My wife and I recently bought a Land Rover LR2. It's a top notch SUV loaded with features like subwoofers, front windshield defrosters and heated seats. But the really cool thing about a Land Rover is the test drive experience. Land Rover vehicles are all wheel drive and designed with a suspension that prevents them from tipping over when the vehicle is driving on or sitting on a steep angle. During the test drive, the sales person drove the Land Rover sideways onto a 41 degree incline and parked the car. I was gripping my seat as I thought the vehicle would tip over onto it's side and roll down the incline. My wife was pretty scared too but the car salesman was relaxed, calm, poised, resting against the side of the vehicle fully confident that it would not tip over.
And it didn't. I was really impressed. In a day and age where many SUVs are top heavy and are susceptible to tipping over, Land Rover really distinguishes itself. During the test drive the car salesman encouraged me to take corners at high speed and the car was totally stable. I didn't feel any tipping sensation whatsoever. The superior handling of the vehicle really sold the car to me. Plus the car is equipped with a dozen or more air bags all over the place, which coupled with the handling makes for a super safe SUV. They should really have an auto insurance discount for owning a Land Rover. If you're in the market for an SUV, I would highly recommend checking out a Land Rover.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Why are all car manufacturer websites so terrible?
Recently my wife and I have been looking for an SUV. As most people do nowadays our search begins on the internet where we have been visiting car manufacturer websites and checking out the "look" of the car prior to visiting a dealership. I am extremely unsatisfied with car manufacturer website designs. There are too many buttons you have to click on, pages you have to flip through, and information you have to enter before you can find the information that you are looking for. It frustrates me to no end because some of the cars look great, are well-engineered, and are loaded with the featuers that I want but it takes forever to find these details out.
For example, we travel up to Lake Tahoe pretty frequently so I wanted to get an SUV with 4 wheel drive (4WD) so I could snap some snow tires on and avoid putting on chains. We were looking at the Volkswagon Tiguan on the volkswagon website and it took us forever to find out which models came equipped with 4WD and which ones didn't. It doesn't help that Volkswagon calls is 4motion instead of 4WD and I'm not the most car literate individual. They have multiple screens where you can compare feature sets between trim levels. Why not just have one simple screen that compares everything with a detailed price breakdown? It's not like these are adsense revenue making websites where pageviews count.
I couldn't even find Isuzu's website. Do they not make cars anymore? Another car we were interested in was the Subaru Outback Limited. The problem with Subaru's website is that they don't provide 360 views or the option to view in another color. Maybe I'm whining here, but honestly is it really so hard for Subaru to incorporate that feature into the website?
Toyota had a pretty good website until you get to the "build your own 4runner" part. Try playing around with the different transmission options. There are options for engine size, transmission type, and 4wd or 2wd. However Toyota doesn't sell all combinations, so if you pick for example a V4 engine and 4wd then a dialog box pops up and says you can't do that. Then you have to figure out what you did wrong. Why doesn't the website just list the options that are available, for example V6, 4wd, automatic and V4, 2wd, manual instead of making you figure out which options are available? Totally tedious!
Shopping for cars on the internet is suppose to simplify the process but honestly it seems like it's easier to go to a dealership! Good thing shopping for auto insurance is easy on the internet. In the end I was pretty impressed with Subaru and I wrote a little bit about subaru cars.
For example, we travel up to Lake Tahoe pretty frequently so I wanted to get an SUV with 4 wheel drive (4WD) so I could snap some snow tires on and avoid putting on chains. We were looking at the Volkswagon Tiguan on the volkswagon website and it took us forever to find out which models came equipped with 4WD and which ones didn't. It doesn't help that Volkswagon calls is 4motion instead of 4WD and I'm not the most car literate individual. They have multiple screens where you can compare feature sets between trim levels. Why not just have one simple screen that compares everything with a detailed price breakdown? It's not like these are adsense revenue making websites where pageviews count.
I couldn't even find Isuzu's website. Do they not make cars anymore? Another car we were interested in was the Subaru Outback Limited. The problem with Subaru's website is that they don't provide 360 views or the option to view in another color. Maybe I'm whining here, but honestly is it really so hard for Subaru to incorporate that feature into the website?
Toyota had a pretty good website until you get to the "build your own 4runner" part. Try playing around with the different transmission options. There are options for engine size, transmission type, and 4wd or 2wd. However Toyota doesn't sell all combinations, so if you pick for example a V4 engine and 4wd then a dialog box pops up and says you can't do that. Then you have to figure out what you did wrong. Why doesn't the website just list the options that are available, for example V6, 4wd, automatic and V4, 2wd, manual instead of making you figure out which options are available? Totally tedious!
Shopping for cars on the internet is suppose to simplify the process but honestly it seems like it's easier to go to a dealership! Good thing shopping for auto insurance is easy on the internet. In the end I was pretty impressed with Subaru and I wrote a little bit about subaru cars.
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