That's car manufacturer's web sites.
Do you want to know the dimensions od a Skoda ? Hard luck, the web site won't tell you. Nor does the model a guy at work has just bought appear.
Do you want to "configure" an Audi ? The second page tells you it's forgotten your details, start again. I can understand the "Compare with other makes" part not working but don't they want to sell these things (use both sides of the paper if necessary) ?
And that's just scratching the surface. Surely the web is one of the top ways of selling these days and relatively cheap. So why not keep your web pages in good working order and up to date ? My local garden machinery shop does. If he can afford to why can't VAG and friends ?
John
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The web sites of car manufacturers seem generally to be poorly designed, badly coded, and worse than useless. Of course, a bad website reflects badly on the company.
I expected car manufacturers' web sites to be comparable to those of computer manufacturers': Manuals, tech info, discussion boards, parts & accessories. All we seem to get is some useless gimmicks powered by unstable JavaScript.
Not good enough!
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The quality, layout and ease of use of any website depends entirely on the skills and professionalism of the web design company engaged to create and maintain it.
Most of the car websites I've visited seem to be well designed and work as intended, either in IE or Firefox - as for exterior and interior dimensions I know, for instance, that the Ford website provides them for all its range, whilst Volvo has a build your own car configurator.
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>>Do you want to know the dimensions od a Skoda ? Hard luck, the web site won't tell you. Nor does the model a guy at work has just bought appear.
john - tell me the specific thing you can't find, and i will try and point you to the right location.
perhaps it is you rather than skoda who is at fault here?
e.g.
dimensions of a new octavia -
www.skoda.co.uk/skoda3g/content/showroom/newoctavi...x
or if you want to try harder yourself, start at
www.skoda.co.uk/skoda3g/content/extras/sitemap/sit...x
which model is it that the guy at work has that you can't find?
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Do you want to "configure" an Audi ? The second page tells you it's forgotten your details, start again. I can understand the "Compare with other makes" part not working but don't they want to sell these things (use both sides of the paper if necessary) ?
>>
i can;t help with the audi site as it needs flash enabled, which i won't use as a matter of principle.
it is possible though that your browser security settings are preventing your choices from the first page to be remembered by the second page.
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Thanks everyone and apologies to Skoda. I got the dimensions from HJ's review ! It was a general moan about the poor quality and failure to exploit a valuable resource. As someone said, go to a computer hardware or software site and you get every piece of information you could think of, including free trial downloads, web communities, a knowledgebase and (with some) darned good technical help.
And I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who's Flash phobic. I gave in in the end though.
Regards,
John
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For VW Audi, the UK master franchise holder (or whatever VAG UK are called) seem to make an Anglicised hash of the German site. Click on the .de version of the site, the options work, the price engine performs and the whole configurator seems to do it's job. Click on the .co.uk and some part time YTS Saturday bodge seems to open in your browser.
Ever tried using a browser other than IE on their site, the whole thing falls over.
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"Why are car web sites so bad ?"
Present company excepted, I hope!
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Indeed, I did say "Manufacturere's" web sites, though I couldn't squeeze it into the title
John
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>>Ever tried using a browser other than IE on their site, the whole thing falls over.>>
Well I use Firefox and the VW UK website works perfectly well.
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I think perhaps big manufacturers don't always want yer average punter who doesn't watch Top Gear or read Autocar to be reminded that Skodas and SEATs are based on VWs, Peugeots and Citroens are closely related under the skin, Jaguar X-type is based on a Mondeo etc. Maybe I'm wrong!
Cheers, SS
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I used the Audi website to search for second hand models and fully spec a car and had no problems. Remember other software running on your machine can upset websites. Our GIS system at work always crashes IE when I log out due to a conflict with Google toolbar.
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