Website and User:
CarGurus is an automotive research and shopping website that assists individuals / general public in comparing local listings for used and new cars, and contacting sellers. The company was founded in 2006 by Langley Steinert, a co-founder of TripAdvisor and has approximately 43 million website visits per month, with 95% of those views coming from individuals in the United States (per information found on similarweb).
The test user for this assignment is a female in her early 30s that is comfortable with using technology and does searches on the web frequently. She has never used CarGurus or any other automotive research / shopping website (e.g., AutoTrader / TrueCar), therefore, a true novice in this space.
URL: https://www.cargurus.com/
User Actions:
The tester utilized the CarGurus URL (https://www.cargurus.com/) on Google Chrome and was instructed to search for a vehicle of interest. The tester explored the landing page and the various tabs (Buy Used / Buy New / Certified Pre-Owned / SellMyCar / Financing). Some initial feedback was that the tester was confused by the ‘Financing’ tab, as it was a distraction from looking for a new vehicle. Additionally, the tester clicked on ‘Sell Your Car’ and was confused as to why they redirected to another page, not within expectations. The tester proceeded with the ‘Buy New’ tab and was able to successful select from the Make and Model dropdowns without issue. However, it was not clear to the tester what was meant by “Near Zip Code”. Further instructions were needed to clarify and it was recommended that CarGurus either have a pop-up with an explanation or change the verbiage to simply “Zip Code” to eliminate some of this confusion.
The tester then proceeded to populate all the required fields and proceeded by clicking on the “Search” button. The initial results provided only 2 vehicles within a 200-mile radius. The tester was NOT satisfied with these results and wanted to expand the search to Nationwide, which was done by utilizing the dropdown within the “Distance from Me” section. Some additional filters were used on the side of the “Results” page, such as color / fuel type (in this case a hybrid). The tester found a 2022 Lexus NX350h in red that she really liked. As such, the website did prove to the helpful overall!
Recommendations:
With regards to final thoughts, the tester rated CarGurus as a 7/10 for user experience and interface design. As she was not originally satisfied with 2 options within 200 miles and the fact that only stock photos were available for this model, she stated that she will look for other car buying sites (will search on Google to find different sites) to see if they can produce better results. Tester also did not like the pop-up for “Sell Your Car” while searching for a new car, which was a distraction and does not logically make sense in many cases, as the individual would be looking for car to buy not sell.
I visit CarGurus often and would be an “expert” with my level of comfort on the site. I would rate CarGurus as a 7.5/10, as I do like the fact that it tells you whether the price is “Good / Fair / Overpriced” for a particular vehicle you click on. This does not work very well for new cars in this current market, given the supply chain issues being experienced in the US. Additionally, I did note that the web version filtering differs, as it is on the side of the page, instead of a separate pop-up with the respective options to make for a cleaner design (on mobile devices). But both of us agree that the CarGurus website is overall effective and meets the needs of the user base.