Bringing this thread back on topic (!) I'd like to play devil's advocate for a minute.

 

The designer in question seems by popular concensus to have a horrible, badly designed site, right? I haven't looked at the code, but I'd be willing to bet that said designer does a fair amount of business off the back of that home page. It has character, and warmth. Ok, the drawings are a little, er... childish, but I can see the appeal for small businesses and family concerns, definitely.

 

Which begs the question, is it bad design? If it works, then no. Is it ugly? Probably, but the two are not the same thing.

 

There's more to offering a service than sharp graphics and valid XHTML. Doesn't mean the service will be good, but selling it is the first step. You can be the best *designer* in the world, but it's worth nothing if you can't bring in a single client.

Yep I agree with NB totally here - design doesn't mean a trend of 'looking cool' it means (especially online) meeting the expectations and needs of the user and making the experience as pleasant as possible.

 

However, in this instance, in my opinion, the design is both ugly and not a great user experience

Just leave the client and move on - it'll save you a lot of hassle. I've developed a site similar to webuyanycar and there is a LOT more to it. First of all you'll need to find a good service to prodive you with the raw car data and then you'll need to find a service which has an API for number plate conversion. (Glass's Guide for example.) webuyanycar also Valuates the car - therefore you will need fairly good knowledge of cars and have at least 2 weeks to learn the system if not. Glass's charges a figure in the thousands for the raw car data monthly, so if he's not willing to pay over £99 for the site, well... there is going to be issues.

 

For a webuyanycar clone you should be looking at 20k min(agency) or 10k freelance. (if you value your time)

Wow that web designer site is awful... 99 for a one page site, who does one page sites? Maybe a landing page I can understand but just a one page and if it looks like his 1 page wow watch out. I'd say let that guy see what happens to his 99 haha. He will come running back and probably kicking and screaming at the other guy.