RAC launches free listing service
Car advertising on the raccars.co.uk website is to become completely free for dealers from today in a move that looks set to ‘revolutionise’ the car portal sector.
The change – which could save the average dealer an estimated £50,000 per year – is designed to lower the cost of selling cars for dealers and help RAC Cars become the leading online market place of its kind with a target of 500,000-plus cars advertised at any one time. Advertising for private motorists is also free.
Rupert Keane, chairman of raccars.co.uk, said, ‘With just a few dominant players in the online used car advertising market, sellers feel like they are being held to ransom and paying top dollar to advertise. As the motorist’s champion, the RAC wants to break the mould and offer something different that will benefit dealers and private motorists alike.
‘Dealers who currently spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds advertising every year with car portals will now be able to do exactly the same for free. There are no catches: you just won’t pay anything for advertising your car.
‘We believe this will revolutionise the car portal sector, passing a huge benefit to the dealer and private motorist; why would you pay for something that you can get for free elsewhere, especially when it is backed by one of the most trusted motoring brands in the UK?
‘Maybe this will lead to cars being advertised at lower prices on raccars.co.uk. Online advertising is a significant cost for dealers and removing it could enable them to offer cars without that amount included. Everyone wins.’
Currently, there are around 130,000 dealer car ads on RAC Cars. Rupert said, ‘We want to make it as easy as possible for dealers to transfer their stock on to raccars.co.uk and the technology we are using, supported by Starkwood, means that it should take minutes for a dealer to complete registration. We’ll do the rest.
‘In some cases where the current stock feed provider may not wish to send a feed to the RAC we shall provide Starkwood Media Group’s Autohub for free – it’s independent, simple and easy to use and can forward stock to other sites, thereby replacing the old stock feed provider. There are no strings attached.’
