Top-ranked websites join forces to sell cars online

By RICHARD WOOD

The battle to sell cars online has hotted up with leading auction website Trade Me joining specialist autobase.co.nz to create Trade Me Motors.

Trade Me Motors was launched on Tuesday with 2500 dealer listings from Autobase added to 1600 existing private vehicle listings. More than 500 listings were added over the next day.

The section offers free classified and auction listings. But from September 15 there will be a flat-rate cost of $19.95, which allows free relisting until sale.

The duo's major target in classified advertising is Autopoint, which gives a free online advertisement with each print ad placed in Auto Trader magazine.

Autopoint is ranked by internet monitoring firm Red Sheriff as the leading automotive site specialising in selling used cars. Trade Me is ranked by Red Sheriff as the number one New Zealand website for general shopping and classified advertising.

Founder Sam Morgan said Trade Me would like to emulate the success of auction site Ebay, which has become the number two seller of secondhand cars in the US.

Autobase director Hamish Rusk said there were too many sites selling cars in New Zealand and it was time for some consolidation.

Rusk said that after the first day of working with Trade Me the number of vehicle views had multiplied by 10 times Autobase's usual traffic.

Trade Me has varied its usual rules to tackle this market. The buyers are in direct contact with sellers and there is no success fee involved. Classified ads are available, even though they were eliminated from Trade Me two months ago.

The adverts contain specific details, such as the odometer reading, to help buyers search.

Morgan said Trade Me needed to vary its approach because people "like to tyre kick" and success fees were "not an appropriate way to sell a car".

He said the requirement in an auction to sell to the highest bidder could be a problem for car sales because of geographical issues.

Morgan said possible extensions to Trade Me Motors included motorbikes, trucks, farming equipment, and construction equipment.

Trade Me

Autopoint

Red Sherrif