Automotive Related osCommerce

[ksource]

So I've been spending over a month tweaking a website that sells car parts, yet still not there yet.

 

As you know there are specific make of car (manufacturer) within the makes there are models and within the models there are specific years of the model.

 

Now obviously I can use manufacturer for the make.

 

Model field can't actually hold models as it is used for SKU in conjunction with EP.

 

This leaves me with either creating sub-categories within my product categories listing the make then model.

 

ie.

 

Category > Sub-Cat > Sub-Cat > Sub-Cat

Brakes > Honda > Civic > 1993-1995

 

This to me doesn't quite seem like the best method, however probably one of the easier ones.

 

The only alternative I can think of at this time is to create attributes that hold the model of the car as well as the years that the model can fall into. Then use the advanced attributes search to hopefully break it down for me when people need to search.

 

My question is, when using the attributes, would this be a good solution. I would think the models need to be the "option name" and the "option value" would hold the year?!?

[ksource]

Anyone?

[dmnalven]

Attributes are not meant to be used this way. Although, it seems like it would work for pricing and shipping purposes out-of-the-box, they are actually different products, therefore, no separate image or search unless you modify some code and I'm not certain about the accounting.