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New car listing site?

Hasn't this been tried before?

Don't underestimate the colts of running this nor the support needed (whether is free or not).

Yago,
Yes. The "idea" here is nothing earth shattering. But user experience will be. And a site built with what I have in mind cannot be copied easily. These are not features that you add to an existing site. Well you can add one or two. But to copy the whole concept for an existing major will be pretty expensive.

Regarding costs for me:
- I can get the site up and running for free
- I will be able to host (and handle traffic) upto 1 million users per day on my own for a total cost of a few thousand $. I can build my own servers and back end hosting, and know a few folks in the data center business to help me out.

I will have to figure out the business side of things. But a reasonable 7 figure VC/Angel investment is not out of question once prototype is ready.
 
...My analysis indicates that they are using "black hat" SEO techniques that will result in getting blacklisted from Google. I am surprised this hasn't happened already. While not a bad looking site, let's face it, it's not the best in town. It looks and feels like a "web scraper"

Be careful Mike, opinions are best formed from your failures and you have yet to fail. Let your prototypes take your ideas forward. FYI: CarGurus is the brain child of Langley Steinert. His prior failure was TripAdvisor.com. He's a few hundred million dollars ahead of you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TripAdvisor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CarGurus
 
I can't weigh in on the complexities of putting together a site like you are talking about. I don't know how easy or difficult it will be, I don't know what it will or won't cost, and I damn sure don't know if a 7 figure VC investment is reasonable or not.

What I DO know is that I am interested in your perspective on user experience and the like from a consumer's point of view. You are not a car guy and your focus is being driven by a recent consumer experience. I have my doubts that you can truly take a consumer point of view with your extensive software/web design background, but that isn't for me to say.

I wish you all the luck in the world, If you think you can do it or you think you can't do it......you are right. Ultimately it doesn't matter what anyone other than you believes. I will be your biggest cheerleader!

Give em hell.
 
I am not sure I agree with the software part being dead simple. Yes, if you were entering the market 10-15 years back, it may have been simple. Now, we are approaching near "big data" levels of info to process.

It's still pretty simple. If you look at what the big players are doing - it's still generic list/sort. Show me all the new black 4x4 f150s near me is a pretty simple task. Anything "big data" they're doing is market research and something they've done all along. But this isn't the kind of big data you read about with what Target is doing or what other companies in healthcare are doing.

cars.com / AT.com / 3 rd party sites want to sell leads, and lots of them. This is their metric. A dealer however might want to purchase fewer leads, but ones that actually convert.

I have to disagree here. The big guys are in the business of selling exposure. Dealers will pay the $2k/mo. because they value the exposure those brands bring to their dealership. Besides, people don't really fill out lead forms like they used to. They've been conditioned.

What can I do to enhance customer shopping experience. (Many sites obsess over price, but that is only one of the several things a shopper is looking for)

I'm getting sick of the whole "enhanced customer shopping experience" line. You're building a website. If you want to enhance the shopping experience it starts with a physical dealership. Until people are buying cars online there's not much you can do to move the needle here, especially as a classifieds service.
 
Regarding costs for me:
- I can get the site up and running for free
- I will be able to host (and handle traffic) upto 1 million users per day on my own for a total cost of a few thousand $. I can build my own servers and back end hosting, and know a few folks in the data center business to help me out.

I will have to figure out the business side of things. But a reasonable 7 figure VC/Angel investment is not out of question once prototype is ready.

You're in la-la land...
 
Be careful Mike, opinions are best formed from your failures and you have yet to fail. Let your prototypes take your ideas forward. FYI: CarGurus is the brain child of Langley Steinert. His prior failure was TripAdvisor.com. He's a few hundred million dollars ahead of you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TripAdvisor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CarGurus

Yes. I agree that I will be up against the big guys. I personally think I can do better than cargurus. Maybe I won't, but I would like to find out!
 
I can't weigh in on the complexities of putting together a site like you are talking about. I don't know how easy or difficult it will be, I don't know what it will or won't cost, and I damn sure don't know if a 7 figure VC investment is reasonable or not.

What I DO know is that I am interested in your perspective on user experience and the like from a consumer's point of view. You are not a car guy and your focus is being driven by a recent consumer experience. I have my doubts that you can truly take a consumer point of view with your extensive software/web design background, but that isn't for me to say.

I wish you all the luck in the world, If you think you can do it or you think you can't do it......you are right. Ultimately it doesn't matter what anyone other than you believes. I will be your biggest cheerleader!

Give em hell.

Agreed. I am certainly no car guy, and am reading up as much as I can.

I can brainstorm, but cannot match the knowledge and depth of experience of a dealer. Once a prototype is ready I will be reaching out to a few dealer contacts for partnership.
 
It's still pretty simple. If you look at what the big players are doing - it's still generic list/sort. Show me all the new black 4x4 f150s near me is a pretty simple task. Anything "big data" they're doing is market research and something they've done all along. But this isn't the kind of big data you read about with what Target is doing or what other companies in healthcare are doing.



I have to disagree here. The big guys are in the business of selling exposure. Dealers will pay the $2k/mo. because they value the exposure those brands bring to their dealership. Besides, people don't really fill out lead forms like they used to. They've been conditioned.



I'm getting sick of the whole "enhanced customer shopping experience" line. You're building a website. If you want to enhance the shopping experience it starts with a physical dealership. Until people are buying cars online there's not much you can do to move the needle here, especially as a classifieds service.

Not sure why you should be "sick" of anything. Are you telling me the existing sites are the best? Nothing better can be done?

We are arguing about semantics here. I don't think the traditional dealer model is going to go anywhere anytime soon. No one click shopping for now (even though some websites are going to try that approach). The car shopping, at least into the foreseeable future will happen at a dealership. But it starts online! and I want to enhance that experience.

If your attitude is "it's just a listing site", you are right,,,,there is little to no chance of success anymore, given that others who took a similar approach have already cornered THAT market.
 
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