New Website Coming-Muncie

[HopeD]

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Hate when the website offers an on-line quote and you ask for one, but never get it. Only e-mails and phone calls to come in and visit the dealership. Don't offer an online quote if you don't want to give one. I've purchased vehicles in the past because of a good online quote, but also have written off dealerships that ignore the request.

This exactly!!

 

[markjenn]

Great comments. Here's mine:

1. Hate the pop-up chats. Especially when they have to be dismissed on each and every new page refresh.
2. Reasonably accurate inventory, both on the lot and in transit.
3. The ability to see the actual window sticker of the car. Seems semi-common for Kia dealers.
4. Consistent/accurate specs that search properly. For example, don't list cars with a six-speed automatic transmission under three different names for the same transmission.
5. Good contact info with direct email addresses for individual sales people.
6. Up to date info on current mfg sales incentives.

I don't expect a dealer's web site to have bottom line discounted prices - the car business just isn't structured that way currently. Just show the MSRP and "Contact Us" for actual OTD pricing.

In my area (Bellingham WA), there's a pretty good Audi/VW/Porsche dealer who does the best job I've seen in keeping their web site up to date, taking good photos, and keeping the BS under control: www.rogerjobs.com

Cheers,

- Mark

 

[Lucas & Craig]

Great comments. Here's mine:

1. Hate the pop-up chats. Especially when they have to be dismissed on each and every new page refresh.
2. Reasonably accurate inventory, both on the lot and in transit.
3. The ability to see the actual window sticker of the car. Seems semi-common for Kia dealers.
4. Consistent/accurate specs that search properly. For example, don't list cars with a six-speed automatic transmission under three different names for the same transmission.
5. Good contact info with direct email addresses for individual sales people.
6. Up to date info on current mfg sales incentives.

I don't expect a dealer's web site to have bottom line discounted prices - the car business just isn't structured that way currently. Just show the MSRP and "Contact Us" for actual OTD pricing.

In my area (Bellingham WA), there's a pretty good Audi/VW/Porsche dealer who does the best job I've seen in keeping their web site up to date, taking good photos, and keeping the BS under control: www.rogerjobs.com

Cheers,

- Mark

Thank You!

 

[Wee]

I'll echo many of what has already been said.

- pop up chat heads are the worst, and they are not helpful at all. "Ohh I'm not sure, what is your phone number and I'll have the dealer contact you" you had one job man, one job...lol

- accurate contact info (email, phone) for each sales rep, manager etc... in the 'meet our team' section and please keep this up to date. Another thing I noticed here was on many websites there would be a list of 4-10 sales reps and they all have different titles - sales associate, sales consultant, customer advocate, client supervisor, new car advisor. Wait what? How do you all have different titles, lol

- Don't allow the header to be locked at the top of the screen and don't let the site get engineered where the header and can pop in and out of view based on if you're scrolling up or down. This is my biggest complaint with every and any website on the web, it is very distracting.

- as MarkJenn mentioned above, ability to view the real window sticker would be great. I found myself going on dealer sites then cross referencing the Kia.com site to find the window sticker, because calling the dealer or emailing and asking for it got me nowhere with 8/10 dealers.

- I don't know how to say this other than spend the money on a legit company that specializes in web design. Some dealer sites instantly give you that 'used car' dealer feel and reminiscent of web 2.0 circa 2003. While others look well polished and put together. With this goes quality photos of the dealership, some sites have photos of the dealership and facility that clearly show some random Joe just walked around and took photos. Hire a photographer to produce quality photos, this is often the dealers opportunity to make a first impression on me and if I feel like I'm walking into a sleazy used car lot online it's a red flag. (not saying Muncie's website has this issue just food for thought if doing a full rebuild)

- I have found on many websites the in-stock inventory listed on the website could be actually on the lot or could be in-transit. I drove to one dealer because I couldn't get anyone to pick up the phone and their site showed they had multiple vehicles in stock, only to find out they were all in-transit when we arrived.

- the less pop-ups the better. Usually when I go to a dealer website I'm hit with 3-4 pop-ups at any given time trying to capture my info or get me to sign up for something. This is only attempting to steal my attention away from what I'm trying to actually accomplish on the website, if it becomes a hassle I will just leave the sit and be done - don't make it difficult on the consumer.

- Make sure the header drop down menus make sense to the average consumer. Sometimes they make sense to an internet manager or the software engineer but when a consumer gets on the site the drop menus and their sub-options should make sense to them. Ohh and please DO NOT enable roll-over drop menus to pop up as the mouse rolls over them, this also becomes quickly annoying as my mouse is moving around the screen and items are dropping up, down, up, down....as the mouse rolls over them.

- please don't use the tactic "contact dealer for price" this just tells me they don't want to be transparent and what else will they not be forthcoming and transparent about if we got into an actual contract with them.

Hope that helps! @Jason Fox

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[Lucas & Craig]

I'll echo many of what has already been said.

- pop up chat heads are the worst, and they are not helpful at all. "Ohh I'm not sure, what is your phone number and I'll have the dealer contact you" you had one job man, one job...lol

- accurate contact info (email, phone) for each sales rep, manager etc... in the 'meet our team' section and please keep this up to date. Another thing I noticed here was on many websites there would be a list of 4-10 sales reps and they all have different titles - sales associate, sales consultant, customer advocate, client supervisor, new car advisor. Wait what? How do you all have different titles, lol

- Don't allow the header to be locked at the top of the screen and don't let the site get engineered where the header and can pop in and out of view based on if you're scrolling up or down. This is my biggest complaint with every and any website on the web, it is very distracting.

- as MarkJenn mentioned above, ability to view the real window sticker would be great. I found myself going on dealer sites then cross referencing the Kia.com site to find the window sticker, because calling the dealer or emailing and asking for it got me nowhere with 8/10 dealers.

- I don't know how to say this other than spend the money on a legit company that specializes in web design. Some dealer sites instantly give you that 'used car' dealer feel and reminiscent of web 2.0 circa 2003. While others look well polished and put together. With this goes quality photos of the dealership, some sites have photos of the dealership and facility that clearly show some random Joe just walked around and took photos. Hire a photographer to produce quality photos, this is often the dealers opportunity to make a first impression on me and if I feel like I'm walking into a sleazy used car lot online it's a red flag. (not saying Muncie's website has this issue just food for thought if doing a full rebuild)

- I have found on many websites the in-stock inventory listed on the website could be actually on the lot or could be in-transit. I drove to one dealer because I couldn't get anyone to pick up the phone and their site showed they had multiple vehicles in stock, only to find out they were all in-transit when we arrived.

- the less pop-ups the better. Usually when I go to a dealer website I'm hit with 3-4 pop-ups at any given time trying to capture my info or get me to sign up for something. This is only attempting to steal my attention away from what I'm trying to actually accomplish on the website, if it becomes a hassle I will just leave the sit and be done - don't make it difficult on the consumer.

- Make sure the header drop down menus make sense to the average consumer. Sometimes they make sense to an internet manager or the software engineer but when a consumer gets on the site the drop menus and their sub-options should make sense to them. Ohh and please DO NOT enable roll-over drop menus to pop up as the mouse rolls over them, this also becomes quickly annoying as my mouse is moving around the screen and items are dropping up, down, up, down....as the mouse rolls over them.

- please don't use the tactic "contact dealer for price" this just tells me they don't want to be transparent and what else will they not be forthcoming and transparent about if we got into an actual contract with them.

Hope that helps! @Jason Fox

Very detailed and thank you! toyotasouth.com is one of our newer sites. Let me know what you think.

 

[Wee]

Very detailed and thank you! toyotasouth.com is one of our newer sites. Let me know what you think.

I don't love the auto drop down menu just from rolling over with the mouse but it's not terrible because the menu is at the very top of the screen.

I'm always on a 13" screen with either my Macbook or Chromebook. When headers are locked and stay active they take up valuable real estate on the screen. I scrolled halfway down the page and the header is still taking up 20% of my screen. This is something that bothers me on 90% of websites today, I'm sure the data in A-B testing suggest it is more useful but personally I just find it to be annoying. I would prefer the header not be locked and move scroll out of view just like the rest of the web page.

Most everything else looks really good. Also I liked when I clicked on Corolla it took me to a landing page that had more info about the Corolla and when I clicked on 'view inventory' it automatically filtered to Corolla inventory. Most dealer sites just require you then to start from scratch and filter what you're looking for, from each vehicle page when clicking 'view inventory' the next page should be only inventory of that particular vehicle of where you came from as experienced on your Toyota site.

I like that there were phone numbers listed under each employees name, although most of the numbers were the same, at least it's something vs. me having to go to a different part of the site for the phone number or look to the corner of the webpage or something. This is a small detail but helpful for the end user.

 

[Drewski]

Lots of good ideas above. To concur or add:

• No chat popups
• Window sticker pdf
• MSRP as well as special price / sale price / incentives
• Real-time inventory updates - please no listings with "SOLD" overlay!
• Actual photos
• Pertinent dealer info including email contact
• Special event info posted prominently on home page
• Simple filtering for inventory search - the worst websites force the user to scroll endlessly through everything

 

[Lucas & Craig]

Lots of good ideas above. To concur or add:

• No chat popups
• Window sticker pdf
• MSRP as well as special price / sale price / incentives
• Real-time inventory updates - please no listings with "SOLD" overlay!
• Actual photos
• Pertinent dealer info including email contact
• Special event info posted prominently on home page
• Simple filtering for inventory search - the worst websites force the user to scroll endlessly through everything

Working on all of these! Thank You!

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