3:16 am, November 2, 2011
A MEETING between the Motor Traders Advertising Union and Auto Trader has ended at a stalemate.
The MTAU is a large group of dealers who are attempting to force leading classified website Auto Trader into reducing their advertising costs.
They say recent price hikes have been ‘unfair’ and that they have a large group of dealers willing to pull their advertising from Auto Trader if their demands are not met.
However, in a recent email communication to its members, the MTAU said a meeting with Auto Trader had ended in a stalemate.
‘As dealers we have been loyal customers for years and have suffered the price rises that were only ever backed up with poor excuses,’ said a spokesman for the MTAU.
‘Unfortunately our meeting did not go well. They had no desire to adopt a positive approach towards us or our members.’
The MTAU says it has 128 dealers advertising 3,811 cars willing to pull their spend from Auto Trader.
‘We now have 32 dealers who will not go back and 128 who are going to leave,’ added the spokesman. ‘They said there is no deal and there never will be. You have to question why they said no – so we did. Their reply was if they gave us a better deal then other people would want a better deal too.’
Car Dealer contacted the Auto Trader press office for comment and at present has yet to receive a reply. As soon as we hear from the firm we’ll post their reply here.
