The best car configurator/build your own

I am a big fan of cars - which I'm sure all of the Autospies community are.

When buying a new car, many go to the dealership, but many also go to the dealers website. One of the biggest turn-on for the manufacturer's website is to have a car configurator/also known as a 'Build Your Own'. Nearly all of the manufacturer's have some sort of 'Build Your Own'.

TURN-ONS
- Large view of the car
- 360 Degree
- All options (well the visible ones) come into the image
- Pricing

TURN-OFFS
- Wheels/option selections not shown in image
- Small picture of the car
- Only one view
- No pricing

What do you think is the best 'Build Your Own' on the dealer's website.

My vote:
1. Mercedes-Benz Germany: www.mercedes-benz.de (the only turn off is the thing is in German!)
2. BMW Australia: www.bmw.com.au
3. Audi of America: www.audiusa.com

If you haven't tried the above before - go to their website and muck around with them. Have fun!


motor1

S4cabriofoxone - 1/11/2009 10:34:49 PM

+2 Boost

The Audi configurator sucks, as does the whole site. Awful graphics and layout.

The BMW configurator is nice but prone to glitches.

My favorite would have to be VW.com. It has to take a minute to load but it's a really cool BYO. Great graphics, and all the details are shown in a very creative manner.

S4cabriofoxone - 1/11/2009 10:36:26 PM

+1 Boost

Oh, I almost forgot--when the Gran Turismo was introduced Maserati had an incredible BYO for it, with every single detail available to change. Stunning graphics too. Not sure if it's still up. I don't know why I went to the Maserati site that day but I'm glad I did.

PPower - 1/12/2009 12:23:54 AM

+2 Boost

www.porscheusa.com is best by far, especially if using the 3D version. Prone to glitches, but it shows all of the shown options in the photos, and there's a lot to choose from.

Rupert - 1/12/2009 7:25:27 AM

+1 Boost

Porsche UK has the same system I think - it's very good.
Mercedes UK is awful, and BMW UK isn't that great either.

Porschefan2 - 1/12/2009 2:37:12 PM

+1 Boost

Second that. They've had the 3D configurator for years and its fantastic. Takes up a lot of operating memory so it could be slow depending on what else are you running, but it trully allows you to see and understand all the options.

M53R - 1/12/2009 9:46:44 AM

+1 Boost

bmw.com has a good configurator. You get to choose the rims/colour and then move to the interior and choose the leather colour and trim colours. The graphics are good too.

100tnega - 1/13/2009 2:17:51 PM

+1 Boost

PS3's Gran Turismo BYO engine is the bar.

motor1 - 1/14/2009 4:40:59 AM

+1 Boost

Actually I will change the bit where I said Audi was 3rd to Porsche 3rd. When the Porsche one works properly and fast it is brilliant but it is pretty slow on normal connections and i've experienced frequent faults with it.

NBCGLX - 1/15/2009 8:51:30 PM

+1 Boost

The Bentley car configurator is pretty cool too, showing you everything in great detail. Plus, it's kind of fun configuring a car that I'll never own ;-)

pscars - 5/4/2010 1:08:21 PM

+1 Boost

The configurators are the biggest pulls to any car manufacturers website, however while they are good, they don't have everything needed. I suggest you check out the new car configurator at www.pscars.com, allows you to research, compare and build a car in a great graphically intense site. No scrolling, one of the best online as of yet. Check it out.

cerebro - 11/21/2010 10:02:31 PM

+1 Boost

i like the compare section on www.pscars.com