In the market for a new vehicle (demo or brand new) and looking on car sales.
Plenty of stock in Victoria of cars I'm looking at. When you try to work out which is closest getting dealership details is very limiting and hard to obtain. Best I can try is look for a dealership number plate surround in pictures (if car is registered) or location on Sat Nav pictures (if they include one)
Why are carsales.com.au trying to make this difficult?
A car salesman told me they copped $70 per enquiry, even if the person inquiring never ever responds. If you want to piss off a car dealer you know what to do…
$90, and yes the dealer cops that for every enquiry.
There's many other ways that the dealers have to fork out for Carsales
If you want to piss off a car dealer you know what to do…
There's actually ways of marking dud leads so you don't get charged.
So that's why they sound pissed off when I ring up and all I ask is "I was just looking at a … that you have listed on carsales - but where are you guys?".
Because dealer wants you to provide your details so they can call you.
Just put fake details in and a burner email and they will email you the dealer details
Yogi's on the right track…
Carsales charge each dealer on a per-enquiry / lead basis, by making you lodge an enquiry they are generating billable leads. If they displayed the dealer address on the site you could just drive down and talk to the dealer yourself and then Carsales can't prove that they directed the customer to the dealership.
That's not their only reason behind doing this though - the other reason is business intelligence. Once you've lodged an enquiry through the website, it is tracked through the various stages and the ultimate outcome is reported back to them.
If they displayed the dealer address on the site
Scroll down to the very bottom of the listing. It's there
but you didn't hear that from me
As Gronk says, it's all about the money. I remember reading on Whirlpool that Carsales charges the dealer $44 (I think it was) per contact through their site. It's definitely not in their interest to let you ring (or visit) the dealer directly. I don't doubt they'd try to leverage more money out of the dealer if you actually buy.
It does depend on where you are though, in WA at least they have to show the dealers license number and address, which they do in fine print at the bottom of the page. That's helped me on the last few car purchases….
On the Vic ones they have a 'LMCT' number in the same place - if you put that into Google you'll probably find who the dealer is. (But the text isn't can't be selected - they're not going to make it easy for you ;-)
Look at the photos, the dealers always have a logo in the background, or the location on the sat Nav screen.
Get the phone number, then Google it.
No need for any of the above suggestions. The name of the car dealer is at the very bottom of the ad. Always.
On the page there should be a dealer num we or something like that. Just give it a Google and you should find who it is
OK let's get this straight too - for demo/new cars you're gonna have a hard time using Carsales (depending on the manufacturer).
Some manufacturers won't let you list until the demo is 6 months old, others have other restrictions.
No brand I know of lists 'new cars in stock' on Carsales, only demo's (see point above on how restrictive that is).
I hate to say it but you might need to make a few phone calls to get the best info.
scroll down to the bottom of the listing, just above the Carsales copyright it should say the dealer and their license number
That's why I use Carsguide instead. Dealers information isnt hidden.
Thanks for all the responses. I feel more savvy now in my searching. Cheers.
Because the dealer has to pay for each inquiry through the Carsales website