A&L launches motoring site

Alliance & Leicester has launched Smartermotoring.com, a “one-stop-shop” website for motorists, covering all aspects of buying or selling a car.

Alliance & Leicester has launched Smartermotoring.com, a “one-stop-shop” website for motorists, covering all aspects of buying or selling a car. Subjects covered range from how to advertise your car to how to estimate its day-to-day running costs.

The move into online motoring expands A&L’s presence in the sector after it set up its Car Price Index over two years ago.

Smartermotoring.com will offer advice on car financing, giving prominence to A&L’s own loans and its flexible car purchase plan. There is an online application form, and a loan and company car tax calculator.

The site is based on in-depth focus group research as well as a MORI quantitative survey and pre-testing of the site by 8,000 A&L staff members.

A&L e-commerce director Andrew Robinson says: “We discovered that while there is a wealth of information available, what consumers really want is to have all the facts they need at one location and to have a wide choice of linked services.

“We also found that top priorities were not standing-start performance times or style guides but hard, independent information on safety, reliability and running costs. That’s why we’ve made these key features of the site. We are giving customers the tools to get real value out of an industry which says it makes no margin.”

The site features content from a number of third parties, including What Car?, 4Car, Parker’s Price Guide, the Reg Vardy dealership network, Fish4Cars, Autobytel and CAP Network.

Marketing activity to support the launch includes sponsorship of ITV’s Pulling Power (with creative work by D’Arcy), outdoor posters, direct mail and PR.