Used car section....Just Awful...
Discussion
Just to jump in, as I have been here through all iterations... and since this was all fields.
Are the complaints about the way advertising is deployed on the site, or the actual functionality of the classifieds? I do agree that the multi-make drop down is not optimal for user experience, and we have designs in place to improve that part of the search journey.
As said in other threads, the nature of the classifieds has moved from more a browse (editorial look at nice car experience) to a connect a buyer with a seller. The downside is that you lose some of the traffic from browsers, and maybe the occasional bought on a whim purchase (but at these prices you have to be pretty rich, or not financially thinking right, to do that)... but the uplift in conversion from people visiting the classifieds to contacting a seller is the benefit.
Are the complaints about the way advertising is deployed on the site, or the actual functionality of the classifieds? I do agree that the multi-make drop down is not optimal for user experience, and we have designs in place to improve that part of the search journey.
As said in other threads, the nature of the classifieds has moved from more a browse (editorial look at nice car experience) to a connect a buyer with a seller. The downside is that you lose some of the traffic from browsers, and maybe the occasional bought on a whim purchase (but at these prices you have to be pretty rich, or not financially thinking right, to do that)... but the uplift in conversion from people visiting the classifieds to contacting a seller is the benefit.
LordFlathead said:
I've just bought another car on Monday 
I was looking for a specific model. Spent a few seconds trying out the classifieds then went straight to the Trader and bought one from there instead. Why does it automatically select ALL the vehicles from one manufacturer by default? Who honestly tries to buy a car with all models selected?? Madness
I only have one PH bookmark now and it points straight to gassing. That way you go straight to the forums and miss all the front page dross. Now that Chris Harris has left there is nothing redeeming about PH for me anymore.
PH has become News of the World. Bring back "Ted"
I (unenthusiastically) agree with all of this. I can't remember the last time I looked at the non-forum elements of PistonHeads. I was looking for a specific model. Spent a few seconds trying out the classifieds then went straight to the Trader and bought one from there instead. Why does it automatically select ALL the vehicles from one manufacturer by default? Who honestly tries to buy a car with all models selected?? Madness
I only have one PH bookmark now and it points straight to gassing. That way you go straight to the forums and miss all the front page dross. Now that Chris Harris has left there is nothing redeeming about PH for me anymore.
PH has become News of the World. Bring back "Ted"
@Pete:
Functionally, its not easy jumping to the make / model desired as it selects every model from a manufacturer and the default "newest ads first" is simply not logical (to my mind at least).
The main search page from the "Buy" navigation is slow to load and doesn't always place the selections in the same spot, so that you start to click on a selection, it moves and you've actually clicked on something else that hadn't loaded at the time.
Once the selection desired loads, for the first 5-8 seconds the screen is non-responsive to scrolling / clicking, then once clicking on the vehicle you want to view, it's a little faster (3-5 seconds) but again the screen is slow to load and non-responsive initially.
I'm finding that the top @40%+ of the screen is advertising and the PH banner / menu, so no detail of the selected vehicle is visible, except the picture. This is replicated across firefox and IE on a 1920 x 1200 display.
Hope this helps.
Functionally, its not easy jumping to the make / model desired as it selects every model from a manufacturer and the default "newest ads first" is simply not logical (to my mind at least).
The main search page from the "Buy" navigation is slow to load and doesn't always place the selections in the same spot, so that you start to click on a selection, it moves and you've actually clicked on something else that hadn't loaded at the time.
Once the selection desired loads, for the first 5-8 seconds the screen is non-responsive to scrolling / clicking, then once clicking on the vehicle you want to view, it's a little faster (3-5 seconds) but again the screen is slow to load and non-responsive initially.
I'm finding that the top @40%+ of the screen is advertising and the PH banner / menu, so no detail of the selected vehicle is visible, except the picture. This is replicated across firefox and IE on a 1920 x 1200 display.
Hope this helps.
RacingPete said:
Just to jump in, as I have been here through all iterations... and since this was all fields.
Are the complaints about the way advertising is deployed on the site, or the actual functionality of the classifieds? I do agree that the multi-make drop down is not optimal for user experience, and we have designs in place to improve that part of the search journey.
As said in other threads, the nature of the classifieds has moved from more a browse (editorial look at nice car experience) to a connect a buyer with a seller. The downside is that you lose some of the traffic from browsers, and maybe the occasional bought on a whim purchase (but at these prices you have to be pretty rich, or not financially thinking right, to do that)... but the uplift in conversion from people visiting the classifieds to contacting a seller is the benefit.
Is that working for you?Are the complaints about the way advertising is deployed on the site, or the actual functionality of the classifieds? I do agree that the multi-make drop down is not optimal for user experience, and we have designs in place to improve that part of the search journey.
As said in other threads, the nature of the classifieds has moved from more a browse (editorial look at nice car experience) to a connect a buyer with a seller. The downside is that you lose some of the traffic from browsers, and maybe the occasional bought on a whim purchase (but at these prices you have to be pretty rich, or not financially thinking right, to do that)... but the uplift in conversion from people visiting the classifieds to contacting a seller is the benefit.
I used to be a browser.
spitsfire said:
Yes, and true to a lesser degree across the whole PH site.
Although they do need these ads for revenue, it is a royal pain in the arse.
I don't really bother with the classifieds any more as a consequence - sorry, PH!
Not so sure about this. PH adverts used to be free, now you pay and have annoying adverts also. I now rarely have a look, the classifieds on here are going the same way as autotrader did, and I stopped using that site because of hangups waiting for adverts to load, and too many adverts.Although they do need these ads for revenue, it is a royal pain in the arse.
I don't really bother with the classifieds any more as a consequence - sorry, PH!
All this money spent on advertising on PH, yet we no longer look at the classifieds because of the adverts. Surely this should tell someone somewhere that they are wasting their money.
Wozy68 said:
Not so sure about this. PH adverts used to be free, now you pay and have annoying adverts also. I now rarely have a look, the classifieds on here are going the same way as autotrader did, and I stopped using that site because of hangups waiting for adverts to load, and too many adverts.
All this money spent on advertising on PH, yet we no longer look at the classifieds because of the adverts. Surely this should tell someone somewhere that they are wasting their money.
Only noobs pay, although I forget what the cut-off date is. The rest is true though, it's like someone's gone out of their way to render them unusable.All this money spent on advertising on PH, yet we no longer look at the classifieds because of the adverts. Surely this should tell someone somewhere that they are wasting their money.
hidetheelephants said:
Wozy68 said:
Not so sure about this. PH adverts used to be free, now you pay and have annoying adverts also. I now rarely have a look, the classifieds on here are going the same way as autotrader did, and I stopped using that site because of hangups waiting for adverts to load, and too many adverts.
All this money spent on advertising on PH, yet we no longer look at the classifieds because of the adverts. Surely this should tell someone somewhere that they are wasting their money.
Only noobs pay, although I forget what the cut-off date is. The rest is true though, it's like someone's gone out of their way to render them unusable.All this money spent on advertising on PH, yet we no longer look at the classifieds because of the adverts. Surely this should tell someone somewhere that they are wasting their money.
I stopped using it 2 years back with the first load of changes since them they have done the most impossiable things to do is make it worse and worse each time they have done improvments.
But as per usual the ph team will never address the real problems and just make it like it was 2-3 year back.
All my buying and selling it done via ebay and facebook which is a great tool for selling things and free too. You also get a wider audience and faster response and less scam messages too.
But as per usual the ph team will never address the real problems and just make it like it was 2-3 year back.
All my buying and selling it done via ebay and facebook which is a great tool for selling things and free too. You also get a wider audience and faster response and less scam messages too.
You can tell PH is owned by a publisher rather than a tech company. The site probably has the largest automotive captive audience for a website, certainly in the UK and I imagine up there on a global level. Yet the website side of things seems to be quite neglected whilst more effort seems to go on writing up half entertaining/interesting articles for the home page - which I imagine is something of a sideshow for most of us forum users.
ph1l5 said:
As the old saying goes "if its not broken don't fix it" The old format was perfect, easy to use and did what you wanted. I have tried to use the new format but just gave up.
From all reports, the old format was held together with duck tape & string. It relied on obsolete technologies which aren't receiving any bug/security fixes, so needed to go.elms said:
With Haymarkets money, Pistonheads had a great opportunity to take a huge chunk of the market away from Autotrader but they've somehow done the reverse.
I bet the guys at Autotrader cant believe their luck
Auto Trader was part of Guardian Media Group until the start of the year, and GMG take their web stuff pretty seriously, as you might expect. They were hiring Android & iOS engineers when I last heard from them. The point is, development costs money and requires a proper team. I bet the guys at Autotrader cant believe their luck
The forum we're posting on has barely changed in 13 years: http://web.archive.org/web/20010206195741/http://w...
Someone should lobby their boss for some cash.
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