Yahoo! opens site to private vendors

Yahoo! is to allow private vendors to sell their cars through its automotive website Yahoo! Cars.

Yahoo! is to allow private vendors to sell their cars through its automotive website Yahoo! Cars.

It is also introducing a flat fee of &£9.99 to advertise a car for sale on Yahoo! Cars. The company says this is an innovative approach to the traditional classifieds advertising model.

So rather than paying a fee related to the length of time an ad runs or the car’s value, private sellers can upload the details and a photo of the car for a flat fee.

The Yahoo! Cars search finding list new and used cars from both professional and private vendors. Users can refine their search to see only new or used or cars from professional sellers or from private sellers at any point.

Kevin Bauer, European general manager at Yahoo! Cars, says: “We know that classifieds represents a vast section of the online automotive market and by entering the private sales classifieds market, we believe we will dramatically extend our reach to benefit all Yahoo! Cars’ automotive partners.”

According to figures from analysts Hitwise, classified websites dominate the car category, accounting for 40% of visits to automotive sites in March 2006.

Yahoo! Cars, which runs reviews and news as well as classified advertising, is the fifth most popular automotive information website in the UK according Nielsen Netratings (March 2006).