Virtually Paul

Why I hate Car Sales websites

April 22, 2009 on 11:24 pm | In Links, Thoughts | 5 Comments

I hate car sales websites.  You know the ones.  They show you all of the cars but they won’t tell you where they actually are before you submit your email address and phone number.  This information is then passed on to the car dealer, generating a sales lead and thereby making money for the website.  Regardless of how many times you put “Please don’t call me” in the comments box, the dealers invariably will call you anyway, at least once.  Sure, you could conceivably act like a 15 year old and fake an email address and phone number to satisfy the input validation, but who can seriously be bothered when they could just make the websites user-friendly?

Tonight, however, I achieved a minor victory for prospective car buyers across the great state of Victoria.  You see, fortunately for us little consumers we have these wonderful laws which require Licenced Motor Car Traders (LMCT) to disclose their trading licence number when they advertise a vehicle for sale.  You will find this inconveniently placed at the bottom of each ad on the various websites, such that you have to scroll to get to it.  However, once you have this little gem, if the dealer is in Victoria, you can use the LMCT number to get their address from the Department of Justice Public Register.  Then you can happily go car browsing and shopping without them knowing that you’re coming.

Web usability: 1  Car industry: 0

Tell your friends.

(It’s been a while between posts, I know.)

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