Autotrader - enshittification

[WindyCommon]

Is it just me, or has Autotrader deteriorated to the point where it is less than useful…?

I’ve been looking for a new Defender, and am tired of:

- listing thumbnails showing a CGI not the actual car that is for sale
- no clear listing of optional extras fitted (so many standard features “passed off” as options…)
- search results not ordered properly, if I ask for Price High to Low I just want a list in (descending) price order
- poor search functionality generally, with cars randomly appearing and disappearing from the list

I could go on.

I don’t remember it being this bad!

Just a rant. Sorry….

[nordboy]

I still find it's ok, but one of the issues with the list order is that there's so many paid adverts or boosts so if I have a screen of 12 vehicles, half of those are probably not in the position I asked for as they're paid for? Then there's the 'you might be interested' ads which are usually over the budget I put into the search engine.

if i'd got a bigger budget, I think I'd put it in there? So, whilst it has quite a few user issues, I still think it's one of the better (only) ways of searching for vehicles.

[valiant]

Autotrader videos piss me right off.

A video should be a walk around the car, opening doors and boots and whatnot.

It should not be the same bleedin’ photos shown in a sequence and fading from one to another or even worse, it’s just a dealership video welcoming us to their dealership and telling me absolutely nothing about the car.

[DSMSMR]

if you click on the View all specs and features, it slides in from the right. IF the seller has loaded up one of the sub bars(or whatever they are called) it wont open all the way. Great.....nice.

[CMTMB]

I dont understand why dealers use AI to generate nonsense adverts. It'll list 400 completely irrelevant and standard features of the car (do I really need to know a 2 year old car has a driver airbag?!), but nothing about actual specification or options, then a 500 word essay on the history of the company nobody reads. Just tell us about the actual car ffs!

[defblade]

Results that "can be brought to near you" (mainly Cinch or something) when doing a search by distance.

I don't want to buy a car I can't go and look at and sit in first.

[borcy]

CMTMB said:

I dont understand why dealers use AI to generate nonsense adverts. It'll list 400 completely irrelevant and standard features of the car (do I really need to know a 2 year old car has a driver airbag?!), but nothing about actual specification or options, then a 500 word essay on the history of the company nobody reads. Just tell us about the actual car ffs!

Yeah i don't get why they need add huge amounts of information about car dealers.

[v8notbrave]

Disagree, think it's a great app. Many have tried to rival it and failed, good to save cars/searches so you can see what's sold etc. guess you need to be confident on what you're looking for.

How about Rightmove? Does that perfectly list and detail all property details?

It's a sales portal trying to generate views and sales, maybe not perfect but then nothing is....

[TarquinMX5]

I agree that it's not perfect but it's also not as good as it was. I, too, find the 'you may be interested in' and those like Cinch to be irritating: if there's a sort option, I'd like it to sort as per my selection.

[MrBen.911]

It's definitely got worse in recent years. The design of the site has got less functional, and the number of sponsored 'ad's (surely the whole thing is an 'ad'?) just ruin trying to search by price as you get a £40k car in the middle of the £25k cars you are looking at, highly annoying.

They also don't seem to have the market share they did - for example if you search for one manufacturer's approved cars on AT and on the manufacturer's site, they used to be very similar but now there are clearly some dealers not bothering with AT.

[Skyedriver]

I remember when it was a weekly publication, Thursday, I'd call into Fenwicks, Newcastle to have a look through.
Then there was "Top Marques"....

[menousername]

They seem to make it worse with each update

Its so hard on the eyes now and there is so much noise in each advert.

I am sure the resolution of the photos and videos has gone down too

[NiceCupOfTea]

I agree there are a lot of things that are hard work.

Listing cars I haven't searched for in amongst the others is a pain - stop it! I think a lot is the trader's themselves - the long descriptions that tell you very little about the car itself but more about their finance offerings and history of the garage. I want to know about the history of the car and the spec. Spec lists are useless and not to be relied upon. Currently looking at a particular brand of EV that doesn't as standard come with a hear pump. Not in a single ad have I seen the heat pump mentioned. And as somebody else mentioned, the practice of advertising cars in local searches that are miles away.

To be fair I suspect most of it is lazy advertising. A decent well written advert can sell a car easily (in my opinion).

[Josemartinez]

MrBen.911 said:

It's definitely got worse in recent years. The design of the site has got less functional, and the number of sponsored 'ad's (surely the whole thing is an 'ad'?) just ruin trying to search by price as you get a £40k car in the middle of the £25k cars you are looking at, highly annoying.

They also don't seem to have the market share they did - for example if you search for one manufacturer's approved cars on AT and on the manufacturer's site, they used to be very similar but now there are clearly some dealers not bothering with AT.

I 100% agree re the sponsored ads. I'll be looking and go ooh that's nice, oh it's double the budget. Or you may be interested in this vauxhal corsa when looking at Ferrari's, the Corsa is more my budget but I don't need AT to remind me.

I've also noticed quite a few cars being listed as convertibles when they aren't

The price gauge is stupid too. I was looking at I think it was Alpine A110's and it said the second cheapest on there was a high price.

I do like that it does model variant though, so you can search for a 330i, but you can't select which generation of 330i. Whereas PH let's you search by generation so F30 but you can't filter to 330i. If you could combine the two it would be loads better.

[vikingaero]

Sometimes there are more graphic pics of the services they offer, AA Approved, finance available, servicing etc than of the car itself.

There is a fine balance of text from waffle to info that you want to know: Westbuttfuksville Horseless Carriage Company is the premier retailer of used curated automobiles sourced from the finest suppliers. Established in 1979 we offer a complete service for peace of mind blah blah

[menousername]

Whilst here why do so many dealers have photos of what appear to be their staff at some kind of black tie awards ceremony for used car dealers - is that a thing??

Usually with MB hold out your hand in the photo

[Funk]

Other annoyances (plagues PH too) are cars mis-categorised (eg. coupés showing up when searching convertibles) and ads where you read through it only to get to the bottom and see 'NOW SOLD - SIMILAR REQUIRED'. If it's sold, fking remove it and don't make me waste my time reading an ad (often poorly-written and light on genuine detail anyway as mentioned by others in the thread).

Ensttification continues.

[vikingaero]

Funk said:

Other annoyances (plagues PH too) are cars mis-categorised (eg. coupés showing up when searching convertibles) and ads where you read through it only to get to the bottom and see 'NOW SOLD - SIMILAR REQUIRED'. If it's sold, fking remove it and don't make me waste my time reading an ad (often poorly-written and light on genuine detail anyway as mentioned by others in the thread).

Ensttification continues.

Most dealers buy a number of listings per month with AT - can be low single digits etc and this can cost thousands per month, so they will use sold listings as placeholders.

[RazerSauber]

Dealers spend silly money on AutoTrader too. Thousands per month. It's not like it's a free bargain basement advert. It's annoying to have to sift through adverts for a £40k BMW 3 series when I'm looking for for a few grand tip run type car. I get if there's budget creep a bit (Show me £21/£22k cars on a £20k search, you could haggle) but not 8 times my original budget and the only thing in common are seats and a steering wheel.

Also baffles me how little effort a seller will put into selling a car on there. £35 for an advert or whatever and you get "Mazda" and a picture taken through a Temu action camera. Put some bloody effort in. I know it's only a grand but I need to know what gearbox it has, or if it even starts.

Speaking of endless AI drivel on an advert, I wonder how long it is before a car dealer is tripped up because the AI blurb bot has listed a feature or promise that's not fulfilled. I'm sure a shady dealer will be caught out listing a 3 year warranty on a 270k, £1500 Range Rover Sport before too long.

[Funk]

vikingaero said:

Funk said:

Other annoyances (plagues PH too) are cars mis-categorised (eg. coupés showing up when searching convertibles) and ads where you read through it only to get to the bottom and see 'NOW SOLD - SIMILAR REQUIRED'. If it's sold, fking remove it and don't make me waste my time reading an ad (often poorly-written and light on genuine detail anyway as mentioned by others in the thread).

Ensttification continues.

Most dealers buy a number of listings per month with AT - can be low single digits etc and this can cost thousands per month, so they will use sold listings as placeholders.

Then they should put the 'SOLD' at the top so I know to skip the ad - not waste my time.