just wondering what everyone's preference is for browsing the car market (online). the three that i regularly check are carpoint, carsales, and drive. for me, drive is just tooooo bloated, takes ages to do anything, and 2 minutes after the page is loaded it still seems to be flashing randomly as it appears to load stuff. i like how on the start page you can search for new or used straight up now without loading something else, and it does dealer+new search at the same time. also, the results outputs are very clean and fast, look very nice and easy to navigate. the 'showcase' pages are ok, but it's annoying to have the pictures restriced to the size of a postage stamp, in this day and age we want to inspect them down to the last pixel. carsales... i'm annoyed by the first page where you have to choose from too many things between new/near new/demo/dealer/used/private/whatever.... i just want cars!!!!!! also, having to select a state is soooo annoying, why can't the whole country be selected by default? i don't think i've done a search there without it telling me to say where i want the cars to be. personally, if i'm looking for a car i don't care where it is. the extra few hundred bucks to get it to where i am is negligble compared to what i'd pay over and above on a crappier example. the results screen is pretty and fast, lists the options well, and has some odd link to a 'unique' section which i haven't figgered out, i think people rate cars for sale??? i also like the picture display, it's pretty well done with no confusion as to what you're seeing. oh, one more annoyance... the URLs. with the stoopid characters in them like ! it makes them NOT urls a lot of the time, meaning it's difficult to send a link to a mate over email or post on a forum, not good for them really. now, carpoint... this appears to have recently undergone an overhaul ( ). the first thing you see is a selection of make and model, none of the other crap (dealer/new/private/etc...). it's very fast, and very well presented. also, if you check the left hand side of the screen, you'll notice a 'drilldown' area where you can select additional criteria to add to your search... this is GREAT. just try it. i'm a database geek at heart and know that if i were to design a search engine this is how i'd do it. in fact, some time ago i did! except it was for bus stops and not cars which isn't anywhere near as interesting. point is, this wasn't supposed to be a review, just that carpoint is my new favourite car searchy thingy.
Drive and Carpoint charge the dealers a monthly fee, Carsales charge dealers per leed - so they try to limit the number of leeds outside of a dealers area so they don't get too p155ed at the bill at the end of the month ( a dealer can also pay a fixed fee for the number of cars on the Carsales site, but this is more expensive unless the dealer is very large.) Carpoint is now owned by Carsales, so will be interesting to see if anything changes. One thing is for sure, and that is the days of the paper advertising is over.
I agree with your favourite actually. I dislike the setup of Drive (and don't like the size limit on pics) I hate having to choose between dealer and private cars, I realise that it's a good option to be able to remove one or the other, but I don't like being forced. I do NOT like that carpoint is now doing hover ads over the top of the exact spot where you choose your search criteria though. I freakin hate when ads cut in like that. But either way. To me, carpoint is the one most used by everyone else, thus the most results for me to look at.
I like carpoint and carsales also. But when im feeling naughty,i go to www.ferraribuy.com for a perve
Remember eauto ads during the F1, that site went down sooooo well I dont have a fav. I use them all...
Corectomundo, but they do credit you for the first 8 leeds...so sort of works out that most of your cost is for leeds.
Does seem to work, much cheaper and more qualified inquiry than newspapers. The amount of crap replies would depend on the cars advertised....a fully sik WRX would get heaps I would expect, and Ferrari's Porsches etc get the dreamers but otherwise seems ok.
How did you send a question as a quote? Carsales seems to be the getting the best results, but Carpoint, Drive and Trading Post Online all seem to be OK. Did you come and see my 993 TT with a friend of yours from Sydney?
I posted the question on the page before, and figured you missed it.. All I did was quote myself... [which isn't a good thing at the best of times ] Carsales. ok. Yes, that was me I wasn't sure if you would remember me.
