10 Reasons Why It’s Time To Say Good Bye to the One you Love

Most of our car reviews are positive – people love their cars.  But, you know when it is time to sell your car if you can say yes to three or more of the following:

1. Is there a new version of your car coming out? (Means your version will be worth less).
2. Is your car due its MOT - and are you worried? 
3. Is your car worth less than you thought?
4. Do you seem to be driving the oldest car on the block?
5. Is your car heavy on fuel? 
6. Haven't you looked back at your car when you get out recently?
7. Are you bored with your car?
8. Have you been prone to 'auto envy' - Admiring a friend's new car?
9. Doesn't it fit your lifestyle - eg sports car with a baby seat, 4 kids in a Ford KA?
10. Has it been more than 6 months since you cleaned your car (inside as well)?

Ford Ka review: "Have to change to a larger car now due to growing family! However i am very sad to do so and will miss her hugely."

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Picture credits: FordMedia
Review can be found: http://www.weloveanycar.com/car-review/review/ford/ka-hatchback/have-to-change-to-a-larger-car-now-due-to-growing-880203 

Do Customers Know More About Cars than Dealer Salesmen?

Car customers spend hours online and are more likely to know more about a dealer’s cars than the salesmen who sell them 

Is Your Mind Made Up?

As Automotive Management reported on 8th April, dealers find that customers ‘already have their mind made up’ before they visit a dealership. However that article and others are missing a key point – prospective customers don't just search for a car, they research the cars they want to buy and are increasingly looking to other car owners for their opinions.

Digital Diligence  

Reviews -  Search on Specific Model

WeLoveAnyCar.com have harnessed the power of the motorist in gathering the opinions of known car owners – no one can submit a review to our site without being asked. Once a review is submitted, we ask other drivers of the same derivative of car if they agree or disagree with the review. This ‘digital diligence’ avoids spurious and fake reviews. WeLoveAnyCar.com now has the views and opinions of over 538,000 car owners on virtually every make and model of car sold in the UK today.

Used Car Buyers - Start Online Not On Foot

According to Google, keen buyers will suck in information and will know a great deal about the car they want to buy. McKinsey & Company issued a paper in February 2014 which stated that 100% of used car buyers search on line first.

Review Sites for Holidays - Why Not Cars?

Prospective customers have been trained in review sites like TripAdvisor where they can find out what travelers thought of a hotel or holiday destination. Now they expect the same information to be available for cars for sale online and they expect it to be fair, accurate and up-to-date.

Car buyers will spend hours researching what car is best for them - using car review sites to 'ask' other car owners who have lived with and paid for a car for their opinion.

Educating The Salesman

WeLoveAnyCar.com plan to give dealers and dealer salesmen information on customer reviews on every car for sale on their forecourt where they are available. By working with dealers we think we can help salesman gain more information about the cars they have for sale. Hopefully they will be able to read as much about the cars they have for sale as their prospective customers.

Review Any Car

Research your own car by visiting our review site: http://www.weloveanycar.com/car-review

Billion Dollar Rush for the Digital Driver

With the $2 billion rush to buy Cars.com, the Digital Driver’s voice has never been more valuable. Now we're targeting one million car reviews in 2014 giving more drivers more power.

Digital Drivers now outnumber all other car buyers. According to McKinsey & Co.'s report on the future of car retailing, 100% of used car buyers and 80% of new car buyers do their research for their next car online.

Cars.Com - Going, Going, Gone?

The importance of Digital Drivers is underlined by the potential sale of Cars.com in the USA for over $2 Billion, as reported on 12th March by Bloomberg.

Investment in showrooms and marketing campaigns to entice motorists in to meet car salesmen is being eclipsed by the money pouring in to online automotive sites which are now the starting point for most car
buyers.

Word Of Mouth Beats Spend On Ads

‘Word of Mouth’ is recognized by most marketers as the Holy Grail – harness that and success will follow. Now Digital Drivers have Google and the specialist automotive sites at hand but are increasingly looking to other people’s opinions on a car’s reliability, economy, driving experience and if other owners would recommend their car.

Unlike the travel sector where online reviews like TripAdvisor have become essential, the automotive sector has been behind the pace and independent and authoritative review sites have been slow to evolve.

WeLoveAnyCar.com - More Digital Drivers

WeLoveAnyCar.com has over 500,000 driver views on its car review site and now plans to recruit another half a million reviews in 2014. It will only allow proven owners to submit a review to maintain the integrity and independence of the review site – building trust among all Digital Drivers.

A spokesman for WeLoveAnyCar.com said, “With the potential $2 billion purchase of Cars.com, it seems that the money men, if not the traditional automotive sector, are recognizing that the car buying process has changed for good. Digital Drivers start their search at home or in the office. They are using information they can trust – and that will increasingly be available from other car owners. That’s why we’re investing so much in doubling the size of our world beating car review site.”

Look For 'Digital Diligence' 

In the next few months, WeLoveAnyCar.com will be contacting car owners to join the Digital Driver revolution by submitting a review on the car they own or have owned in the last 12 months. In order to ratify any reviews, they will also ask other drivers – of the exact same model – to say if they agree or disagree with the review someone else has made. This process, called ‘Digital Diligence,’ means that potential buyers can weigh up the value of each review they read.

Used Car Buyers Now Totally Digital – Why Is The Car World So Surprised?

Top US consultancy, McKinsey & Company, find that 100% of used car buyers now start their search online.

One of the World’s top consultancy firms, McKinsey & Company, has effectively told the car world to, ‘wake up and smell the coffee.’ They say that 100% of used car buyers now start their search for information on their next car online.

This has happened in just a few years and the car world, even industry commentators and experts, have been slow in taking note.

Wake Up Car People - Smell The Coffee

The Age Of Print Is Dead

The move to online could mean the further demise of printed classified adverts and traditional marketing methods employed by the car industry anxious to get their product in front of potential buyers.

WeLoveAnycar.com, has spent the last year building a free-to-use car review site entirely built by the most important people in the car world – the car owners.

The Voice of The Car Owner

Over 108,000 motorists have given their view to WeLoveAnyCar.com which is now able to supply owner ratings on almost every make and model on the UK roads. Unlike other much smaller but better known review sites, this was only after checking the motorists owned their cars and identifying each car model down to derivative and type.

All Reviews Checked and Double Checked

WeLoveAnyCar.com has now completed its second phase to ask asked other motorists – owners of the same model of car – to vote on whether they agreed or disagreed with a review. In total 438,461 votes were cast – more than many elections. The votes mean that users of the site get an even better idea of how good, bad or ugly that model of car is.

'Hello' Says Google - We Found Some Good Stuff Here

Visits to the site have grown massively as WeLoveAnyCar.com attracts the attention of Google and other search engines ranking the site higher and higher by finding unique and informative content – all provided freely by car owners. Over 5,000,000 words have been submitted by the car reviewers keen to tell others their experiences.

'Who Are They?' - Even Car Experts Are Behind The Curve On The Speed OF Digital

In a response to a Tweet by one well known industry commentator who said, “who are they? they’ve only been around 5 minutes,” WeLoveAnyCar.com spokesman said, “We’re the voice of over 500,000 car owners who we know, can contact and have listened to. In a digital world, who can afford not to listen to the views and opinions of people who know the product better than anyone else – the owner who paid for it?”

We Check Our Reviews

WeLoveAnyCar.com does not allow unregistered owners to submit a review on the site. Reviews are by invitation only. 60% of reviews are registered by people who owned the car, 40% who have sold their car recently – 95% being part exchanged with dealers or sold through a private sale to another motorist.

The McKinsey&Company report can be found athttp://www.mckinsey.com/client_service/automotive_and_assembly/latest_thinking.

‘Reviews 2.0’- 10 Golden Review Rules To Rebuild Trust

Reviews 2.0 - Rebuild The Trust

The BBC reported that one of the biggest review sites, US based ‘Yelp,’ had to disclose the identity of some reviewers in a case bought by a business which believed they were unfairly criticised. The Telegraph, published in the UK, highlighted a restaurant with the highest reviews on TripAdvisor that didn’t actually exist.

Digital Diligence

Review sites must be more robust in building their content. The following 10 rules should be adopted to prove that 'Digital Diligence' has taken place and users of the site can trust what they read. 

1. Identify – reviewers must be known and identifiable by the review site
2. Numbers – make sure there are enough reviews to remove bias
3. Trust – avoid commercial bias eg users won’t trust a ‘sponsored’ review
4. Experience – ensure reviewers actually owned the product or used the service
5. Recent – old reviews reduce credibility
6. Contact – record contact details to check identity later and provide an audit trail
7. Exact – the review must match the exact product or service
8. Democratic – 1 person/1 product/1 review to remove bias
9. Endorse – get your reviewers to ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ with other user reviews
10. Simple – make it simple to submit a review
    
    

Legal Action?

It is likely that all review sites, and the reviewers who submit an opinion, will have to take more care in compiling their reviews.  STV reported the case of a Scottish guest house business targeting TripAdvisor to find out who wrote potentially damaging reviews.

Reviews - Big Business

Review sites are big business. US based Yelp is thought to be the largest and is listed on the stock exchange. Despite quite low revenues, it carries a hefty share price valuing the company in the $hundreds of millions if not $billions. The price is driven by investors seeing the potential of the large number of reviews and high number of visitors.

TripAdvisor employs over 1900 people worldwide and carries more than 125 million travel reviews and opinions from travellers around the world. 3.1 million Businesses and properties in 134,000+ destinations are listed on the site. Whilst the top travel review site is rated highly by its users, some businesses feel unfairly treated.

The Need For Specialist Review Sites

Reviews 2.0 isn't just about trust and control. WeLoveAnyCar.com believes that general purpose review sites, whilst useful, need to be complimented by specialist review sites where the thoughts and opinions on a specific product or service can be more defined and readily searchable.

WeLoveAnyCar.com - Car Review Site

WeLoveAnyCar.com now has the largest car review site in the UK with 121,620 reviews submitted by car owners in the last 14 months. A further 541,028 drivers (of the exact same car) voted ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ with these reviews giving users an enhanced view of how useful that review is.

Controversy around online review sites continues. It is up to the review industry to adopt new practices if we want to see an evolution to ‘Review 2.0’ where both consumers and businesses can trust review sites more readily. The voice of the customer is important but we've followed the 10 Golden Review Rules to ensure that consumer view is genuine, they have used that product or service and their reviews are evaluated by their peers.