Welcome!

This is a demo website, and as such, the vehicles found within are either not for sale, or not available through this website.

This demo was created to show off our Software, not our graphics. Why?

First

Because the internet is more than just a picture in a print-ad — it’s a tool for your customers to use. A print-ad needs to grab the visual attention of the reader, but Internet search engines (Yahoo®, Google®, Bing®, etc.) do that job for the computer user. Of course it’s just as important to look good on the computer screen as it is in a newspaper; but the modern user expects more than just stunning graphics, they want intelligent ease of use to find what they desire.

We surveyed the competition and found none delivered a tool advanced and powerful enough to sort through the complexities of options in today’s vehicles. A tool that never tells your customers “No,” but instead points them in the direction of your similar inventory. There is a fine line between helpful and pushy in the sales business, and a fine line between results that are too narrow and too overwhelming when using a computer to search inventory. Our software is designed to walk that line and show off the most of your inventory relevant to your customer’s interests. Yet it’s simple enough to use by even the computer-challenged crowd. Just try using our search form to see for yourself!

Second

Because our partners at SunRise Visuals will conceive a completely new graphical impression that reflects the style, expresses the vision, and accentuates the aspects of your dealership. How can we demo that until we get to know you and your specific needs, desires, and tastes?

Third

Because these demo graphics were created by a software engineer (me), not a graphic artist (like our partners at SunRise Visuals); I just like to do things myself! But don’t worry. Your personalized custom professional graphics package from SunRise Visuals will enhance your new website to superstar heights. After all, this is a Best Auto Dealer Website from Shining Star Websites!

Fourth

Because these graphics were created using Corel Draw X3 which obviously has a bug; the professional graphic artist’s choice is Adobe Illustrator. We’re keeping these buggy graphics to demonstrate the difference.

For developers looking for only the PHP dealer website back-end software, SoftMoon WebWare delivers that package with full support.

Learn more on our “About” page.

Search: Please use this searchbar below to find the vehicle of your choice

You can easily compare your favorite vehicles up close all on one page. When viewing the main inventory page or your search-results pages, check the boxes of your choices and click the Compare Selected Vehicles button at the top or bottom of the page. On any showcase page, simply click the Compare This Vehicle button. After you have chosen 1 or more favorite vehicles, click the Compare Choices tab at the top or bottom of the page at any time to review and further compare the selections.

Not all browsers are fully capable of all modern website design techniques. For example, this demo features an experimental component that allows you to change the skin of the website (seen to the right), but only current versions of Mozilla Firefox & Opera browsers fully support this feature correctly. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari (on Microsoft Windows based computers) require a page refresh to make this function. This is the dilemma of the modern website design team. A technique that works in one browser fails in the next — and visa-versa. To make it worse, individual users can change some browser’s settings to impersonate another browser. (if you are one of those users, you may not get the desired results here)

SoftMoon WebWare produces only fully operational websites and backend software that has been tested on all modern browsers for performance, user friendliness & accessibility, proper functionality, and error-free operation. While our demo site shows off the future of the web where it can, you can rest-assured your production-level website will be rock-solid, compatible with legacy systems, and ready to be easily upgraded in the future. In the mean time, our websites bring the most up-to-date modern features to your online sales presentation.

You can get a feel for how your dealership’s website can be customized to fit your individual style. Try out some of the pre-designed skins available below. Of course we can coordinate the overall color scheme to match your pre-existing logos and other graphics, as well as any visual compositions our design experts may develop for you. For an even more personalized effect, our designers can completely reconceive your website’s character to bring a fresh, unique, and invigorating touch to your client’s online shopping experience that they will remember and identify directly with you.

Does your website validate? Check the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Markup Validation Service for this page by clicking below:

If you’re having trouble finding the specific vehicle that your heart desires, we can keep an eye out for it in your behalf; and if we do find it, we can email you immediately. Simply use the Vehicle Finder on our Contact page, and you will be automatically informed of the new arrival on our lot.

SoftMoon Dealer Websites Demo

At SoftMoon WebWare, we have developed a PHP-based website software suite specifically for Automotive Dealers. More than just the average e-commerce site dressed-up and packaged for Auto Sales, ours is forged and fine-tuned from the ground up with the requirements to perform the way you as an Auto Dealer need it to: simply, smoothly, and easily, and with powerful results. A quick check on the Internet will reveal many companies offering dealer website development. All will promise an incredible looking website, and we’re sure they can deliver. With a complete package from Shining Star Websites, so can we. What makes us stand apart from the rest is our software’s functionality. They are primarily designers developing websites that incorporate the pre-existing work of programmers. We are software engineers developing websites that are shaped, formed, and adorned by graphic advertising specialists, our partners at SunRise Visuals.

If you are serious about making an investment in a website, please take some time to look over our presentation. We feel you will see the difference in the details and abilities our websites offer vs. others’. It’s what we’ve got under the hood that counts. It’s the full array of standard features, many of which are not even luxury options elsewhere, that place us in pole-position. From there our artists can give your powerful new web site a custom sculpted body and a detail paint job that will make it a show-stopper. Why settle for a drop-in factory 4-cylinder motor when you can have a high-performance V8 that gets better gas mileage and costs the same?

We don’t believe in milking you on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis, nor do we believe in charging inflated prices for a premium product; our website development team believes in empowering you with the tools you need to successfully promote your business and the knowledge that you don’t have to have any technical skills to manage your dealership’s inventory presentation on your own website using the tools we provide. But fear not! We don’t just leave you hanging; we are here to offer you support long after your site is up and running, whether you want or require assistance with maintenance or a complete facelift or somewhere in between. Plus, backing from our Internet promotions division attends to helping you rise above your competition in Internet search results. If your Dealership doesn’t have its own full-featured website, you need one, and we have the best there is to offer:

Why a Website is Needed

In today’s modern world, choices abound. Through multiple avenues, starting with the appearance of roads & automobiles, to radio, TV, cell phones, and the Internet, the availability of increasing numbers of choices grows daily. More and more people here in the 21st Century look to the Internet to find what they want in this growing sphere of choices. Now we don’t suggest you give up any currently effective advertising strategy; but if you could increase your sales profit through greater exposure, wouldn’t you want to do that? Of course you don’t want to tie up large sums of cash for little or no return. That’s why a website is in your favor.

Having your own website is advertising that works. With print, radio, TV and similar media, you are screaming into the deaf ear of most targeted subjects. Maybe you will convince a few people to come by, but they can be a hard sell. Your website instead targets genuinely interested people actively looking specifically for what you offer.

No other form of widespread advertising other than word-of-mouth from satisfied customers will bring you a greater sales profit margin. Indeed, for a one-time-fee comparable to a newspaper ad in a major but local publication, you can advertise nationwide — indefinitely*. The newspaper will become birdcage liner within 24 hours, with less than 1%(?) of the people who even notice it caring about your ad. Big Dealers running weekend sales can afford a half or full page spread, and may even see an immediate profit margin from this. But in today’s modern world, the Internet is rapidly becoming the #1 Tool of everyday people to find what they need.

Nationwide advertising? “But I’m just a small time dealer in a small town!” you say? Sure everybody in your town knows you and your location and can see your selection from the road. But what about the next town over, only 10 miles away? Do they know? Will they remember? Are they willing to drive roundtrip to see if you even have the Honda Accord or Ford F350 they want? After all, there are ten dealers in their town, one of which has the vehicle they’re looking for. You may have it cheaper — how will they find out?

Suppose old Mr. Johnston passes away and his kids decide to sell his fully preserved Bel-Aire. Sure you could sit on it for 6 months or a year, and hopefully get near your asking price. But if you had a website, the affluent collector in Chicago can find it and come give you your asking price immediately. After all, the name of the game is cash flow from quick turn around. No other form of advertising consistently yields substantial profit margins like having your own website.

The 21st Century is already a decade old. Modern Americans are beginning to think of the Internet as a necessity more than a luxury. Many people feel that a business without a website is ‘two-bit’ or ‘fly-by-night’. Many simply expect that as a business, you will have a website. If they don’t find you in a Google® search, you simply don’t exist in their minds, or are not worth pursuing. Why miss out on their patronage?

The simple fact of the matter is you need your own website to remain competitive in today’s economy. If you don’t, rival dealers savvy with today’s market trends will slowly but surely drain away your clients. The Internet is more than just a growing fashion trend. The kids of today who ‘text’ each other every 5 minutes are already growing into the consumers of tomorrow, and they are using their cell phones, laptops, iPads® and soon other devices we haven’t even dreamed of yet to surf the net for what they want. Adapt or die is the rule of the land, and if you don’t have a website, your Automotive Dealership will surely struggle to hang on.

AutoTrader.com or Your Own Site?

Many dealers feel that their presence on ‘the big one’ is all the Internet exposure they need. Or can afford. Again, we don’t suggest that you abandon what works for you. But consider that the same people who found you online though AutoTrader could just as easily find you through Google®. Several dealers we talked to had their ‘own’ website that simply pointed to a page on AutoTrader. A Google® search for “used cars hometown” revealed their website...very good, very good. But we ask why they send their customers away to another website that advertises the competition’s inventory, where within a few clicks, the immense competition has the original dealer consigned to oblivion? One dealer with a one-page point-to-AutoTrader website specialized in used Mercedes. Unfortunately for them, a Google® search for “used Mercedes hometown” yielded only their competition.

Having your own website that displays your inventory is the key to success with Internet advertising. The same Mercedes dealer mentioned above can target their audience to people with the money to buy their higher-dollar merchandise — not just anybody who sees a picture in a gas-station magazine with $500 for down payment — by simply having their own website. The guy in an office with little or no time to drive around town stopping at every used car lot along the way to shop for a luxury automobile can sit in front of his computer and in no time find that you have the vehicle he’s looking for.

The flip side of the coin is the dealer selling vehicles of lesser value. Again, nothing compares in advertising value to having your own website. For about the same cost that some dealers pay monthly to AutoTrader, a small dealer (and even a big dealer) can have their own website indefinitely!* Again, no other form of widespread advertising yields better profit margins. It’s as simple as that.

You need a website from SoftMoon WebWare and Shining Star Websites

Because we have the experience to bring you the best software available. Because our integrated search engine is the most powerful. Because our layouts are easy for all of your customers to navigate. Because our visual aesthetics are attractive, distinctive, and defining. Because our websites conform to your needs. Because our websites are built from the ground up to meet the most current internationally recognized design standards. Because our websites inherently work with all web-capable desktops, loptops, handhelds, etc. Because our websites are optimized for great results from Web Search Engines. Because of the wonderful things it does for your sales figures! Learn more on our About page.

*Your website host charges a yearly fee separate from ours, usually equating to less than $10/month. If the local Internet provider that you already use allows you to connect as a server for no additional fee, you can host your own site for free.