Tuesday, December 22, 2009

How To Find A Metro

Here's how to find a Metro without even trying.

1.Check out SearchTempest.com, that may be all you need. If you like what you see, you can setup automatic updates, in the form of an RSS feed.

2. Sign up for Google Reader, or a similar RSS feed reader. [What's RSS?] I like Google Reader particularly as it's tags are easy to use (very important). Simply click 'tag', type a one or two word description, and hit enter. Next time, the tag is volunteered automatically.

3. Go to Search Tempest, and set your criteria.
What: Geo Metro.
Where: your zip code or city/state.
Within: choose a reasonable distance.
Sub-Category: choose Cars+trucks, All.

Set a max price if you like, and play around with it until it's just the way you like it. Perform the search.

THEN.

on the search page, at the top right, you see an orange symbol, labelled "Feeds for this search". Click this.

You get directions for this next bit, read through these. Basically you download a file of feeds, and import it to your feed reader.

Got the file?

Go to Reader->settings->Import & Export

Import the feeds you saved earlier. I have a lot of other feeds, so I put these together in a folder called SearchTempest.


Use the tags in Reader to sort the flood of Metros. Whatever matters to you, like 3cyl or automatic transmission. Once you get them sorted out, then you have the best deals in order, delivered daily without any further trouble on your part. My tags are: 3cyl, 4cyl, automatic, manual, unknown, parts, and wanted. That about covers it , and I can look under, say, manual, and get a good idea of the best price and distances. No cross references (3cyl + manual), thats kind of annoying.

That's it.