Carzone secrets!

smash

I just saw they're looking for staff... so why don't you apply and add the extra functionality yourselves....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055119550

Eoin

rebel.ranter wrote:

Surely it would not be too difficult to have a table (or tables) that has a list of all cars in the background, like the way it already works when you choose the "Make" it only gives you the option of the "Model"(s) related to that Make.
e.g.
When the advertiser goes to add in a BMW 523i for Sale:

- it automatically pulls the engine size from the table related to the 523i
- it automatically lists it as a 5 series because it says that's what it is in the table
- You only get the option of saloon/touring because that's all the table allows (so no more SUV/MPV 523is)
- No. of doors can then be auto-populated too.
- It could prompt for other fields based on related important information like spec:
i.e. forcing them to fill "Sport" "SE" or for other makes "LX" "GLX" "GTI" "Red TDI 130BHP", etc.

By doing all this to begin with it would reduce the amount of spurious info being entered. Ultimately it makes it easier for the buying public to see what they want.

I suggested something similar a while ago, but steve06 is right about the maintenance that would be required. It's still a very easy interface to use, if people spent just 30 seconds proof-reading their adverts, there's only so much hand holding carzone can do.

steve06 wrote:

I just saw they're looking for staff... so why don't you apply and add the extra functionality yourselves....

I'd say it'd be an interesting enough thing to work on - would be great if the new developers asked for some input from this forum.

smash

eoin_s wrote:

I'd say it'd be an interesting enough thing to work on - would be great if the new developers asked for some input from this forum.

can you imagine all the whingers up here giving their 2 cents.... haha

PeteK*

But when you use the '5 Series' search only.. it does not show all the 5 Series BMWs you're expecting to pop up. It only shows the ones people have added to that area when they put up their ad, I think - or however they add them.

It would be good to see small images of the cars on the left of the ad like other sites.

Also, there is no search for 'M Tech' or 'Xenons' etc., is there?

Eoin

Chatmaster wrote:

But when you use the '5 Series' search only.. it does not show all the 5 Series BMWs you're expecting to pop up. It only shows the ones people have added to that area when they put up their ad, I think - or however they add them.

It would be good to see small images of the cars on the left of the ad like other sites.

Also, there is no search for 'M Tech' or 'Xenons' etc., is there?

No, a "5 series" is treated as a distinct model, rather than a group of models. Like I said, allowing multiple selections would help this.

You can see thumbnails of the cars though - use the "Listing Format" option to switch this on and off.

Edit: and you're correct that there's no option to search the free text field, which would be very handy indeed.

Gerry

steve06 wrote:

Can you imagine how much server load it would take and how much database input and maintenance it would take to keep a historical list of every engine size for every varient of every model of every make.... There's no way it would work.

And you couldn't list all 5 series together, because the model isn't 5 series... the model is 525, 523, 530 and there's massive price differences between them. then you've got the varients too...

Look at revenues vrt calculator. It manages it. Database input - sure, a lot at the start. Hire a student in the summer, give them a few weeks. If the software is properly designed, it should be straightforward data entry. On an ongoing basis, you just have to add new cars. Theres no excuse for the "leading" car sales website not to have a well structured database and web front end that forces cars to be categorised properly.

OKenora

Can you imagine how much server load it would take and how much database input and maintenance it would take to keep a historical list of every engine size for every varient of every model of every make.... There's no way it would work.

There's hundreds of sites that do it and it's dead easy to do. No reason carzone can't do it too other than laziness, or excessive development charges by their coding team making small ongoing changes prohibitively expensive, so they only make changes in blocks and when needed.

PeteK*

eoin_s wrote:

No, a "5 series" is treated as a distinct model, rather than a group of models. Like I said, allowing multiple selections would help this.

Oh, I expected it to show all the 5 series they have no matter what model.

eoin_s wrote:

You can see thumbnails of the cars though - use the "Listing Format" option to switch this on and off.

Is it off by default?

Eoin

Chatmaster wrote:

Oh, I expected it to show all the 5 series they have no matter what model.

That's the logical thing to expect, but somewhere along the way, someone must have entered 5 series as a new model rather than selecting the variant, and that's causing the confusion.

Chatmaster wrote:

Is it off by default?

I think so, and there's no option to save the search preferences to a cookie either. What I do is just refine several searches as much as possible, and bookmark them.

smash

OKenora wrote:

There's hundreds of sites that do it and it's dead easy to do. No reason carzone can't do it too other than laziness, or excessive development charges by their coding team making small ongoing changes prohibitively expensive, so they only make changes in blocks and when needed.

like what sites... Autotrader doesn't do it... fish4 doesn't do it, ebay doesn't do it, carsireland doesn't do it, cbg doesn't do it.... cars.com doesn't do it and they're the biggest in the world!

Wazdakka

steve06 wrote:

like what sites... Autotrader doesn't do it... fish4 doesn't do it, ebay doesn't do it, carsireland doesn't do it, cbg doesn't do it.... cars.com doesn't do it and they're the biggest in the world!

Online car Insurance quotes?
They obiously enough make a point of knowing, listing, and making you choose exactly that info.

Eoin

Wazdakka wrote:

Online car Insurance quotes?
They obiously enough make a point of knowing, listing, and making you choose exactly that info.

I don't think it matters what type of interface you put in front of the dealers (who seem to be worse than private sellers for adding bad information). No matter how easy you make it, they will make errors.

It's pretty much impossible to try and stop any mistakes being entered, but what you can do is enhance the search engine side of it.

I don't know what the DB structure is like, but I can't imagine the following changes being that hard to implement:

• Allowing multiple choice selections on county, model and maybe body type
• Putting max and min mileage dropdowns - the functionality is already there in the background as was mentioned previously by steve06
• Having a keyword text field - if I recall, there is a free text box for extra details - but this isn't searchable

smash

I'd agree with adding more functionality... mileage, options like leather etc, maybe a tick box to exclude modified cars, only show cars with photos but the keyword... na, cos then it would end up like ebay... you'd search for an alfa and get "BMW 316 - not a ferrari, audi, mercedes, alfa romeo, honda" and I don't want that crap when I'm looking for a car.

prospect

eoin_s wrote:

I don't think it matters what type of interface you put in front of the dealers (who seem to be worse than private sellers for adding bad information). No matter how easy you make it, they will make errors.

It's pretty much impossible to try and stop any mistakes being entered, but what you can do is enhance the search engine side of it.

I don't know what the DB structure is like, but I can't imagine the following changes being that hard to implement:

• Allowing multiple choice selections on county, model and maybe body type
• Putting max and min mileage dropdowns - the functionality is already there in the background as was mentioned previously by steve06
• Having a keyword text field - if I recall, there is a free text box for extra details - but this isn't searchable

Although I mostly agree with this, I don't fully agree.

It would be easy enough for carzone to have a referential database of car types. So when a dealer selects a Citroen & Berlingo, the VAN field automagically fills in.

Look at this search result:
All, Diesel, Coupes, Price= €1 to €10000
http://tinyurl.com/2ctvwg

That type of thing is easy to prevent.

Similarly they can only allow the engine options any particular car is offered in.
Also, they should be FORCED to give a price, I hate this P.O.A. crap.
And the mileage should be a required field.

Eoin

note

prospect wrote:

Although I mostly agree with this, I don't fully agree.

It would be easy enough for carzone to have a referential database of car types. So when a dealer selects a Citroen & Berlingo, the VAN field automagically fills in.

Look at this search result:
All, Diesel, Coupes, Price= €1 to €10000
http://tinyurl.com/2ctvwg

That type of thing is easy to prevent.

Similarly they can only allow the engine options any particular car is offered in.
Also, they should be FORCED to give a price, I hate this P.O.A. crap.
And the mileage should be a required field.

I can see your point, but cars like a focus come in a hatchback, estate, saloon and car van, not to mention the amount of engine variants available. So, even if you tie it down to the valid options, it still leaves a lot of room for error, which the garages are sure to do.

whosedaddy?

I know its manual... but you can add the following to the url as well.

&owners_max=X to get only hits with X owners
&mileage_min= similar to &mileage_max= mentioned by steve06

you can also have multiple &ModelID=
so if do searches for the 523 and the 5 series, and copy the values you can get both displayed at same time.

same doesn't work for body type. can't show hatchbacks AND Coupes together.

Haven't found the table names for summary or comments.

WD

smash

so here you go...

you're looking for a DB9, F430 or Bentley Continental with 1 owner and a max of 20k on the clock... and you want to see thumbnails!

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/?fuseaction=search&ModelID=1729,922,693&mileage_max=20000&owners_max=1&ResultFormat=extended

whosedaddy?

the list is longer than I would have thought.. Unfortunately not my price range..

edit: deleted cause i'm blind...

prospect

steve06 wrote:

so here you go...

you're looking for a DB9, F430 or Bentley Continental with 1 owner and a max of 20k on the clock... and you want to see thumbnails!

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/?fuseaction=search&ModelID=1729,922,693&mileage_max=20000&owners_max=1&ResultFormat=extended

Brilliant, thanks, that is exactly the criteria I had for my next car.