An AutoTrader clone for one region or one kind of car.
An AutoTrader clone is a car marketplace where dealers and private sellers list stock and buyers search by make, model, year and mileage. Yclas gives you the catalogue, dealer showrooms, stock feeds and fair-price labels on your own domain, so you can focus on the dealers in your area.
Free for 15 days · No credit card · Vehicles pack on every plan
The big car sites run on dealer stock.
Auto Trader began as a printed magazine of local car ads in the UK, and Autotrader and Cars.com grew online in the United States in the late 1990s. Their model is the same: buyers come for choice, and dealers pay because buyers come.
What your AutoTrader clone needs at launch.
A car site with forty cars and nine filters still feels empty. Launch with the stock of three or four dealers you have met in person, plus the private sellers they send you. The rest of the features matter more once buyers have something to compare.
Dealers ask one question first: how many buyers will see my cars? Have an answer, even a small one, before you ask for money.
| Part | Launch with it | Add it later |
|---|---|---|
| Catalogue | Make, model and year from the built-in catalogue | Your own fields: service history, owners, warranty |
| Stock | Dealers' CSV files, imported for them | Scheduled CSV or XML stock feeds |
| Search | Make, model, price, year, mileage, distance | Saved searches and price-drop emails |
| Trust | Dealer badge, reviews, VIN decoding | A history-report partner link with the VIN |
| Money | Free listings for the first dealers | Dealer memberships, featured cars, banners |
Be the car site of one place or one passion.
A national car portal has years of dealer contracts behind it. A Cars.com clone for a whole country is not where to start. These are:
- A region or island whose dealers are tired of paying national prices for local buyers.
- One kind of vehicle: classics, 4x4s, campers, electric cars, vans or motorbikes, each with its own fields.
- One language community, with car terms in the buyers' own words.
Each make, model and city with live stock gets its own landing page, so a small site can still rank for "used Land Cruiser in" your town.
Make, model, year range and mileage in one search.
The Vehicles pack adds a catalogue of more than 100 makes and over 1,000 models and ten standard car fields. Sellers pick the make, then a model from that make only, so every listing is searchable the same way.
- Compare up to three cars side by side.
- Kilometres or miles, and prices in your currency.
A showroom for every dealer, kept up to date for them.
Approved dealers get a page with all their cars, their own make filter and sorting by price, year or mileage. Their stock comes in from a CSV upload or a CSV or XML link fetched on a schedule, up to 1,000 cars a run, with photos.
- Cars that leave the feed are taken down for them.
- Views, contacts and saves per listing, and test drive requests in their account.
Say whether the price is fair, then book the drive.
Each car is compared with similar cars on your own site: same make and model, within two model years. Buyers see Good, Fair or High price with the reason, and only when at least five comparable cars exist. A Book a test drive button sends the dealer a request for a day and a time.
- Decode from VIN fills make, model and year; "VIN checked" means the VIN matches the car described, nothing more.
- Finance estimate with your rate and term, on Nova.
AutoTrader and Cars.com features, mapped to Yclas.
What a car classifieds script on Yclas gets, and what the national portals have that it does not.
| The big car portals are known for | On Yclas |
|---|---|
| Search by make, model, year and mileage | The Vehicles pack: catalogue, ten car fields and filters. |
| Price indicators | Good, Fair or High price, worked out from your own listings. |
| Dealer stock feeds | CSV upload or a scheduled CSV or XML feed, up to 1,000 cars a run. |
| Dealer pages | A showroom per dealer, with business accounts on Professional. |
| Test drive and contact requests | Book a test drive, messages, calls and offers. |
| Pages for each make and model | SEO pages for every make, model and city with stock. |
| Vehicle history checks | Not included. Add a button that opens your history-report partner with the VIN. |
| Valuations and part-exchange prices | Not included. Sellers can tick "trade-in accepted". |
| Finance applications | Not included; a finance estimate and a link to your partner. |
| A dealer network built over decades | Not included. You sign your first dealers yourself. |
AutoTrader is a trademark of its owner. Yclas is not affiliated with AutoTrader. This table uses public information; your site gets its own name, look and listings, not a copy of AutoTrader. Cars.com is a trademark of its owner, also not affiliated with Yclas.
How a car marketplace makes money.
Private sellers usually post free. Dealers pay, because they sell every week.
Prices are examples: you set your own, in your currency. Yclas takes no commission on what you earn. All the ways to make money →
From sign-up to your first dealer.
- Choose VehiclesPick "Vehicles" in the sign-up wizard; the pack, catalogue and car categories are set up.
- Pick a car lookStart from Dealer or Classic and add your colours and logo.
- Load three dealersImport their CSV files for them and check every photo.
- Open to private sellersLet them post from a photo, with number plates hidden in one click.
- Charge dealersAfter a few months of leads, move dealers onto a membership.
Is it legal to build an AutoTrader clone?
Yes. A car marketplace is an ordinary business. Do not use the AutoTrader or Cars.com names, logos, designs, text or listings, and do not copy dealer stock from them; import it from the dealers with their permission.
How much does an AutoTrader clone cost?
Starter is $19 a month, Professional is $99 and Marketplace is $149. Dealer accounts need Professional or above. The Vehicles pack is included on every plan, and each starts with a 15-day free trial.
Can dealers upload their stock?
Yes. They upload a CSV with the car columns matched for them, or give a CSV or XML link that Yclas fetches on a schedule, adding, updating and removing cars.
Does it check a car's history?
No. Yclas decodes the VIN and checks it matches the make and year. For history, theft or mileage checks, add your partner's link and buyers open their report with the VIN.
Can I show whether a price is good?
Yes. The label compares each car with similar cars on your site and shows Good, Fair or High price with the reason, or nothing when there are too few to compare.
Does it work outside the United States and the UK?
Yes. The catalogue has European, Asian, Indian and Latin American makes, distances in kilometres or miles, and the site in any of 40+ languages.
Can it also list motorbikes and vans?
Yes. The catalogue includes trucks, motorbikes and powersports makes, and you add categories and fields for vans or campers.
Related pages.
The parts of Yclas this leans on.
Your car marketplace, ready for its first dealer.
Choose Vehicles in the wizard and the catalogue, fields and car categories are set up. Free for 15 days.
Start my car marketplace