A Treat for the Car Culture?

A Treat for the Car Culture?

A busy Auckland mum creates a socially interactive website for the next generation of car enthusiasts. Think Facebook and Trademe combined. Users can interact with each other, ask questions, post pictures, update their status and watch videos. Employing the help and expertise of a locally based web designer, the Find My Next Ride website (www.findmynextride.co.nz) combines New Zealander’s love of social media and cars, resulting in an interactive, fun and affordable auction website.

Nicky Primrose, Find My Next Ride director, says she started the website because she saw a need for an alternative to other auction sites whose listing prices were unaffordable for young people. Tired of her son being charged ridiculous amounts of money to sell cars through TradeMe, this mum brainstormed ideas to come up with a site designed and targeted at the younger male population with a love of cars. “With fees of around $80 to sell a motocross bike and $59 to list a car with a value of around $4,000 I felt this wasn’t value for money. I really wanted to offer young guys (in particular) an alternative but soon realised with further research that a simple automotive auction website just wasn't going to work either. I knew I had to create something with a difference, something that would engage users whether or not they were buying or selling a vehicle. This is when the social media side of the site evolved. No one had combined these two elements before”.

What sets Find My Next Ride apart from Trademe? We get that question a lot but in reality, apart from selling cars, everything we do is different to Trademe...

Find My Next Ride is a socially interactive website solely focused on the automotive industry and yes, while you can sell cars like Trademe Motors, you also have a social profile which allows you to interact with other users in a variety of different ways.

For example, you can upload your current car (what we call your current ‘ride’) to your profile so it may attract offers from other buyers who are specifically looking for your make and model of vehicle. These cars aren’t necessarily for sale but because we realise that Generation Y tend to be open to swaps and offers we thought this would be a unique feature.

Users also have the ability to share a listing to their own Highway (social wall) or to other friend’s Highways. They can give a listing the 'thumbs up' (like) or leave a comment (including photos if they have items to swap). Users can also personal message each other as individuals or in bulk (which is great for organising events) and they can share posts through to their Facebook account.

Another exciting feature is our 'Ask A Mate' function. When you first create a profile you can select a number of cars that you know a lot about. Again this fits in with the premise that Generation Y tend to be passionate about certain types or brands of cars and this function allows these users to connect and share information with each other. It works by allowing any user to ask for advice or post a question about a specific listing to other members and businesses that have indicated that they know something about the make of car you are looking at. These questions and answers are not displayed on the auction and are not visible to anyone else but those involved. If you think the answer was helpful you can rate the answer which gives the person points towards upgrading their avatar. Business users can also participate in the ‘Ask A Mate’ program by selecting the relevant brands of vehicle in their business profiles. This is a great opportunity for businesses to provide advice and create goodwill that could in turn generate new business leads.

Find My Next Ride also offers a ‘Find An Expert’ function. This follows on from ‘Ask A Mate’ but is specifically designed for businesses. Experts are Business Profile holders who work in a specific area of the automotive industry. The Find An Expert questions are filtered out to businesses depending on their region and the categories of expertise they have specified (i.e. tyres, panel & paint, mechanical repairs). Users can ask questions, seek advice or get quotes from participating businesses while businesses can attract users and promote their products and services through this network.

Because this site is created specifically for Generation Y users we plan to always keep vehicles under $8,000 free to list for personal users. For all other vehicles are charged minimal listing fees, with no success fees so you know what it will cost you with no hidden extras to pay. Further incentives of free listings until 2015 and the giveaway promotion of a free set of stylish rims for those that register before the 19th of December 2014 is bound to have users flooding to the site.

Launched on the 24th of October 2014, www.findmynextride.co.nz is a hot spot for those wanting an affordable and engaging automotive auction site. The site offers the option of easy registration using your existing Facebook login details, as well as the ability to post from Find My Next Ride to your Facebook wall.

Come Buy Sell & Socialise with Find My Next Ride and show your support for NZ owned and operated businesses!

Additional Info:
Find My Next Ride is a New Zealand owned and operated company having two Auckland based shareholders.

Find My Next Ride was created after a family member, who loves cars and modifying them, was continually charged high fees to list, sell and trade vehicles and parts. There was a lack of any alternative and affordable site to use so this is when the brainstorming started.

After surveying a group of late teens/20+ year olds we found there was a need and desire for an alternative website that had reasonable fees but also offered something a bit different – this is where the social side comes in!

Based on our research Find My Next Ride was designed and created to provide a socially interactive automotive auction website targeted at the Generation Y population offering affordability and value for money.

OTHER MEDIA RELEASES:
http://techday.com/start-up/news/find-my-next-ride-2/194755/

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