I think I have the skills to make such a website. I don't know what technology to base it on (php, asp), nor what sort of features to have. I'd probably make an asp site out of scratch, and a php site from a free package...

However, I have certain problems I'm not too certain how to rectify.

1) Anonomous...yet verified. How do you prevent people from registering and spamming the ratings to lower a certain dealer because of one bad issue? IP? Domain?

2) Login... sure, present them with a password+username field. What about established identities - NAM, mini2 - which carry a lot of weight? Do users get the ability to add those to their identities, and how do you verify they are who they say they are (ie, someone could register as C4, when they really are just impersonating him)?

3) 5 or 10 star? Up/down rating? Comments field of course.

4) One problem -> dealerships COULD figure out who you were based on comments (if Anonymous leaves a posting that says, "They scratched my LY/LY and when I complained they wanted to charge me 500.00 USD to fix"), the dealership in question could easily figure out who the poster was.

5) I'll be maintaining the MINI dealership database, where do I get a list + dealership "codes"/locations? With the small number, this is easy to handle. I'll probably try to tie into google maps if allowed.

6) Is this a waste of time? I'm a student, and would only consider doing this if it brought in a wee bit of income (ie, Google ads, NO POPUPS, NO BANNER ADS), enough to pay for hosting ($60.00 a year). Would this be a threat to the people here on NAM, or mini2? I don't want to take away from these websites.

7) Finally, how do I encourage people to post feedback - ALL feedback? Dealerships like Classic will have +++++ ratings, dealerships that are terrible will get ----- ratings, but dealerships that just do their job and nothing more might never get rated.

Thoughts? Ideas? Flames? Should MSRP be part of the rating system? And what about dealer fees?

Thanks!

John

 

Sounds good, but you are right to think about what problems might accur.

You might think about away that a dealership could comment about the experiance kinda like Ebay feedback.
Good luck I'll keep a watch for it.

 

That would be quite helpfull. I think dealer fees and MSRP is a must. The only reason i ordered my mini through South Bay was because they were on of the few dealers who i saw (in the Southern California section here on NAM) had their cars at MSRP.

Good luck to you, and you might be able to get sponsored by some dealers (like classic) in exchange for a highlighted position on your rankings. You would still have them rated, but they would be in a position at the top of the page or something like that... I dont know and im just rambeling at this point...

 

That's a good point. As much as I like the people here, sometimes we are wrong, and the dealers are right. I'm not too sure, though, how their identities would be verified - I would imagine a dealership is a bit more real than we are, when it comes to verification.

Also... I'm not terribly sure that people will fairly blame the dealerships - certain problems have been MINIs fault, not the dealerships. So, even if a dealership does a fix under warranty, and the problems re-occurrs, where is the distinction made that the dealership did all they could do?

I'm going to be searching for the appropriate software soon, so I can get this thing rolling. I'd have to keep it simple if I write the asp end of things, but there is always 4 Guys From Rolla :D

 

Probably not, just to keep the site free from influence. But yeah, I'll have to figure out what kind of fees dealers charge (ie, down payment, etc...). That will be the most complicated part.

I'll be brainstorming once I get my thermo and Architecture History HW done, and post a tentative form structure here.

 

Excellent Idea, I hope you follow through.

 

I'm going to give it a try! I'll be working myself away from MS Access and into MySQL. As much as I like the easy DB creation, phpmyadmin isn't too bad, and I'd like to stop using Windows machines. I already have a DB for my "blog*" so will just create tables in that for now. No need to pay for a second account yet.

I do not know php, so wouldn't be much help to Mark : (




*Not really a blog, just an easy webpage creation device.

 

As someone planning a future purchase I think this is a awesome idea. With such a small number of dealers and dedicated community I was honestly surprised there wasn't a dedicated mini dealer rating site.

There is a site called dealerrater.com that has some Mini dealers rated, though not many. All people have to do is add their dealer to the database. It's also international. I'd still like to see a dedicated site though.

 

There are only 70 or so dealers so the dealers should be initially populated by Uruck, not the public. Its easy to get that info.

 

I think bosfordjd was talking about the dealerater.com site.

I suppose, before I head off to sleep, to ask one question:

Some dealers require a refundable/nonrefundable down payment - for instance, MCM requires a 1,000.00 down payment. It's refundable ONLY if you add a sunroof. That is not always the case, and other dealers may force you to add the premium package, etc... So how intricate do I need to get? For example, in the US we generally have:

down payment (refundable/non-refundable)
base price (with destination)
tax
title
license
dealer "paperwork" fees


I shudder to think what people in Europe have.

However, tax title and license are generally ONLY what the state charges. Dealer fees, however, vary (MCM charges 175.00~145.00), and some require stupid dealer installed accessories (ie, some place in FL charges 900 for invisishield), so it's not very easy to figure out which numbers are important, or if a checkbox and form for "dealer installed extras required" and cost of said extras. I'll have to flowchart everything.

 

Yeah, there is some EXCELLENT information there. I WISH I had that information when I went car shopping ... it would have made it so much easier!

Tax, title, title processing fees are state dependent. I would ignore that. IMHO

base price is standard, on minausa site, forget that IMHO

Additional processing fees ... ADD
Minimum Deposit ... ADD (I wish I had known that)
Mandatory markups ... ADD (like in CA)
Mandatory options you have to buy ... ADD (a checklist)
How long did you wait for deliver? eg. 3 months
How about trade-ins? Good idea? worth it or not.

On the positive side, should also add a checklist of things the dealer threw in .. eg.

floor mats
extra key
CDs
whatever.

ALSO. and this got me upset with the dealer ... I had stuff "installed" at delivery. For example, they charged like $450 for driving light installation. Lots of stuff is dealer installed. and they were just throwing it into the contract and adding sales tax to it. Well in my state, you DO NOT pay sales tax on service. That was a ripoff.

Also maybe a comment section for the best MAs and SAs at the dealer. For example, I know that MINI just sent 12 or so SAs to England for a free trip because they were the most highly rated SAs in the country. Cool.

Also might add what they tried to sell you extra:

eg.

LOJACK
Tire Warranty
whatever

Other things about service is how accomodating is the Service department. What are their policies.

For example, where i go its a free rental if you bought there and have to wait more than 1 hour.
How about the wait area. I've seen wide-screen Plasma TVs, several playing movies and regular TV.
Free bagels, coffee, soda, etc. This might not seem important but it is if you wait half a day. Makes waiting easy.

I might add that if you do this, you will have a superb data base of useful information for both new buyers (sales) and current owners (service). Go for it

 

Uruck,

for verification, I was presumptious in thinking most people have static IPs because clealry dial-up still exist. They may be dynamic IP addresses making IP for verification fruitless but it should work for those using cable, dsl, etc.

 

I'm thinking a combination username+password, email for verification, perhaps even an auto-generated password. Reading up on things, I'll probably go with cookies (mmmm, cookies...). I think I'll log IP's, only in case people abuse the system (ie, one dealer gets a ton of - - - - comments in a short time by "different people".

Looking at the authentication side of things, seems pretty straightforward - I need to read up on using that authentication to submit forms, and then let users edit them, but only their forms (obviously key to a specific uid or #). I've done a few asp based DB editors, but those were always controlled access (ie, hardcoded un/pw). I've also done sophisticated unauthenticated searches, including a zip lookup. It's tying everything together that's going to be interesting.

Ok, off to do HW now - I'll get my Thermo done, and then post a potential form online. I'll need beta testers, first 10 pm's. I'll respond later today to them.

John