Need some help using the search? As you can see this isn't like a normal "click search" website - this is a vehicle specific filtering engine which allows realtime dynamic criteria to be applied to the complete list of vehicles.
There are four main areas of the search box - the quick search box, the main search area, the results area, and the extended search area.
These do not work separately from one another - everything works dynamically, enabling you to quickly filter the cars presented to you in a completely seamless way. We will now look at each of the search areas.
As you use the search tools outlined below, results will be returned to you automatically without you needing to press "enter". These results are returned in two separate ways -
If you are on any other page on the website, you can quickly skip to the results for any search items that you enter by click on the link below the number in the mini-results box, or click on "Used Vehicle Search" in the main menu. Once there, you can continue refining your search, or start again.
We are going to cover the mini results area first as every change you make in the below filtering tools will update this area
When you enter any search terms, you will be notified that the website is querying the vehicle database through the Mini Results Area becoming animated, as per the below:
Once the site has retrieved the number of results (without having to refresh the page), a new number will be presented to you in the Mini Results Area. This means that you are able to query the server dynamically, without having to wait for a page refresh to see if you had been to general or specific in the searches that you are conducting.
To view the full vehicle listing results, all you need to do is click ">> View Vehicles" directly belwo the returned number; alternatively if you click the grey "View All Vehicles" on the right hand side you will be shown all vehicles.
In the example above, you can see that we did not receive many results for our query. However as the search parameters that were entered could be essential, we want to see all results across all dealers within the group. To do this, all we need to do is select the tick box below the Mini Results Area, like this:
This submits your search filtering query to all cars across all dealers in the group - resulting in a higher number of results, with a total of 186 vehicles out of 886 vehicles being returned, instead of 6 out of 99 vehicles.
Note: When you are viewing the full results page, after either clicking on "Used Vehicle Search" or the "View Vehicles" link, then search results will be returned automatically. This means that when you are viewing the search results page, everything is happening live - there is no need for a "View Vehicles" link as the display is updated automatically without refreshing the page.
If you have a stock code from an online or offline source, enter it here and you will be taken directly to the vehicles page. This enables you to go directly to that vehicle you spotted in the paper.
Four primary search items are in this area - make and model specification, year range and price range.
To use the text areas for make and model, just start typing - the search engine will return a list of matches for whatever you type. For example, start typing M and you will see:
Just click or use the arrow keys to make your selection, or finish typing. Once you have selected the make or model you will see the number in the mini-results box update and change automatically, or if you are on the search page you will see the updated list appear immediately to your left.
Remember that if you can't think of a specific make or model that you are looking for, move down to the following search features that allow you to select a car on what matters to you.
The year slider returns vehicles that are newer than you specify - slide it up to around the 2002 mark, and only cars that were made in 2002 and newer are returned.
You can set your budget on a decreasing scale - slide it down to the maximum that you would like to spend and you will be displayed the options available to you.
If you want to make a specific selection for the sliders, just hold down the left mouse button for a few seconds after you drag - the specified value will pop up in a yellow box.
This is where you can be extremely granular or extremely broad, through combining secondary features and attributes of your ideal car, or only selecting one or two to see what comes back. This section is divided into three areas - Car Details, Colour and Options - that you can switch between using the tabs shown below:
Car Details allows you to choose the maximum mileage for a car you would look at purchasing and the minimum engine size. Additionally it also allows you to filter on fuel, transmission and body type, along with the ideal number of doors for your vehicle.
The Colour tab lets you select the approximate colour of vehicle that you are looking for - look for the approximate hue and click and your result will be further filtered. For example, the below image shows the green colour as selected - indicated by the red border around the colour.
The Options presents car features that you could be looking for. Only want a car with air conditioning, a CD player or airbags? Just use the checkboxes in this section and you can filter the features that you would like your perfect car to have.
The dynamic method of filtering used by the search engine means that each selection has a cumulative effect - meaning that if you search on too many values you will be returned zero results. Don't worry - either remove the last few filters or just hit "Reset all Search Filters" and you can start off again, as seen in the below:
