The site that I have chosen to review is Tire Rack dot com, which can be found at http://www.tirerack.com/. I chose this site because it has been very useful for me in the past. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the site offers tires and many other products at what are supposed to be warehouse prices. The website offers tires, wheels, suspension parts, brake parts, and an assortment of performance parts.
Looks: The way the site works is quite simple. You go to the home page of the site and it gives you a very busy opening screen with all sorts of car pictures, and product pictures. The site being very cluttered on the home page nothing really grabs me attention, but there are a lot of interesting items to look at on the homepage. After the homepage I think the layout and design of the site is great. Everything is easy to access, and when you put in your search criterion the results come up in an organized and manageable fashion. The best thing in my opinion about the design of the website is that every page in big number on the top has the companies eight hundred number. This way if you are in the process of shopping, and do not want to wait for someone to return your email you can call the number and have your questions answered immediately. Also to me that shows a high level of customer service, which is always a big factor when making expensive decisions. Another plus to this website is that checkout for your item is quick and painless.
Functionality: Overall the functionality is great, here’s a little bit on how it works. Located in the middle of the home page is a section were you fill out vehicle information for the vehicle that you are looking for parts for. After you fill in the vehicle information you chose from a list of products that you are looking for. For example if you are looking for the tire section you would click tires (not too difficult to understand). Assuming we chose tire it will then take you to the next screen where you will be given the option of what size you want. The site offers you the original manufacturer recommended size as well as a guide that can advise you on the biggest or smallest tires you can fit on your vehicle. After you advance from this section the site takes you too a page to chose your style and brand of tire. (By style I mean do you want low profile tires, mud tires, snow tires, etc.) After all of these selections are made it will give you a list of available tires, prices, and reviews on the tires. Tirerack.com takes you through the same basic steps with all of its products, which is very beneficial especially to the uneducated consumer.
This site does not have much in the way of socialization with the exception of being able to contact the business with questions.
I like and use the site for all of the reasons listed above. I also recommend this site to many people because I think it is a good resource, and even if you do not find the product you are looking for you can read reviews on comparable ones as well as being able to compare prices. I worked in the automotive field for a number of years and I know how garages like to rip people off. That is why I recommend tire rack because it is honest, and usually you can find your product at a fraction of the cost that you would have paid the local garage.
Reference:
Tirerack.com. Retrieved on 12 October, 2007 from http://www.tirerack.com/
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1 comment:
Wow man. This was actually a really cool site. I've been thinking about some high-performance tires and suspension upgrades for my car lately, and this site not only has a lot of great stuff for a good price, but they also give a lot of advice on what goes good with other things for your car. Very cool.
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