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What do dealership websites make customers do that we’d never tolerate in the showroom?

Joe, I get what you mean now. I was reading “low quality user” as the shopper, not the level of experience they expect.

I agree though. Before we keep adding more tools, the basic shopping experience has to be really easy. Help me find the right car, show me what matters, and don’t make me work for it.

If we get that part right, the rest should feel a lot more natural.
 
Meaning we've got friction in the shopping system that's ahead of some of the more sophisticated concepts that you're talking about.
Wouldn't it be pretty easy to test?
  • Half see current homepage, half see the new entry point.
  • Don’t force the new path.
Something like:

What matters most to you?
  1. Family
  2. Towing
  3. Off-Road
  4. Daily Driver

It would test the entry point?
 

✨ AI Highlights

A dealer raises a pointed question about why dealership websites subject customers to friction — repeated data entry, intrusive popups, stacked vendor tools — that would never be tolerated in a physical showroom. The thread shifts between a substantive debate about upper-funnel UX friction and shopping intent segmentation, with joe.pistell arguing that basic discovery and filtering usability must be solved before layering on digital retailing tools, and a side argument about forum conduct that derails briefly. The key takeaway is that most online car shoppers are low-expectation users who want to be motivated and guided, not put to work, and fixing foundational browsing friction matters more than sophisticated downstream conversion tools.

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