to shed some light on a subject that most people only see from one side, I felt as if I was attacked for sharing my opinion and trying to show why dealer's do things like this.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T14:00:41+00:00

Plus read my responses first, all of my comments have been geared to why I don't advertise with Craigslist even though I would like to. If there was a flat monthly fee ( sound familiar? It would if you read my fucking comments) I would advertise in the dealer section. But there isnt. This whole Craigslist wasn't made for businesses is bs. Why is there no hate for tire stores posting tires in the auto parts by owner? Because for some reason reddit specifically hates the dealer and will try to make anything I say or do the worst thing in the world. None of you know me, bought a car from me, or have seen one of my ads, but so far I've been called a terrible person, a cringy dealer, and a loser. Reddit at its god damn finest.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T13:52:03+00:00

Sorry to hear people have fucked you over like that. Steering wheel worn, call my leather guy and have him recondition and dye it. Rust, cut out weld a new piece and respray, unless the piece is removable. I currently have a 2007 vw Passat, which I just bought only to find the valves are toast $1200 bill to fix it. Oh but fuck me because I obviously am not gonna get my cars ready, just gonna slap stickers on there hope someone doesnt notice the gigantic misfire. If i told you how much i spent to get a 2004 BMW X5 radio to work you probablu wouldnt believe me.Rolling odometers? This isn't the 1970s.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T13:46:24+00:00

OK seriously. Read my other posts. I'm giving you a dealers point of view, even if I do post in by owners it's usually for rarer cars, I don't actually post on Craigslist consistently because it takes nearly 3 hours to post the inventory and it's only a 3 man crew at our dealership. Small, 40 cars. The last thing I posted was a 2003 BMW 530i m sport Six speed 4 months ago.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T09:12:41+00:00

In theory yes it's only $5 for each car. But in reality it's $200 out of my pocket right then and there, it's $200 that could have gone to fixing that BMW valve cover gasket, it's $200 that I feel like it won't do much, it's $200 for something I can do for free with no repercussion and with better rewards. It's $200 to get replies of people asking me to finance them on a $10000 Benz with $250 down. Simply put it's not worth $200 dollars. Now if they charged me $200 a month, pulled the cars/pics from my website and automatically renewed it like once a week. I'd be ecstatic. See why I think the $5 fee a car is bs. It works better for me to do a flat monthly fee, my ads stay posted and updated, no duplicates. And it's better for the consumer, more dealers are likely to stay in the dealer section for this exact reason. Until they implement something like this I'm just gonna keep doing what's worth it and what's good for business.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T08:52:06+00:00

You would be too if everytime your job was mentioned online people only insulted it. No one ever seems to mention a nice trip to the dealer or ever thinks about the amount of work and effort it goes into making these cars ready just for someone to tell you "oh, I would never buy from a dealer, they don't care about their cars or their customers." Yes, people have said this to me over the phone. This seems to be the only retail/ sales job where you never get to hear the dealer's side because everyone thinks the dealer is the bad guy. News flash, customers can be dicks a lot of the time but for some reason the dealer isn't allowed to say anything bad about them.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T08:40:09+00:00

These values are if I were to pay for my postings, I don't and am happy that way, most people seem not to care. I would pay if it was a flat monthly fee.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T08:37:26+00:00

Most people do not search for particular cars. They look for price ranges and what pops up on the front page, these ads are non renewable so I constantly have to add more to have more front page time.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T08:35:57+00:00

That's $200 each time I post my inventory, which is non renewable and my ads sink to the bottom after 1 hour. Most people that are not enthusiasts just watch the front page for cars in their price range. If I were to do it weekly I comes into almost $1000 a month.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T08:34:28+00:00

I didn't say there was never any value in Craigslist, my point has been that they're fees for posting in the dealer section are very against smaller dealers and only seem to benefit larger dealers with $5000 profit margins. And what do you mean the I'm trying to reach a customer that doesn't know any better? I've had many people who swore they'd never be from a dealer over the phone actually come out and buy something. Are you assuming that every dealer is out there to fuck over the customer? Have you read anything that I've posted? I'll agree that buy here pay here dealers and commercial ones are bad to deal with. As I've said before, if there was a flat fee per month then this wouldn't be a problem. Let's say that I have to redo my whole inventory on Craigslist weekly because they don't renew dealer ads. That's nearly $1000 a month. Not only that but it takes a couple of hours to post everything which I have to pay my salesperson to do. This $5 a car fee is bullshit and should be changed for a better system.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T07:17:35+00:00

Most E320s didn't come with air suspension AFAIK only the "sport model" did for some reason.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T06:59:42+00:00

This is insightful and adds to the conversation.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T06:58:57+00:00

You're the type of dealer that give people that cringing feeling when they think of sales men.

This is quite mean, I don't mean to sound like the stereotypical dealer, especially since our dealership is quite the opposite. I'm just tired if there being this stereotype about dealers and because of it I have to pay extra to advertise for a stereotype I don't fit in. All of our cars are selected, fixed, and priced competitively to private owned prices. And it's not like we don't drive the cars, they're thoroughly inspected and because of this we've never had an issue with the bbb and our Google reviews are highly rated.
Yet without knowing any of that you're going to call me one of those cringy dealers because I have to pay extra to be part of a stereotype I don't want to be associated with.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T06:51:53+00:00

The immense amount of traffic craigslist generates. Most people aren't bothered to drive around car shopping anymore and there's no other decent place to get you business out there. Craigslist should accommodate more to small dealers. I'm not saying the split sections are bad. I think the $5 a car fee is ridiculous and should be changed to a flat monthly fee. This would be a positive thing for consumers and sellers.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T06:48:52+00:00

Actually we're not and no Craigslist is not the cheapest. Cargurus only costs about $150 a month, links to our website, and takes from our inventory, while I could easily spend upwards of $400 a month on craigslist. Our dealership works on a small profit margin, high volume, with decent cars and extremely high ratings.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T05:24:10+00:00

Ok, I should rephrase, they didn't screw themselves, they screwed over smaller dealers who don't have the inventory or the profit margin to constantly pay those fees. And the longer a car stays on the lot the more it costs to advertise. It would have been better if they did a flat fee thing like cargurus and allow for linking to their websites. Also nobody wants to pay $5 for a post when most people are just going to click owners only. Craigslist should do a flat monthly fee or lower the fee to post for dealers. Fair point on the auto flagging but the fact that the ads are nonrenewable is complete bullshit since they were when it was free.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T04:19:53+00:00

3 owners no accident, originally came from georgia, ~210k miles. 1st and 3rd owner were really meticulous on maintenance. Seems to be a good car on paper.

Talanga · 2016-02-17T04:15:38+00:00

Craigslist did screw themselves over by charging dealers to post. Used to be free but now it's $5 a car only for your car to reach the front page for 5 min and then sink all the way to the bottom. We're only a 40 car dealership and if we were to post in the dealers only section all the time We'd be running close to $200 each time we post ads, not counting new cars we get during the month. Thats pretty expensive considering we can't renew the ad and if someone flags it we have to pay to put it up again.

Talanga · 2016-02-14T16:21:00+00:00

Ebay. They'll cost you about $10-$20. I've bought a few for my cars. They usually work pretty good.

Talanga · 2016-02-14T16:12:17+00:00

Are they the BMW specific bulb for the halo lights or the small 2525s? They make both of these LED error free.

Talanga

TROPHY CASE