Poor Quality of Dealer Websites

McSpud

The best Irish sites seem to be the ones with distributor templates.

I don't care for flashy sites but expect content to be up to date. Looking at some sites today & shocked to see some don't even have opening hours details. Doesn't make much difference for weekdays but dealers have varying hours at the weekend. How do they stay in business... :rolleyes:

Thomas_S_Hunterson

No one buys cars online.

L-M

Sean_K wrote: »

No one buys cars online.

L1011

Sean_K wrote: »

No one buys cars online.

1993 called, they want you back.

roosterman71

Sean_K wrote: »

No one buys cars online.

Lots of people research online. Not to mention looking at what dealers have to offer. Saves lots of idle trips to dealers who may not have what you want.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

roosterman71 wrote: »

Lots of people research online. Not to mention looking at what dealers have to offer. Saves lots of idle trips to dealers who may not have what you want.

Granted, but I suppose my point was that given the very nature of car purchases, the trade has and will remain very much in the stone ages. It's ever going to be a case of sticking it on the credit card and having it Fed-Ex'd out.

They're either not suffering due to lack of a decent website or not seeing the value that could be had from a decent website.

Owen

According to recent Irish statistics (I got them last Monday - from a sample of CRM uploads of various Dealerships), 27% of people research the net when buying a car. Makes you pity the other 73% eh?

Interestingly, the reason most Dealers have shoddy sites, is that they're provided a generic site by Webzone/Autotrader who in addition to giving the Dealers their classifieds listings on Carzone.ie, give them a starter website which usually isn't too bad. It's then up to the Dealer to customise that starter site, and that's usually where things go wrong.

More interestingly, is that I've noticed more and more people going directly to Dealer websites now, whereas before 95% of traffic was just directly going to Carzone.

L1011

The source of sales recorded can be entirely inaccurate; the original quote for my current car has "source: walk-in" written on it when I'd researched the car extensively online. Albeit mostly on the distributers website and that of other dealers; but still...

Owen

Well, if that is the case, then the 27% is in reality a higher figure, which means it's of more importance that Dealers get their acts together.

Berty

What about this website?

http://homepages.iol.ie/~omara/omm/toyota.html

Par72

Berty wrote: »

What about this website?

http://homepages.iol.ie/~omara/omm/toyota.html

Oh now that's nice. I'm deffo buying my next car off them.

roosterman71

Here's one a guy I work with did
www.owenreddy.com

robtri

roosterman71 wrote: »

Here's one a guy I work with did
www.owenreddy.com

don't like it, too much going on hard to look at.....

Dealer websites here generally suck... the piece that gets me is that they have contact us forms, you fill out and very rarely get a response back... Las car I was buying I think when i was doing some stater legwork, I emailed around 20 dealers about specfic cars they had in stock according to there websites, just to get further info on them and if I remember right I got 2 replies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Owen

roosterman71 wrote: »

Here's one a guy I work with did
www.owenreddy.com

Car-dealer

hi

we are working on a website at the moment, nothing too fancy as we are a small firm. If I get it online this week, I'll put in on here for some feedback.

PaulieC

roosterman71 wrote: »

Here's one a guy I work with did
www.owenreddy.com

That is truly horrible.

Just looking at one car on that site, though, and it illustrates for me another big problem with dealers - non-existant models for sale. Owen Reddy has a VW Passat S-Line for sale. WTF is that?

nogoodnamesleft

Some dealers knowingly mis advertise cars in order to get more attention (or profit). e.g. advertising a VW as a highline when it is a comfortline.

S -line is the well specced trim audi. Im assuming that the car is question is the entry level Passat 1.9tdi S. Wouldnt be too confident buying off a dealer who didnt know his spec levels across similar VAG manufacturers.

VolvoMan

Now this is a good website: http://www.maxwellmotors.ie

McSpud

roosterman71 wrote: »

Here's one a guy I work with did
www.owenreddy.com

No opening hours.
No address & while it has a map it does not indicate where on the map they are located.

Is there a big demand for helicopter coordinates ?

Cookie_Monster

McSpud wrote: »

Is there a big demand for helicopter coordinates ?

I might just fly up tomorrow:D

Car-dealer

I love the helicopter coordinates - think I might consider that for my website just in case any customers want to fly in and buy a Ford Fiesta!

Em not sure its a good idea to put my own website on here for ridicule when it gets up and running...

fl4pj4ck

you can put those into your satnav

Geoff845

www.joeduffy.ie

L-M

Car-dealer wrote: »

I love the helicopter coordinates - think I might consider that for my website just in case any customers want to fly in and buy a Ford Fiesta!

Em not sure its a good idea to put my own website on here for ridicule when it gets up and running...

You might as well:D

robtri

Car-dealer wrote: »

I love the helicopter coordinates - think I might consider that for my website just in case any customers want to fly in and buy a Ford Fiesta!

Em not sure its a good idea to put my own website on here for ridicule when it gets up and running...

If you put it up and ask for opinions on it, some people will ridicule it, it is always the case, but a lot of people here will help out and offer genuine feedback......

Stevie Dakota

VolvoMan wrote: »

Now this is a good website: http://www.maxwellmotors.ie

Doesn't work on my Mac.

robtri

Stevie Dakota wrote: »

Doesn't work on my Mac.

nor on my IBM ........ enter enter enter and enter again, around and around in circles we go....

G Luxel

some websites are not updated. A car I bought is still advertised for sale a few days ago, even though I purchased it 6 months ago. I had to notify the dealer to take the car off the site.......:rolleyes:

Quint

I don't care how rubbish looking the site is. As long as it has an up to date list of cars and prices. And they don't have some ****e flash intro. But simple is good.

Bogger77

robtri wrote: »

nor on my IBM ........ enter enter enter and enter again, around and around in circles we go....

doesn't work on my vista 64bit machine, either.

Bogger77

G Luxel wrote: »

some websites are not updated. A car I bought is still advertised for sale a few days ago, even though I purchased it 6 months ago. I had to notify the dealer to take the car off the site.......:rolleyes:

Bought a car from a dealer on Monday, went to send a friend a link to it later that day, car was gone.

Some are good, some are just plain bad. For bigger some dealerships, I've noticed a daily update happens of the used car list, but for others and more common smaller guys, it can be weeks.

galwaytt

VolvoMan wrote: »

Now this is a good website: http://www.maxwellmotors.ie

Really ? - I've now clicked 'Enter', 4 times. It's just going in a loop, for me.....am I waiting for 1938 to come back around or something ?

[EDIT: Oh, hold on - haven't they gone bust ?? ]

galwaytt

Car-dealer wrote: »

hi

we are working on a website at the moment, nothing too fancy as we are a small firm. If I get it online this week, I'll put in on here for some feedback.

May I make a suggestion or two ?

Keep it simple. Simple background, clear script. If it's simple, you'll be more inclined to keep the site maintained/up to date. Make it updatable by yourself, without having to have a degree in MS Publishing/Dreamweaver/etc...

Simple background (so loads for the majority of Irish people who DON'T have broadband) - otherwise your reducing the pool of potential site visitors to a too-small number.

No high-res pics (too slow to load).

Keep it relevant. cars, pics, prices (none of this POA rubbish). Address, phone no and business hours, and a pic of the premises frontage (helps to locate). GPS co-ords if you've got them (we don't all live in Dublin...)

Keep it updated. (old stock gone, old pricing removed, new stuff added)

Got a special offer ? - tell us. 'scrappage deal' or whatever.

It's the internet - will you deliver ? And for a reasonable fee ? Or, if someone had to travel to collect, on foot of an order, can you accomodate an out of hours collection, etc ? Make it easy to buy.

I'm sure there's more, but someone else'll add some stuff here.....