New Car Site

sicruise

Hi,

I just stuck up a new site, it is in beta but I am already getting a good bit of traffic. Most of the people are doing searches for cars though and aren't actually sellers.

Just thought i'd leave a quick note about it incase you guys are looking for a free place to advertise cars...

http://www.irishcartrades.com

If you have any ideas about what I could do with this site it would be great. I want to make it useful to people )

Anyway, let me know what you think...

prospect

not sure the Mods will be overhappy with you advertising your site here...

Mc-BigE

nice looking site, like the way the car preview comes up in the search.
but does it offer any more than the existing, carzone.ie or autotrader.ie?

sicruise

Well the plan is to just keep it free/have much better search functionality... give it a nice easy to use feel. I can't stand the searches on cbg where you have to re-enter everything any time you want to change your search...

Mc-BigE

like the idea that its free, it will def. catch on if thats the case (but free for how long) a bit like Pistonheads.co.uk

one thing i noticed, is there a pull down,button to distinguish between private and dealer seller?

smash

so now there's carzone, carsireland, cbg, autotrader and irishcartrades and a lot more...

I wonder which one the dealers will choose and the rest will then fall!

smash

another thing.... why list make and models when there's none in the stsyem? I know you say (0) but it's kind of redundant.

and this doesn't work - http://www.irishcartrades.com/Controller/dealerregistration

sicruise

It will stay free for private users forever... need to think about dealers pricing...

Didn't think of it before... will look into implementing that...

do you mean as a search selection and have the ads flagged appropriately?

Mc-BigE

sicruise wrote:

It will stay free for private users forever... need to think about dealers pricing...

Didn't think of it before... will look into implementing that...

do you mean as a search selection and have the ads flagged appropriately?

why not both,

Just put (D) or (P) at the end of the description

and also a pulldown if you want to filter each out separately.

smash

ye, if the cars aren't there, just don't list them

prospect

Okay, constructive criticism,

Can you add a grouping level for Petrol and Diesel?

smash

and auto/manual

and a few more bugs, you have listed 3 porsches but there's only 1 there actually, and 1 aston listed but there's none there.

all small things.

mike65

How do I toggle the pages?

Mike.

jjbrien

site doesnt seem to work for me wait it now up but took 60 seonds to load

smash

search box's on homepage are a bit too short to show full model names. and you can't select cars from homepage to get more info on them.

sicruise

steve06 wrote:

another thing.... why list make and models when there's none in the stsyem? I know you say (0) but it's kind of redundant.

and this doesn't work - http://www.irishcartrades.com/Controller/dealerregistration

Yea still working on the dealer section functionality... it will be down every so often over the next few days... should have it in good working order by the end of the week.

smash

yeah, well they're all small bugs, but I'd check out the javascript errors first, there seems to be a bug in there somewhere.

sicruise

mike65 wrote:

How do I toggle the pages?

Mike.

Hi Mike,

You should just be able to click in the radio button and it auto-changes...

Thanks for all the info guys... will try and get these bugs ironed out asap.

Gregor Samsa

I really like the way the car details come up in the middle of the listing page when you click on a car. This is a simple but very effective bit of UI design that is idealy suited to a site like this.

Obviously a few bugs to fix (the bottom radio buttons for going from listing page to listing page doesn't work for me, the top ones do), but hey, that's what beta is all about.

Best of luck with the site!

sicruise

phutyle wrote:

I really like the way the car details come up in the middle of the listing page when you click on a car. This is a simple but very effective bit of UI design that is idealy suited to a site like this.

Obviously a few bugs to fix (the bottom radio buttons for going from listing page to listing page doesn't work for me, the top ones do), but hey, that's what beta is all about.

Best of luck with the site!

Why thank you

Yea that works in firefox but not ie... need to figure it out... but as you said that's what beta is all about!

Seth Brundle

1. The logo looks like a caribbean holiday site logo! Get rid of!
2. Change the date format on the homepage (2007-07-17).
3. Move the "Per Page" filter towards the bottom and make the default 20.
4. Change many of the options from drop down to multi-line selects so that I can choose say both BMW 3ers and 5ers.
5. You model list seems a bit ad hoc - "316 4door saloon"
6. The sell page - move the text from the left.
7. Where is there a facility to report dodgy Nigerian listings?
8. Where is your privacy policy (a legal requirement!)

fletch

Personally I like to be able to search in my own defined price range rather than in steps of €5,000.
I'm not sure I like the UI of your site to be honest. I like the way for example with carzone and cbg, you can have multiple different pages open at the same time (using tabs)(makes it easy when comparing cars)...you can't seem to do this due to the nature of the way your site expands the details on the same page as the results screen.

Edit - Oh btw I do like the way you can refine your search on the fly...and the whole look of the site is very simple and clean

sicruise

kbannon wrote:

1. The logo looks like a caribbean holiday site logo! Get rid of!
2. Change the date format on the homepage (2007-07-17).
3. Move the "Per Page" filter towards the bottom and make the default 20.
4. Change many of the options from drop down to multi-line selects so that I can choose say both BMW 3ers and 5ers.
5. You model list seems a bit ad hoc - "316 4door saloon"
6. The sell page - move the text from the left.
7. Where is there a facility to report dodgy Nigerian listings?
8. Where is your privacy policy (a legal requirement!)

Thanks for the comments, what do you mean by point 5?

Never thought of point 7, i'll get on it

As for privacy policy we are working on all that... beta

sicruise

fletch wrote:

Personally I like to be able to search in my own defined price range rather than in steps of €5,000.
I'm not sure I like the UI of your site to be honest. I like the way for example with carzone and cbg, you can have multiple different pages open at the same time (using tabs)(makes it easy when comparing cars)...you can't seem to do this due to the nature of the way your site expands the details on the same page as the results screen.

Edit - Oh btw I do like the way you can refine your search on the fly...and the whole look of the site is very simple and clean

We actually made a conscious desicion not to allow users to input search parameters to make the site easier to use for the lay person... prob doesn't suit everyone...

So an open in new window for each car would suit your needs for the second point? Or how a about a user login system where you can save ads to your account?

First one for now though

Seth Brundle

sicruise wrote:

Thanks for the comments, what do you mean by point 5?

If you search for a BMW (and presumably others marques), the model options seem to be many. However, its not a complete list of all models and some of them are unnecessary such as the 316 4door saloon I mentioned.

Seth Brundle

Also change your error500 page to a redirect or something. By changing the querystring, from a Long (which is the required model type), I get the spurious message that will scare many people (see http://www.irishcartrades.com/Controller/search?Makes=sfsadf&model=&x=41&y=10)

mike65

Its does look like a travel site does'nt it?

Soz if this has been mentioned but re-ordering the cars by the criteria listed across the top is always handy ie by age/price/milage

Mike.

fletch

sicruise wrote:

We actually made a conscious desicion not to allow users to input search parameters to make the site easier to use for the lay person... prob doesn't suit everyone...

Fair point

sicruise wrote:

So an open in new window for each car would suit your needs for the second point? Or how a about a user login system where you can save ads to your account?

Yes something to that effect and so I can send a link of a car to a friend/colleague etc. Rather than having to tell them to search for a particular make/model and telling them that it's the Xth one in the list.

sicruise

First of all, thank you guys for the great feedback yesterday...

I made a few changes to reflect some of the suggestions yesterday.

1) Date is fixed on main page/
2) Search is now available for transmission/engine type
3) Front page minor changes...
4) Updated BMW car list to support what I hope is all models


I'm working on all the others and will let you know when they are up...

Thanks again!

Simon

mike65

Its not very Opera friendly (v8.54) tried to switche pages and it won't so have to load all examples into one page.

Mike.

Seth Brundle

Get rid of the time on the homepage.
The recent additions section on the homepage should link to the description of the car.
Don't use google adsense on the site as most adverts will be for your competitiors!
On the search page list - the first column containing the pic is too narrow for the text 'Page x'.

Out of curiosity and Im not sure if it was asked/answered - how long do adverts last for? Will they be automatically removed after a certain period? It might be helpful to see the date they were added to the site.

Seth Brundle

also:
validate your HTML (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishcartrades.com%2F)
and your CSS (http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?profile=css2&warning=2&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishcartrades.com%2F)

try and validate all pages - I just checked the homepage

prospect

Also,

Add a prominant message thanking your friends at boards.ie for helping you develop your site.

Mitch Connor

If you want some pointers on what functionality people on here would like to see - have a read of the Carzone sectrets thread, there are a number of posts descirbing functionality people wish carzone had.

sicruise

KBannon... they will last one month for now... the user will be able to delete at any time as soon as i get the ad edit system working.

I put up the privacy policy / disclaimer now.

Also functionality for providing links/opening ads in a new windows was just added and uploaded. Let me know if this is what you were looking for fletch. I've marked down a user system for storing ads but this will not be ready for quite some time.

Other fixes we have implemented...

No more menu flicker in the ads when there is no image.
Confirmation page now updated to modern style sheet.
Recent additions are now links viewable in new windows.

I'm going to work on getting all the pages to validate kbannon, cheers.

Thanks a mill again guys this is great feedback

layke

On the search side I would go with KB. It's nice to be able to view multiple models. I know you said that you've optimized your search function for the layman but your competitors have an advanced search function available perhaps you can implement.

I'd also like to add that everytime I select somethng, your site goes off and searches up way to many things until I get all the filters right. As you know this can be numerous things pending on what your user is looking for.

For example I select bmw from the manufacturers list, your site then goes off and pulls the first XX bmw models up. Then I go and select the model, once again your site runs off and pulls the first few models and so on.
My point is by doing it this way your going to be calling a lot of unnessisary data. I think by adding a search button once the filters are applied will save you a ton of server resources so a person only runs 1 query rather then 10.

Good luck with the site, may it bring you many monies, wimmin and power.

Seth Brundle

sicruise wrote:

Thanks a mill again guys this is great feedback

You get what you pay for!

Mc-BigE

i dont think this is a private sale?


http://www.irishcartrades.com/Controller/search?Makes=8&model=3+Series&x=32&y=10

edit, thats bad, can't cut and paste a particular car,

anyway heres the details:
BMW
Model 320
Engine 2.0
Transmission Manual
Body Saloon
Price € ono €39995
Year 2005
Colour Other
Mileage 21000
Condition Good
Doors 5
Seats 0
NCT 1208

prospect

Meehans Toyota in Louth are advertising a Toyota Prius as a Private sale

sicruise

Its a little buggy... beta

They are all marked as private at the moment until our dealer section is functional. Probably early next week... every car added through the dealer section will be marked as a dealer transaction, to change existing ads we will have to go through the database and mark each transaction individually.

We got of fixes in today though...

and a few new features...

Check out the new RSS feed or you can add it to your google homepage by clicking the ad to google link.

http://www.irishcartrades.com/rss

Mc-BigE... you can now open the ad in a new window... and link to this.

kbannon... if i ever make a cent out of this i'll deffo sign up!

layke... going to start work on an advanced search... i'll see how it works out, i have a few nifty never before seen ideas. But this won't be ready for at least a few weeks.... the multiple searchs is the ajax working away... i'll be improving the efficiency of this but I don't think we'll be going back to submit buttons (we'll bring you to the other side soon )

p.s. I hope it brings me many monies, wimmin and power too! But the main thing that I want now is for it to be the best and to make it a useful tool for people like you and me.

Seth Brundle

I notice that you are still using Google AdSense. This is just advertising your competition. I can understand hat you want to make a few quid but if the option is there to go elsewhere, then people will take it and in the end it won't benefit your site.

I don't like the way that the system will provide loads of radio buttons (the round yokes) if I select 20 records per page. Currently it is showing 51 of these (and it doesn't have a horizontal scrollbar). If I choose 5 per page, I get over 200 radio buttons! Maybe go with a drop down of page numbers and next & previous links.

Does the dealer login not work? I just clicked 'Login' and Im in! Although it appears to be incomplete, there seem to be a fair few errors in there.

I would also suggest to increase the amount of *relevant* keywords on your pages to help improve search engine optimisation.

Your privacy policy is presumably not finished. Glance through www.dataprivacy.ie to see if they have anything extra.
Regarding the Security section:
"We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online." - can you elaborate on this?

I would also add in a section on advising users buying a car - what they need, how to pay, checklists, etc.

rebel.ranter

Have a read of this thread on the Carzone website:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055116604&highlight=carzone+secret

It will give you an insight as to the problems people would like fixed on that website.

Hrere's my 2 cents, it applys to your site too:

I also do not like the way that when you are searching for say a 5 series BMW that you cannot show all models together. There is an option saying 5 series but only a handful come up, yet when you pick a specific model e.g. 525 substantially more show up.
There must be some way this can be rectified???

sicruise

kbannon wrote:

I notice that you are still using Google AdSense. This is just advertising your competition. I can understand hat you want to make a few quid but if the option is there to go elsewhere, then people will take it and in the end it won't benefit your site.

I don't like the way that the system will provide loads of radio buttons (the round yokes) if I select 20 records per page. Currently it is showing 51 of these (and it doesn't have a horizontal scrollbar). If I choose 5 per page, I get over 200 radio buttons! Maybe go with a drop down of page numbers and next & previous links.

Does the dealer login not work? I just clicked 'Login' and Im in! Although it appears to be incomplete, there seem to be a fair few errors in there.

I would also suggest to increase the amount of *relevant* keywords on your pages to help improve search engine optimisation.

Your privacy policy is presumably not finished. Glance through www.dataprivacy.ie to see if they have anything extra.
Regarding the Security section:
"We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online." - can you elaborate on this?

I would also add in a section on advising users buying a car - what they need, how to pay, checklists, etc.

Google Adsense is just there to take up space at the moment We'll work on more targeted advertising once we get to a point when there is enough cars coming in that the site becomes self sufficient. I deffo see your point here and it does have to go...

I have the radio buttons as a bug alright... i'm thinking of setting a maximum return of results to resolve this for now... do you think the drop down would be more user friendly?

Dealer login is in its infancy... there was a user "","" from when I was testing... this is gone now, that is how you got in ) We are going to perfect this and hand over to dealers as soon as we can though.

I'm not very good at the keyword optimisation... any suggestions?

Privacy policy will be updated as we go along, at least we have one now

Information is stored in a secure db only accessible by our assigned web administrators... passwords are encrypted.

Good idea on the buyers! That is marked down as an enhancement now...

Seth Brundle

sicruise wrote:

I have the radio buttons as a bug alright... i'm thinking of setting a maximum return of results to resolve this for now... do you think the drop down would be more user friendly?

Somethhing like that would work better than what is currently there. Something similar even to the boards navigation buttons:

sicruise wrote:

I'm not very good at the keyword optimisation... any suggestions?

Anything relevant to your site. Have some kind of descriptive text in the page footers such as "irishcartrades.com provide free car advertising for all makes of car blah blah blah"
The site isn't very search engine friendly as there is no way for the search engine to view the car list.

sicruise wrote:

Information is stored in a secure db only accessible by our assigned web administrators... passwords are encrypted.

Don't state something unless you can stand over it. Being pedantic here, you haven't put anything in place physically. Anyhow, I guess the keyword here is suitable and that could get you out of a hole.

I just noticed and its not much but the RSS & Google images don't align perfectly horizontally.

sicruise

Yea a menu like that would be nice alright...

kbannon wrote:

The site isn't very search engine friendly as there is no way for the search engine to view the car list.

http://www.irishcartrades.com/sitemap

sicruise

Hi All,

We got a bit of an overhaul... just want to see what you think now?

Hope you like it

Si

bbam

Personally I dont like to see google adds on the site... Why not rely on the trade adds for revenue and keep the site nice and clean....