Haymarket agrees sale of PistonHeads to CarGurus

[Noodle1982]

Apparently carguru are going to use their technology to enhance my site experience.

Fascinating.

[Funk]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

They'll need to realise that the thing that drives the classifieds is the forum user base.

If they get that wrong, it'll just die. Ironically though, even as a PHer of many years I start at Autotrader if I'm looking at cars.

[MG7]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

This from the 'customer' press release backs that up:

"You might wonder what that means for you, our customers. Make no mistake that CarGurus remains deeply committed to investing in our platform to keep dealers ahead of the curve. Aligning the CarGurus and PistonHeads brands enables us to accelerate our audience growth, and continue to innovate our transparent marketplace. For our UK dealers, this combination will help you connect with a larger audience of car buyers at an attractive ROI."

[andburg]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

a boring car yes...something more interesting and obscure i look here.

[elanfan]

Cargurus have bought the site for one reason only - to make money. Good luck to them. I just hope the forums don’t become littered with adverts from various dealers.

[geeks]

andburg said:

Unlike everyone else so far I'm more concerned with the staff

Have the say the PH staffers have done great job and I'd like to hope they would remain with us and secure in their positions.

What we don't need is a new set of rules and new staffing who just dont 'get' this place.

Indeed and also whats happening with the Mission Motorsport tie in? Also MM now have a logo very similar to PH, whats going to happen there?

[Funk]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Even then I would still start with AT...

[anonymous-user]

Funk said:

They'll need to realise that the thing that drives the classifieds is the forum user base.

If they get that wrong, it'll just die. Ironically though, even as a PHer of many years I start at Autotrader if I'm looking at cars.

I genuinely don't think it does though, I suspect we as forum users massively overestimate the amount of traffic we generate. I know of people personally who have used PH to buy cars not even knowing there was a Forum

I'd be interested in the traffic figures for classifieds Forums Users vs Randoms, I reckon randoms would massively exceed

MG7 said:

This from the 'customer' press release backs that up:

"You might wonder what that means for you, our customers. Make no mistake that CarGurus remains deeply committed to investing in our platform to keep dealers ahead of the curve. Aligning the CarGurus and PistonHeads brands enables us to accelerate our audience growth, and continue to innovate our transparent marketplace. For our UK dealers, this combination will help you connect with a larger audience of car buyers at an attractive ROI."

They'll chuck a load of money and tech at the classifieds for sure, i suspect they'll make a good fist of it too, AT has largely languished functiuonality wise, I reckon the forums will be the headache they dont want or need

Haymarket have largely got away with some of the content on here not tainting them, a massive US brand allowing the homophobic, racist etc issues we have on here? Not on your nelly

[Funk]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

So the forum dies then and all the masses of information that's contained within it will be gone. It'd be a shame but things couldn't carry on as they were.

[MYOB]

Obviously Haymarket doesn't believe the PH "model" is not working for them. Whatever happens, carguru will shake the apple tree to spice things up in terms of generating revenue.

I for one don't believe the forum will benefit the users like us and it will become more focused for the dealers as a tool to raise revenue, ie, be more commercialised.

[anonymous-user]

Funk said:

So the forum dies then and all the masses of information that's contained within it will be gone. It'd be a shame but things couldn't carry on as they were.

I'm only guessing but I think everyone is getting excited at HM going (not incorrect) but it might be a bit like Turkeys voting for Xmas

I am 99% sure the money has been paid for the classifieds and the dealer information etc, the forums might sound like a good idea but once they scratch the surface they'll see they are a nightmare to manage

Maybe PH will be classifieds and articles with the ability to comment on articles etc, I can see a lot more FB involvement even then, why would you spend developing or maintaining a platform when better more functional ones exist already and you can just plug them in to the site to allow article commenting

[sorrel]

https://blog.cargurus.com/category/uk

A taste of what's to come.....

[Beefmeister]

Can't see the forums lasting very long tbh. CarGurus have bought the classifieds to take on AT, that's obvious, when they see the ROI that the forums (don't) provide i've no doubt that they'll just kill it off.

[PixelpeepS3]

Does this mean my lifetime ban from NP&E for a few inappropriate comments (but far worse allowed to remain) in the McCanns thread 3 years ago could be finally lifted?

[SpunkyM]

elanfan said:

I just hope the forums don’t become littered with adverts from various dealers.

...oh you aint seen nothing yet! This will be a priority for sure. They will either monetise the forum or bin it. One or the other.

[MYOB]

sorrel said:

https://blog.cargurus.com/category/uk

A taste of what's to come.....

I suspect the social element of the forum will disappear and will be focused solely on cars only.

Might have to join mumsnet.

[funkyrobot]

WinstonWolf said:

Bye bye forums

Indeed.

It'll be turned into some bastardised version of AT where the main priority is selling vehicles. If the forums continue, they'll be used by dealers peddling their stock. Nothing else.

Good luck with the classifieds though. They are not easy to use.

Oh yes, Haymarket can fk right off. I've had the 'pleasure' of working with them. Their attitude to work is the same as the attitude towards these forums. Never have I known such a self righteous bunch of losers so proud of the fact they travel up from 'Landan'.

[geeks]

PixelpeepS3 said:

Does this mean my lifetime ban from NP&E for a few inappropriate comments (but far worse allowed to remain) in the McCanns thread 3 years ago could be finally lifted?

You aren't missing much

[Exige77]

twing said:

This from CarGurus....
Today it was announced that CarGurus, Inc. has agreed to buy the motoring website, PistonHeads, from Haymarket Media Group. The acquisition is another step in our plans to accelerate growth and expand our consumer audience in the UK.
PistonHeads has built one of the UK’s most trusted and influential digital motoring brands, and we see it as a perfect fit with our own customer-centric model and pioneering ethos. We look forward to applying our technology expertise to unleash the full potential of the PistonHeads platform, while staying true to what makes the brand so special to millions of motoring enthusiasts and shoppers in the UK.
You might wonder what that means for you, our customers. Make no mistake that CarGurus remains deeply committed to investing in our platform to keep dealers ahead of the curve. Aligning the CarGurus and PistonHeads brands enables us to accelerate our audience growth, and continue to innovate our transparent marketplace. For our UK dealers, this combination will help you connect with a larger audience of car buyers at an attractive ROI.
Following completion of the acquisition, we intend to operate PistonHeads as an independent brand, maintaining the site’s popular community and content, while applying CarGurus’ technology to enhance the site experience for PistonHeads users. The acquisition is expected to close in early 2019, but I am thrilled to share this news with you today and look forward to sharing further updates as soon as I can. In the meantime, I encourage you to read our latest blog, or get in touch on the number below.

Will paragraphing be banned after the take over ?

[768]

CarGurus said:

We intend to operate PistonHeads as an independent brand under CarGurus ownership, with its popular forum, community, and editorial content at its heart.

Jog on Haymarket!