A used car buyer in Dublin does not start with a dealer. They start with a car: a 2019 Golf under a certain mileage, a seven seater that fits three car seats, an automatic for a parent who has stopped driving manual. They find it on a marketplace, and then they search your name. That second search is where websites for car dealers in Dublin earn their keep. The buyer wants to see a real garage with a yard, a phone that answers, cars on the page that match the cars in the advert, and people who bought from you and came back to say so.
Every car on the forecourt, on the page
The stock page is the site. Each car gets its own photos, taken in your yard in daylight: front three quarter, rear three quarter, both sides, the interior from the driver’s door, the dash with the mileage showing, the boot, the tyres, the service book. Then the facts as a list rather than a paragraph: year, mileage, engine and fuel, gearbox, colour, number of owners, NCT and tax dates, and the price. A buyer has three cars open in three tabs, and the one with a photo of the odometer gets the trust.
Stock photos of a similar car in a different colour are worse than no photo. So is a price that says ‘ring for details’. The buyer assumes the worst in both cases and moves to the next tab.
When a car sells, it comes off the page the same day. A sold car still listed three weeks later costs you the next enquiry, because the buyer rings about it, hears it is gone, and does not ask what else you have.
‘Is it still available?’
That question arrives at every hour by phone, text, marketplace message and Instagram, and answering it ten times a day is a job in itself. The site takes most of it. A car on the page is available. A car marked ‘sale agreed’ is spoken for. A test drive form asks for the car, the day and a number, and lands in your email and WhatsApp for you to confirm, so nobody is booking a car that went out that morning with someone else.
On Complete, a chat box on the stock page answers the rest from your own details: do you take trade-ins, do you deliver, what warranty comes with it, is there finance, are you open on a Sunday. Anything it cannot answer goes to your WhatsApp. You finish the handover you are in the middle of.
Two plate changes and the months between
The trade has a shape. January and July bring the new registrations, which bring the trade-ins, which fill the forecourt with fresh stock and the page with new photos. The weeks before each change are busy with people deciding, and a ‘we buy cars’ page with a form for the reg, the mileage and a few photos brings in the stock you need for the month after.
Spring and early summer are family cars before the holidays. September is the second car for the commute. December is quiet, and that is when the page gets its proper photos, its warranty page and its ‘how buying from us works’ page written.
Trust is the whole sale
Buying a used car from a stranger is one of the most nervous purchases most people make, and a dealer’s site has to answer the nerves. A photo of the premises from the road, so they recognise it when they arrive. The people who work there, by name. What the warranty covers and for how long, in plain words. Whether you are a SIMI member. What happens if something goes wrong in the first month. How a trade-in is valued. Whether you arrange finance and with whom.
Then reviews, recent ones, with replies to all of them including the bad one, because the buyer reads the replies to see how you behave when a sale goes wrong. How to reply to bad Google reviews applies to this trade more than most. On Complete, a text after each handover with a direct link keeps the recent ones coming, and how to get more Google reviews explains the mechanics if you want to compare before we talk.
To get started we need
The cars currently in stock with the facts above, or access to your marketplace listings so we can pull them across. Photos of the yard, the office and the people. Your warranty terms, your trade-in process and your finance arrangement in plain words. Your hours, including Sunday viewing if you do it. Half an hour on the forecourt and the first version is up within a few days. If you also service and prepare what you sell, the mechanics page covers the workshop side.
Which plan for a dealer
Complete is €1,499 to set up and €100 a month, and it is the one we recommend for a dealer because of the review texts, the managed Google listing with fresh stock photos each month, and the chat box on the stock page. Essentials at €499 and €50 a month covers the site, the stock page and the Google listing for a small forecourt that is mostly rung. Both are on the pricing page, no contract, VAT on top.