New site: Used Car Dealer

[graczyka77]

Hello everyone,

This is my first Joomla site and being for a used car dealer, was a little unique for me. They have been happy with it and maintain their inventory, listings, etc. on their own. They wanted a nice, simple site for customers in the area to view vehicles they have available. It is a dealership in a small town, so they didn't need anything elaborate. Personally, I think it is easier to navigate/view than many of the large and small dealerships in the area.

Website URL: http://ryansusedcarsinc.com
Template: JA_Purity
Extensions: RD-Autos 1.5.4 Beta (modified), Z Weather 6 Beta 5, Plugin GoogleMaps
Things I'm working on:
1) The pages for the inventory cause the "menu shift" bug to occur in IE 6. Looking for the source of that problem as it must be somewhere in RD-Autos.
2) Template update/change - mainly for the logo to add some interest/visibility.
3) "Something" for the front page to add interest. The client is looking to get me some photos of the dealership or family (it is family owned/operated) to place on there somewhere.
4) Possible updates to the lightbox system. It is functional, but I think it could be a little better.

Please feel free to share any thoughts or ideas that you have for the site. I'll warn you that I'm new to Joomla features, but am eager to learn anything that you throw my way.

Cheers!

[Stasys]

waw, nice job, thanks for Extension

[hamanaka]

cool site,

I don't think you need the bottom menu, that stuff could be better organized into the side menu, and that too could be better organized...

otherwise you got it!

[hamanaka]

...and I never put links to the admin stuff on the front-end.

that much just be my insecurity..

[JoeJoomla]

I think having an easy to find map is a good thing, but not as the main feature on the home page.

Emotions sell, not maps. I expected to see a really hot car or hot car deal on the home page. You aren't selling maps. Get some nice car images or car related graphics on that front page.

Right off the bat you need to make an impression. Why should someone buy a car from you? What are you offering? Why should I spend time looking through this car site?

First impressions are HUGE, make the most of it! Put my dream car up on that front page at a price I'm willing to pay! That will get my attention fast. Or maybe you offer something else I can't resist? Free oil changes for life perhaps?

[hamanaka]

but don't just expose a car article, maybe a blog list layout or something.

have like the Deal of the week with better pictures in a rotator or slideshow?, and then maybe three other good deals in the list layout, then bait-and-switch and get them into the more expensive sports car, YEAH BABY!!!!

I always wanted to be a used car salesman! I would run out to the curb and greet every person, I might even camp out in a trailer in the front yard so people could buy a car 24 hours a day, can I come work for you? nevermind your website might put me out of a job...

round em' up online! excellent idea to have a homebrew website, I almost feel like I am going to get a good deal from you guys. Who is Ryan? I perceive him as a mechanic who sells the cars he fixes, the old fashion way? Maybe a pic could help, or might hurt? hard to say.

Good luck with the Independent car sales site!

[downloadthis]

Hi Ryan... Firs thing that pops out is the fact that you're wasting prime real estate - your home page - on showing me where you are. That's not going to bring in business... What's going to attract people is showing off some of the best deals you've got. Show me a nice picture of a good car in excellent shape that's priced to sell and I'll keep looking.

Also - you should consider including some extras: a payment calculator, last car sold, info on current interest rates, etc... Just to keep it interesting.

Other than that - I think you're off to a good start!

[graczyka77]

Thank you all for the responses thus far. I'll work with my client to make some modifications based on your feedback. Great ideas!! I agree that there needs to be something "personal" on the homepage. They are in the process of getting me some family and business pictures (it is a family owned business), but they are having trouble deciding which ones.

Before the map was there, it was simply text and I knew something was missing. While I was waiting for pictures, I decided to put something there. I'll look at maybe having some car picture in there instead - maybe even ones they have for sale. Hmm.

Thank you all again! I'll post more information as the site changes.

Cheers!

[ijockz]

You might try utilizing some of the module classes that come with that theme... my site uses the same base theme and if you notice there are some nifty ways to make things look a little more clean AKA no bullets in the menus etc.

[window]

I like the intro movie, I like how you done that.

[Big Red]

I think it works. The site is about selling used cars, short n simple. Gives you an ad platform and gets your business out there, along with the list of used cars, thats all you need IMHO. Some fancy websites just hit you with a wall of stuff and it starts to be more about looks than content.
Just my 2 cent worth.

[jools_dev]

Hey guys, has anyone developed a site that allows users to post their own cars for sale with joomla? I am looking for a reference as I have this project on my plate right now. Any hint would be greatly appreciated...

[ray17]

Hello! Your site looks good and RD-Autos seems like a nice component. I've used JA Purity on my cars site and it looks a bit like yours.

@jools_dev - I've done carscase.com, which is a site that allows users to post their own cars, but not for sale.

[frank_in_oz]

Nice site graczyka77.

I am looking to build a site for a hire company. They hire anything from wine glasses to tractors and machinery.

They DON'T want an ecommerce option, rather a site to display 300 plus products. i.e. a web presence allowing potential customers to view online what they have available for hire. There are 30 plus broad groupings e.g. plumbing equipment, scaffolding etc. Within each grouping there would be up to 30 items.

Do you (or anyone else here) think RD-Autos 1.5.4 Beta could be modified to manage these type of products?

many thanks

Frank

[graczyka77]

Thank you for all of the comments and feedback!

John, to address your questions - the template for the overall site is JA Purity that is typically installed with Joomla! as I found it to be very flexible with the layout and compatible with a number of browsers. I also like the clean, uncluttered look that it has. The RD Autos extension that I used is the free version with some modifications for some items (VIN, different fuels, etc.) and enhancements (CarFax link from VIN, graphic, etc.).

I did look at other extensions like Autostand, but at the time they didn't have a version for the 1.5 platform and lacked some of the flexibility that I saw in the RD Autos extension. In looking at your site, I think that the RD Autos extension would work well for much of it, but the amount of detail you have in the article layout probably wouldn't lend itself to be included in the typical RD Autos layout. My guess is that you'd probably still have much of that information contained in articles. I really like the layout you have for your articles.

I don't know that there is a "grid" layout of the sites that will show you how they are categorized or sectioned, but you can get some idea by looking at the sitemap of the sites as they will generally show common groupings of pages.

frank_in_oz - Sorry about the delay to your response. I do think that RD Autos could give you a nice platform for displaying a number of different types of items. It is very flexible with regards to categories and the like. However, it is not as flexible at different features for those categories. For example, if you wanted a section for tractors, a section for implements, and a section for wine glasses, that is fine. The descriptors for items would have to be the same, however. In other words, you wouldn't be able to have the tractor's section show hours, color, and transmission, without it showing in the wine glasses section also. That's really the only downside that I could see. You could, however, disable all of the descriptors and just use the free form comments, I guess.

My client has been very happy with the site and has received a lot of positive feedback from customers. Based on the traffic and hits that the cars have seen on the web, it is obvious that consumers are active on the web and very interested in seeing if making the trip is worth their while.

Despite the current economic conditions, their sales are up from where they were prior to having the website. It makes me wonder if they'd be one of the many used car lots that have gone belly-up recently because of the slump in sales. It is good piece of mind that successfully running a business is still about fundamentals, accessibility, and communication.

Best regards,
Tony

[itnewcomer]

I think u should remove admin on the frontpage for security issued...cracker can enter from here...

overall nice website ..so simple ...

visit my site http://www.terrorbladegame.com ... my first web too

[theluck]

Cool website... but maybe need more color... just to much white and black...

[John86]

website is looking cool i got gr8 info you can get more helpful information about used car dealers at

[nyak]

Nice website !

But the front image loading too slow in my browser here.

So there a chance the visitor do not see the frontpage image

Well done

[hb7of10]

Nice site, but perhaps a car dealer site should have mainly images of cars on the front page. and no so much other clutter

[joomfriend]

Good site but needs some good contents on it. It looks empty. As you are a car dealer you ca use some good car sales or classified ads components which are available in the JED.

[Ace2110]

If it were my site, I'd definitely move the weather report down the column on the right hand side as it's not important.

I would add an internet special or something in that space.

Also I notice that you don't have any information on financing on your site. Do you not have a financing source? If you have one, putting a calculator and some other information makes a ton of sense.