Categories / Sub Categories and Products all in Dropdowns?

[CIPFriction.com]

Hey all,

I'm just starting out setting up a store to sell car parts, specialized in 4-5 products only (Clutch kits / related parts)

I would like my categories, sub-categories and products to be in dropdown boxes and even better linked together... For example:

You choose the "Honda" category which in turns updates the sub-category dropdown to show honda models, you then choose the "Civic" sub-category which would update the product dropdown to show Civic models years and finally show the products related to that model. Makes sense?

Now, I've been reading the Zen Cart book and the solution I found was to build it using product attributes but I just realized yesterday that I will only list 1 product (clutch kit) with 5-15 (or more depending on car brand!) product attributes (car model, year, engine type etc..) ... That doesn't seem right?!

I hope what I just said is clear, is there a way to go about doing what I want or do I have to use the product attributes like I thought at first? The reason for this is to have a very to the point website for a mechanic to find what he wants fast and buy. Plus a majority of my clientele will be older mechanics who might not know alot about computers so I want it to be simple for them.

Keep in mind I know nothing in PHP/programming, I get along reading alot but I won't be able to code anything since I dont have the knowledge.

Thanks in advance.

You can also look at what I've done so far:
www.cipfriction.com/store/
Choose the Cars category then choose Acura...

David

[stevesh]

If you search the forums for "auto parts' you'll find lots of threads dealing with what you want to do, most involving a larger range of parts, so there might be some info there.

You could do it with attributes, and you could also accomplish the same thing with more subdirectory levels.

Making visitors click through a lot of levels to get to their product is usually considered a bad thing, but it's often necessary due to the number of possible combinations. Auto Zone seems to do a good online business, and it takes forever to get where you're going on their website. Check midwayusa.com for another example.

[CIPFriction.com]

If you search the forums for "auto parts' you'll find lots of threads dealing with what you want to do, most involving a larger range of parts, so there might be some info there.

You could do it with attributes, and you could also accomplish the same thing with more subdirectory levels.

Making visitors click through a lot of levels to get to their product is usually considered a bad thing, but it's often necessary due to the number of possible combinations. Auto Zone seems to do a good online business, and it takes forever to get where you're going on their website. Check midwayusa.com for another example.

Thanks for the info, I'll search for what you said and see what I come up with.

The midway site is too crowdy for me, I really just want 3 drop down boxes, one for "car/trucks" then "brand" then "model/year/engine" all on the same page one feeding the other the info for it to show the info and that would load the page to show what is available for that particular model, 3 clicks and you're there, this is a good example of what I would like:

http://www.knfilters.com/search/appsearch.aspx

I hope I dont have to get custom code done ... but if not that's what I'll do I really want a to-the-point fast site, no bells-and-whistles.

[CIPFriction.com]

No one as any other idea apart from custom coding? Already available module?