Do you regularly have the uncontrollable urge to rush out and buy an Audi calendar? As a gamer, is the one thing you are yearning for a game of Mercedes-Benz Quartet? When you are surfing for car videos on the Web, do you only wish to do so through a channel where all content is pre-approved by BMW group? Do you want an immersive 360 degree drive in a fantastic Porsche ruined by some saxophone player with a lisp sitting next to you blithering on about her latest recording?
If your reply to these questions is anything resembling “No” or “What are you talking about you massive tool”, I regret to inform you: you are very much mistaken muchacho. You see, Car manufacturers are freeing up considerable budgets these days for the production of Apps for smartphones and tablets. After the rigorous market research these industrial giants had performed to establish their target audience’s needs, the list above is exactly what you wanted your car app to be. Yep, no point in denying it: you favourite car brand has got you pegged.
From Limo's, can I have the Pullman please?
Now I may be completely wrong here. You may be in your thousands out there whiling away the nightly hours on these apps until your previously unsatisfied automotive quartet needs are fully satisfied. My guess is though, that this is not the case. My hypothesis, completely unsupported by research facts, is that many people may download these apps encouraged by the Car Manufacturers PR-machines and the official branding, but that the actual sustained use of them can broadly be categorised as disappointing.
Now if this was just another case of large companies with huge brands trying to find their way into the world of teh Intarweb, feeling out where their respective customer bases might pick up on their activities, this would be fine. Isn’t everyone trying to do so? What is really bugging me though, is that some of these car companies must have been sitting on what must be the Internet equivalent of a Crock O’ Gold since the dawn of the Web.
Just think of these two: “Car Configurator” and “Used Car Locator”. I mean sure: these
My impeccable taste on display via the medium of Car Configurator
items have been lumbering on the main websites of car companies since the Opel Kadett and they must have lost some of it’s sexiness and web-appeal to the budding car-marketeers of this world, but come on! They must know that people spend hours on their websites using them? Every Joe Public that is up for a new lease-car spends a year trying to decide if he’s going for the sunroof or the 18” wheels when he gets to order doesn’t he? Everyone in the market for a young 2nd hand car must look at the manufacturer’s website to see what is available with an official warranty.
Yet, not a single car manufacturer seems to have taken the effort to produce a kick ass car configurator or used-car app. It must be me then. I better fire up that app again that tells me what G’s I’m pulling on my daily commute to see if I can be bothered this time around.
CarQuiz 