5:47 pm, January 23, 2026
Autotrader’s CEO Nathan Coe has confirmed dealers will face a 5.5% increase in their package prices this year.
The rises, which will come into effect from April 1, will be levied across all dealer packages.
Speaking on the Car Dealer Podcast – available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or to watch on video above now – Coe said this year’s rise was ‘lower than normal’.
Last year, Autotrader hiked prices by 8%.
Coe said he felt the price rises were ‘justified’ because the business ‘continues to invest’ in making the advertising platform better. He said some £170m will be invested in the marketplace this year.
He explained dealers will be told about the price rises via official communications next week as well as special offers that will be available to some customers.
On the podcast, Coe said: ‘There’s a whole bunch of stuff that we take into account [when deciding price rises] – how the market’s doing, how dealers are doing, what sales rates are looking like, how’s our audience doing, what products we’ve delivered during the year. And we kind of put that all in a bucket. It’s a bit of science and it’s a bit of art.
‘But recognising, particularly for lots of big retailers, if you’ve got lots of labour costs, you obviously had a pretty abnormal increase in those last year as a result of the Budget. So we kind of put that all into a bucket and we’re looking at a level of 5.5% for people.’
Car dealers were left reeling after Autotrader introduced Deal Builder in November which led to a host of protests. Some dealers downgraded their packages while others said they left completely.
Coe said the reality was just under 100 dealers downgraded or quit the platform.
Autotrader has launched a series of offers alongside the news of the price rises to soften the blow – but controversially these will not be available to any dealers on ‘Starter’ packages. Many who downgraded as part of the protests changed their accounts to the lowest levels.
The offers include the choice between a free double stock offer for four weeks, a free package upgrade to the next level or a free PPC campaign. Full details will be shared with eligible customers by their reps, said Coe.
On why ‘Starter’ customers were excluded, Coe said: ‘It’s just a pretty standard thing in business. You pay more, you get more. Starter is stripped back, costs less money, and comes with less stuff.’
Some customers who had downgraded to Starter as a result of ill feeling over Autotrader’s actions said they felt ‘punished’ by the move.
Customer Sign In
Coe addressed a number of dealer questions as part of the podcast including why it now asks car buyers to sign in ahead of making an enquiry, why the firm’s share price has fallen by more than 30% in six months and exactly what has changed as a result of its new Customer Advisory Groups.
On asking customers to sign in, Coe said this was important to help track users’ priorities on the website. He explained asking people to sign in to websites is ‘generally how the internet works’.
He added: ‘The specific reason is a bit more around creating that permanent connection between the buyer and seller.’
Since it was introduced, though, Coe admitted that Autotrader had seen a ‘swing towards calls’ instead of emails to car dealers.
He insisted that platform-wide leads had not fallen dramatically, saying Autotrader’s data showed enquiries were ‘pretty flat’ year-on-year.
Share price
Asked if the share price fall was a direct result of the discontent dealers had felt and the action they had taken, Coe was adamant it was not connected.
‘Not at all, not at all, actually,’ said Coe.
‘It has really got… if you look at all marketplace businesses like ours that are listed – realestate.com in Australia, CarSales, Baltic Classifieds Group, Rightmove – all these marketplaces all around the world, like software businesses, have seen their share prices come down.
‘That’s all about investors’ concerns about AI. On one hand, AI is a really good thing, but on the other hand, maybe it changes some of these businesses. And until investors can work that out, those prices have re-rated.’
Autotrader set up a series of Customer Advisory Groups in the wake of the fallout surrounding Deal Builder and Coe said these had been useful to help shape the firm’s planning.
He said Deal Builder was tweaked after feedback from the groups and the company’s ‘road map’ for the year ahead had been changed thanks to the sessions.
Coe added: ‘There are literally loads of changes that we’ve made and will continue to make in the next year.’
He said optional reservations options were introduced, product pages changed so Deal Builder does not dominate and that ‘deals’ had been rebranded as ‘online enquiries’ in Portal.
Coe added: ‘If retailers feel like they’re not getting value with Autotrader, the first thing I would say is: make sure you understand your return on investment. It is mathematical – you can see it in the numbers.
‘We would never suggest that someone shouldn’t use alternatives. Competition is part of life in business.
‘Eight in 10 people actually use Auto Trader and six out of 10 only use Autotrader.’
