Interview with Edmondo from CARFAX’s partner Automobile.it

All employees at CARFAX in Europe share the same goal: to create a fair and transparent used car market for everyone. To this end, we give our best every day. However, we are not alone in our vision. Throughout Europe, CARFAX has strong partners who help us achieve this goal. One of these partners is the automotive marketplace automobile.it. As one of the largest and most important online marketplaces in Italy, automobile.it has decided to include CARFAX as a partner for transparency and a safe car purchase. In this interview, Edmondo Antonacci, Head of Marketing at automobile.it, tells us why they decided to work with CARFAX and how this collaboration is working in daily business. 1. Dear Edmondo, please introduce automobile.it and yourself. Hi, I’m Edmondo Antonacci and I’m Head of Marketing at automobile.it, which is part of the Adevinta Group. Automobile.it was first launched in 2010 as the Italian version of mobile.de, the biggest German marketplace for new and used cars. automobile.it helps users to find the car they were looking for, making it easy for them to connect with car dealers and providing the former with everything they need to make an informed and safe decision about their next car. 2. Since when are automobile.it and CARFAX partners? We started our partnership with CARFAX in 2021 and we were able to integrate CARFAX on our platform in June 2021. 3. Which challenges did automobile.it face without having our product or service? The challenges that automobile.it faces are very much connected to those that our users face when looking for a new car, especially when it’s a second hand vehicle. A survey we launched in Q4 2021 showed that consumers find it hard to trust car dealers, even more so when they are not car experts themselves and therefore lack the knowledge to spot a good deal. However, what’s really interesting is that this fear is never linked to hard facts as those very same users stated to have never had a bad experience with a car dealer themselves and not to regret their choice to purchase a used car from a dealer. In this sense, we’re trying to fight a misconception that is hurting dealers in the first place, making it harder for them as well to communicate effectively the value of their products. This process can be frustrating and discouraging for both parties, that’s why automobile.it made a point of simplifying it by making it more transparent. 4. Why did automobile.it wanted to join forces with CARFAX? Making the research process for used cars easy, transparent and hassle free has always been one of automobile.it top priorities. In 2021 we fully embraced such positioning by integrating new products and services, like CARFAX, that could help users gather all the information needed to pick their new car. 5. What do you think is CARFAX’s biggest advantage? CARFAX’s user friendliness is definitely one of the biggest advantages. While we do have other services to provide users with reports and certificates about the used car they are interested in, CARFAX is the most straightforward. It takes no time to purchase the report and download it. 6. What do you like most about working with CARFAX? The fact that CARFAX and automobile.it somehow share the same mission and values definitely makes our partnership stronger. Both automobile.it and CARFAX are trying to make the purchase path frictionless by empowering users and providing them with all the information they need. 7. What do you think makes CARFAX stand out from other options? As already mentioned, CARFAX is an extremely user friendly, straightforward and good-value-for-money service. The report is fairly cheap but it contains all the data needed to make an informed decision on a second hand car. 8. How did you integrate CARFAX in your service? We are integrating CARFAX in our services both from a B2C and B2B perspective. Users can take advantage of the ‘‘certificates and warranties’ filter to only browse those car ads where a certification, provided by one of our partners, is available. At the same time, dealers can purchase special packages of CARFAX reports to make those ready available to users. 9. How would you rate working with the CARFAX team on a scale from 1-10, where 10 is the highest, and why? Definitely a 10. It’s a pleasure to work with the CARFAX team members who are always extremely proactive and helpful. They do believe in our mission as much as we believe in theirs. 10. How would you describe CARFAX in one word? Smart.