[snowcherry]

back when i started looking for a car i joined up at this site autochic.com.au thinking it might be helpful for me being a woman, as its pitched towards women (something in the name maybe). i still get newsletters from them, which occasionally has some good promos and comps but otherwise its been utterly worthless in terms of actual research value or forum quality (i could say worse but i will refrain)

i'm sort of stunned though with a recent round of polls it has started on to find the 'car of the year'. the first round was for 'best first car' which was essentially small or hatch cars. great i thought, i'll put a vote in for the i30. NOT on the list! err wtf? corrola, getz, mazda, et al - all there but not the lovely i30. i'm flabbergasted to the Holden Cruze come first in that round of voting. errr  its a bloody daewoo for pete's sake.

now i have received the second round and its for sexiest car. can someone please tell me how a range rover and a holden ute are sexy and how they can be put in against the jag and lexus etc???

i don't get it!

http://www.autochic.com.au/news/coty/Category-2/
http://www.autochic.com.au/news/coty/Category-1/

am i expecting too much from women in this industry to run a usable website that is realistically informative?
 

[Dazzler]

They obviously have no idea SC...

I'm not even going to click those links in case I start getting spam trying to sell me a handbag 

[2i30s]

the site is more than likely run by men. 

[Lorian]

It would seem the site's proprietor is female, and the business is run with two male investors. There is little in her profile that would indicate andy particular brand allegance, but most things on the net nowadays seems to create an ad based income stream for someone or other, so its possible.

Here is a profile on the boss

http://ladytam-tam.com/attachments/Staying_Power.pdf

and this site indicates she has done some work for Hyundai in the past, and that Kia are amongst her website sponsors (there is a list here)

http://www.mediaman.com.au/profiles/autochic.html

[Dazzler]

She is quite cute! (makes you wonder why they didn't put an i30 in that poll???)

[snowcherry]

there was some heavy i30 advertising on the site at one stage - around the time i was buying.
and i do recall looking into who ran the site at the time and i thought it was good it was run by a woman, as i thought at the time it would be a functioning site
but the site is a joke. i didn't get newsletters for a long period and actually assumed it must have been closed down.

it's a shame as it had potential, but now i see they are thinking of selling cars through the site to. i believe it's all just spin for the owners to make money and not actually provide a source of real information. i wouldn't be surprised if they sell it once they pad the 'name' out a little more.


oh and dazz i don't know about a handbag but there's always the 'wheels to heels' kit for all your beauty in the glovebox needs 

[agentr31]

looks too commercial.... one giant ad!

[juliet]

Hi there, I am Juliet and I run AutoChic. Although I initially had two male investors, I was happy to have had any investors, let alone female ones - it was hard to find anyone to back the website over ten years ago when I launched as we were the very first automotive website for women in the world at the time. I have always run the site and try my best to please everyone. Regarding the Car of the Year Awards; we are the only one for women in Australia (and the first in Australia to actually have a Green Car Award!) and we in fact ask the car companies themselves to nominate the cars for the categories each year. I expect perhaps the Hyundai car company entered the Getz as the best first car and the i30 was nominated into another category. I am unsure why they nominate the cars as they do. My aim however is to involve women who may otherwise be disinterested in cars in the automotive industry to help feminise the industry a little - it was very blokey when I came into it -  and hopefully to help eliminate any negative perceptions and attitudes, along with giving automotive companies a platform in which to speak to women. We now have over 100,000 members and we really love helping women out. We do try to make money out of the website in order to run it; yet we are extremely honest and unbiased in regards to the wonderful advertisers who do support us and appear on the site. I would love for more women to use our forum. I am open to suggestions here! We have covered the i30 many times on the site - all positive! We test drive as many cars as possible to allow women a good overview to help them decide on their next vehicle; along with demystifying insurance, finance, tyres, greenslips and  of course the purchasing process etc. We constantly ask our members what they want from us - and yes, one question has been about buying a car through us in a similar fashion to carsales, Carsguide, Drive etc. We have only asked this once in a ten year period. I am sorry you do not like our site and it makes me truly sad to read your comments, but I guess we can’t please everyone all the time and we can only try our best. Our aim always has been to genuinely help - we are certainly not everyones cup-of-tea but I can honestly say we do our best I have many emails from women letting me know I have helped them and this makes it all worthwhile. I am also a mother of three. Thanks for your support. Best, Juliet

[Ugly Mongrel]

Paragraphs would be good...

[AlanHo]

Hi there, I am Juliet and I run AutoChic. Although I initially had two male investors, I was happy to have had any investors, let alone female ones - it was hard to find anyone to back the website over ten years ago when I launched as we were the very first automotive website for women in the world at the time. I have always run the site and try my best to please everyone.

Regarding the Car of the Year Awards; we are the only one for women in Australia (and the first in Australia to actually have a Green Car Award!) and we in fact ask the car companies themselves to nominate the cars for the categories each year. I expect perhaps the Hyundai car company entered the Getz as the best first car and the i30 was nominated into another category. I am unsure why they nominate the cars as they do.

My aim however is to involve women who may otherwise be disinterested in cars in the automotive industry to help feminise the industry a little - it was very blokey when I came into it -  and hopefully to help eliminate any negative perceptions and attitudes, along with giving automotive companies a platform in which to speak to women. We now have over 100,000 members and we really love helping women out.

We do try to make money out of the website in order to run it; yet we are extremely honest and unbiased in regards to the wonderful advertisers who do support us and appear on the site. I would love for more women to use our forum. I am open to suggestions here!

We have covered the i30 many times on the site - all positive! We test drive as many cars as possible to allow women a good overview to help them decide on their next vehicle; along with demystifying insurance, finance, tyres, greenslips and  of course the purchasing process etc. We constantly ask our members what they want from us - and yes, one question has been about buying a car through us in a similar fashion to carsales, Carsguide, Drive etc. We have only asked this once in a ten year period.

I am sorry you do not like our site and it makes me truly sad to read your comments, but I guess we can’t please everyone all the time and we can only try our best. Our aim always has been to genuinely help - we are certainly not everyones cup-of-tea but I can honestly say we do our best I have many emails from women letting me know I have helped them and this makes it all worthwhile. I am also a mother of three. Thanks for your support. Best, Juliet

There you are UM - now read it and comment on the content.....

[Dazzler]

Paragraphs would be good...

Is that what they call sledgehammer wit? 

It does look better with paragraphs I must say..

Welcome Juliet..I hope you like our site (I better go and check yours out) 

[Ugly Mongrel]

My comment was not meant to offend. The point I was trying to make is that Juliet says she "runs" the AutoChic website. I would have thought from someone in the position that she is in would have tried to make her message more clear to readers. I don't know too many people in the business of trying to communicate a message who would put 464 words in one paragraph and expect people to wade through it to get the many salient points.

I did read the post and consider a lot of Juliet's comments quite valid and applaud her for her efforts in "demystifying" the car buying process for women in Australia.

Good luck to Juliet and the AutoChic website. That's all I've got to say about that.