Hooniverse Asks – What Car Maker Has the Worst Website?
Sometimes we have to check out a manufacturer’s website to find a spec, sometimes we like optioning up some cheap-ass car in the Build Your Own until it tips over from the excess of options and price. Usually it’s a pretty painless exercise as most auto makers are pretty web 2.0, but occasionally we come across a web site that looks like it was designed by Italian unionists. Those usually make our heads hurt. Which ones do that for you?
What country was this car built in? It no longer exists. . . put it in h!
Scion’s Flash®-heavy site requires a pop-up window to get to Build Your Own, as obviously their cars are too awesome to be contained in but a single pane. Ot only that but instead of selecting options by an efficient check box, Scion demands that you drag the picture of the option onto the picture of the car to add that feature. Hey Scion, eff that, make it work better you dorks.
Sites of other manufacturers bury model links and make finding specs like mileage a task akin to the search fro the holy grail. Subaru’s site loads in a static 900 pixel width, just like AOL did, back in the day. Their cars are at least presented clearly on the home page, although again, its reliance on Flash® makes getting anywhere frustratingly time consuming.
What’s your pet peeve about manufacturer websites- Speed? Navigation? Overall lameness? And which Auto Maker website gets your vote for worst of the bunch?
Image sources: [scion.com, artbedev.com]
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It's a toss-up between GM and Ford. The low-res pics in the GM configurator are hilariously blurry and make even the CTS-V look like a blurry, poorly-painted piece of shit. Ford at least has decent resolution pics but your options don't really update them.
I'd say Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep/etc. I have yet to find specs on a damn challenger. (ie. headroom, legroom, etc)
It's not the easiest to navigate. Still, go here and click on "Dimensions & Capacities."
thanks
Sometimes it is easier to go to a OEM media site for spec data rather than their consumer site. Some media sites require logins but it the Chrysler one does not. http://www.media.chrysler.com Click on the Dodge brand and find all the specs in the lower right corner.
I think Chrysler had it right, back in 1997
http://web.archive.org/web/19970124151014/http://…
Chryslers early-oughts website was pretty great too. They had a fantastic gallery of concept cars, with lots of photos and copy to geek out over.
http://www.lada-auto.ru/
all the links are broken there or maybe http://eng.gazgroup.ru/
A thought just occurred to me, clicking around n the the GAZ site. Would or should a Volga Siber be a valid and legal entry in a hypothetical 12 Hours of Sebrings race?
I want to know how they made the Sebring look even shoddier than Chrysler did.
PRACTICE! Lots and lots of practice!
Also: Hammers.
…and Vodka.
In Mother Russia, Website comes to you
Fiat USA's Website is pretty bad. There are three different trim levels for the 500, but it doesn't explain the differences between them. Chevy's Website is also pretty craptacular too.
I bet if all the Hoonitarians visit Bristol's site at once, we'll bring it down:
http://www.bristolcars.co.uk
Probably the only manufacturer's site to offer used cars for sale direct.
Hey, Rob can use that feature for his "Nice Tweed Jacket or Calabash Pipe…?" write-ups…!
Their fancy website doesn't facilitate direct links (in part answering the main Hooniverse Asks question), but arielmotor.co.uk also offers used cars if you dig around a bit.
Caterham does as well (at least in the UK)
Mercedes does the same, at least in Europe, click on "gebrauhtfarzeuge", you can see approved sec. hand cars dealers have. http://www.mercedes-benz.de/content/germany/mpc/m…
I went there, still active though. I now inexplicably want a Series 6.
I subscribe to a Bristol news letter, and big changes are afoot on Kensington High Street, not only have they hired a PR company, they are in the process of revamping their website- so watch this space!
For all your vapourware requirements, Gerry and his friends will hook you up.
How can it be vapourware? Here's a shot of me standing right next to mine after my first 275mph run:
<img src="http://www.vectormotors.com/graphics/small600/dsc_0333-modelsv2-sm-sm.png" />
My first thought was Chrysler. It's not a horrible website, but they are trying really hard to make 6-10 year old products look exciting again. Hell, even the "All New" 200 is just a front and rear fascia refresh on the Sebring.
My next thought was MINI USA's website. It's overly flash heavy, and to select a vehicle to see specs or build your own you put the mouse over the picture of it and a popup comes up where you can select specs or build your own. The problem is, you have to move the mouse just right or the pop up disappears. Aggravating. The only thing that saves MINI from being as bad as Chrysler are the games.
Well, there is the Pentastar motor and the new interior, too. It's too bad the engineers had to preserve so much of the old Sebring structure that we can tell what the 200 came from, but at least they made the car into what it should have been when it launched so now it's a reasonable stop-gap till the next platform comes along.
Not due to the page designs, but because every page is a dagger into my soul.
http://www.mgmotor.co.uk/
I'll go with Oka Auto USA on this one. Want a Soviet designed Lada Oka that is converted to an electric city car and sold in the USA? This is your only choice then. <url> http://www.okaauto.com/<url>
That takes the cake. Nevada Russians pushing worst crap soviet car industry managed to invent but with electric motor.
On the plus side, that weird dream I once had about a Yugoslavian architecture professor driving a Lada around suburban Kansas City could actually become real!
And they use AOL for their email correspondence. AOL! Honestly!
Until recently http://www.zimmermotorcars.com had a spectacularly appalling site.
It even played a song.
The song had lyrics.
As for current automakers, my beloved mini's new configurator is irritating, flash-only, glitchy in everythign but IE, and never explains why some options aren't available. I got flashbacks to MYST.
Wow. How do Zimmer sell anything since Liberace died?
Elton John and Tom Jones are still around, aren't they?
They need the other kind of zimmer.
<img src="http://infofranpro.wdfiles.com/local–files/20091209-seniors-beat/ZimmerFrame.jpg" width="300">
the horror
Actually spotted a Zimmer on I-5 about two months ago. Took some shoddy cell-phone snaps. Felt like I'd seen bigfoot. A really gaudy, awful bigfoot, but still.
+1 just for the MYST reference…!
Carver-Europe.com.
Not only totally useless, but deeply depressing.
<img src="http://www.tanshanomi.com/temp/carver-europe.com.jpg">
Here's another depressing one, as it hasn't changed in years…
http://www.jossecar.com
They're going on tour in the summer of 1997!!
I'll show you depressing.
http://www.pontiac.com
I can one up that – Oldsmobile.
That actually makes me sad.
Oh, me too. I hold a soft spot for the entire brand, from 442s and Rocket 88s, to the 1rst gen Aurora and Shortstar Intrigue, even as far as the Cutlass Ciera (especially in Burnt Sienna). Olds's outdated site, left open for whatever reason, reminds me of Seymour (Phillip Fry's dog).
thank you for thefargo reference
Also http://www.mercuryvehicles.com. The dead/dying brand sites are sort of like being asked to write and publish your own obituary in advance. On the Mercury site, it says "Mercury to Cease Production at the End of 2010" and there is a link to "learn more," only that link takes you now to a generic FoMoCo news site that doesn't say a word about Mercury anywhere.
Or 'Olsmobile', as it's spelled at the bottom of the page.
Lol – I was one of the main devs on the new scion.com. Not the build your scion site, but the main one. When initially approached for the job I told them that Flash was overused, especially for car sites. But they wanted flash, not just flash, but a HUGE flash site that wouldn't fit on smaller screens. Now they are fielding lots of complaints. Ah well. At least it looks cool.
What you've described is this, with a little bit of this.
BMW Motorcycles. I dare anyone to learn anything about what they make on that site. http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/us/en/index.html
Try getting info from this site: http://www.laverda.it/
Well, there *IS* no information to be had — The last Laverda rolled off the line about seven years ago. The website is still around only because Piaggio is trying to sell off the name. So it really can't be compared to BMW, which actually makes motorcycles.
But the other kids were allowed Pontiac and Oldsmobile!
*runs upstairs and slams bedroom door*
In fairness, Pontiac never actually made cars. Well, not in an excessively long time, anyhow. I can assume that Laverda actually made something at some point. Pontiacs were pretty much always just rebadged Chevrolets (or Holdens) (or Opels) (or Daewoos) (or Suzukis) (or Oldsmobiles)…
Impossible to deal with? Pretty? That seems suitably Italian.
Cynical bastard.
No, he's being nice – I would've given it a 9.
I bring you Packard:
http://www.packardmotorcar.com/
I don't know what's worse; the website or the vehicle itself?
Yes.
Sweet mother of God. Somebody managed to out-ugly the Mitsuoka Orochi!
I believe the grille and trunklid may actually be from a rusted-beyond-salvation 'pregnant elephant' Packard. That'd be the only explanation. Terrifying.
Wow. I could have sworn that was made with Microsoft Frontpage 98, but the source code is to clean.
It's easy to navigate? At least?
Most Italians are a Flash powered test of patience. Lambo, Lancia, Alfa… they all enrage me.
You're not kidding – Lancia displayed nothing but the logo with no links anywhere, Lamborghini was a gong-show, and Alfa, whew…I clicked on the link for models, and the website fell over.
Now if this was a question on Atomic Toasters for general website fails, I've got a grab-bag of friggin' doozies *hinthint*
http://websitesthatsuck.com/
I think that is just to prepare you for what the ownership experience would be like
For a while Iveco's UK site seemed more about their sponsorship tie-in with some soccer club than about, you know, trucks.
Another vote for GM, more specifically their car configurator. When you try to look at the features of your chosen car, there's a link named 1SA. Naturally, you'd expect a feature list to pop down. But noo, you get "Includes 1SA". So silly.
It's not the websites I mind, it's the broken inventory lookup. Just yesterday, Cadillac's website told me there were 3 cars locally that were a 100% match for the base, stickshift CTS I had configured. All had automatics.
Is this somehow a 100% match??
This one's pretty bad too: http://www.avantimotors.com/
Ouch. Apparently there are no options to be had.
And 2007 is the newest model year.
For the last 20-25 years, it's been open to debate as to whether Avanti still even makes cars.
It would be interesting to see actual production figures since about 1987 or so. Apparently 1986 was the last year for the true original Studebaker design (with Chevy engines since the mid-60s).
What is it with venerable dead brands and crappy websites?
http://www.studebakermotorcompany.com/concept-veh…
"LEAVE STUDEBAKER ALONE!"
I can't remember which one, but some yahoos grabbed an old name and tried to roll out some larger-then-hummer-h1 thing? Edsel? Packard? I can't find it.
Avanti/Studebaker
<img src="http://image.motortrend.com/f/8575635+w750/112_05_future_z+2005_studebaker_avanti_suv+front_right.jpg"width=500>
Ah, yes. That.
It was another "Studebaker"… link
Dodge Germany…..
http://www.dodge.de
Didn't see that. The tears of laughter I always suffer from when I see a zimmer must have obscured my vision.
http://www.lamborghini.com/ "ready to ride?"
Aston Martin….. Only likes Internet Explorer…… Fail
http://www.astonmartin.com/configurator/db9volant…
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