Pet peeve: Automotive pop-up goes the weasel

I’m on auto manufacturer’s Web sites all the time. I’m checking data, looking up prices, figuring out which safety equipment is available on which trim lines, and configuring cars to buy for our test program.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why any Web site has a pop-up when you try to use the configurator, rather than just have it embedded within the page. Don’t most people use browsers that block pop-ups? Do you know anyone who says, “Oh, cool. I was hoping for an unwanted advertisement for the all-in-one doohickey that promises to solve all my problems…I think I’ll buy 10 of them.”

Aren’t pop-ups, like, so 1990s?

If there’s a pop-up that you actually want to see – such as a car configurator – my version of Internet Explorer makes me temporarily disable the blocker. Some browsers require that you hold down “Ctrl” to allow pop-ups. I admit, that’s not so hard. But why make me go through an extra step when I’m trying to buy your product? (Audi doesn’t even have a “Build your own” link on its homepage – you have to chose a model and then click on the configurator before the pop-up explodes.)

Here are the list car companies that, for whatever reason, require a pop-up so you can “build” a car:

• Audi
• Cadillac
• Porsche
• Saab
• Saturn
• Smart

Am I the only one who finds this practice annoying? Use the comments feature below and weigh in on this.

—Mike Quincy

Comments

[Greg]

Indeed, this is so annoying! A barrier to purchase for sure.

I work in the Web development arena, and the idea of popups for these types of consumer sites show that the Web Designers hired by these companies do not understand their audience; certainly they are not up to date on current web standards.

[pend]

Why would you still be using Internet Explorer? Try Firefox, Safari or other browsers.

[Jack Grawoig]

Occasionally, enterprises fall victim to poor web design. For example, have you seen the sorry mess that is CR's recently redesigned forum page?

[Liza Barth--Consumer Reports]

Jack,
You got us there. We are currently in the process of updating our forums and they should be in full form soon.