12:35 pm, October 10, 2009
YOU don’t have to be a franchised main dealer to have a smart website to enter into the Car Dealer Ewards 09 in association with autotorq.com.
DC Automobiles is an independent dealer based in Banstead, Surrey, that knows the importance the internet can have on a business.
Lorraine Angell, from DC Automobiles, explained they had been trading for the last 15 years but recently realised they needed to refresh their web presence.
‘In the last couple of years we have researched the need to modernise our website and have put all our advertising budget into our website,’ explained Angell.
‘We approached G-Forces and together have built a website that is our window to allow customers to see anything and everything about each individual car that we have.
‘All information is provided with a CAP lookup and each car has seven digital photos. We feel we are ahead of our competition.’
Clive Jackson, founder of the Car Dealer Ewards 09 headline sponsor Autotorq.com, was impressed with DCautomobiles.co.uk.
‘It’s a cleanly templated website that made it quick and easy for me to locate a used car and get examples of finance available,’ said Jackson.
‘I liked the ability to register for stock updates by email and I am an advocate of the live chat facility when switched on and operated. And it makes good use of photography for used cars.’
CLEAN DESIGN
It was the clean design that impressed our other judges too.
The G-Forces-designed site obviously hits the spot with those two judges! So far we’ve been inundated with entries to the Ewards, but time is running out to get yours in. Entering only takes a few minutes and there are categories for Franchised, Independent, Car Supermarket and Web Innovations. Details are in the panel above.
We also sent the DC Automobiles entry to Black Horse Motor Finance managing director Chris Sutton to take a look.
He said: ‘DC Automobiles’ site is a good example of the type I’m looking for. The design is clean and crisp, with a modern feel and interface. It’s hugely functional and easy to navigate, and is free of the excessive design and content which some sites display.’
And Shaun Armstrong, boss of Visit Cars, was equally full of praise, even going as far as saying it was ‘the best independent dealer site’ he’d ever seen. ‘When you first land on the homepage of DC Automobiles, it looks plain and not particularly memorable, until you scan it,’ he said. ‘But this has got to be one of the best independent dealer sites we have seen. The user journey has literally been covered from every angle down to even comparing cars in your own favourites section.
‘The call to action used throughout this site is the prominent driver, and any questions we had about the company or any car listed, was easy to find and clear to read. We love to see sites that have been truly built with the user in mind.’
Impressive stuff indeed, but there’s still time to get your site in front of our panel of expert judges. Find out how to by CLICKING HERE.
