Just released in the Ovi Store is Auto Trader Mobile for all S60 5th Edition and Symbian^3 handsets. Auto Trader, as the name suggests, is a huge online second hand car buying and selling system and this new solution works well, if quirkily, giving full information on search matches, looking up your location and allowing you to store server-side notes. See below for screenshots and comments.

Off to a bad start, the Web runtime-based Auto Trader Mobile accesses its own server and - finds a certificate problem. Don't companies test their apps before release anymore?

You're thrown straight into a search form, which is good, and filling it out is trivially easy, with all the right pick lists.

There's the option to simply look up your GPS position and use that as the starting point for the location-based search. Well done to the developers, this uses the Symbian positioning system (GPS/Wi-Fi/Cell) and works quickly. There's also this 'Advanced' sub-form if you need it (you will), shown above, right.

Matches are shown with price, distance and thumbnail, tapping on a match brings up a scrolling page with all the salient information. There's also the welcome option to tap a button to immediately call the seller on the publicised number (omitted from the screenshots for obvious reasons). Of extra note is that you can save matches to your 'Garage' and add 'Notes', all presumably held server-side, ready for you to call up again in a future session with Auto Trader Mobile. Pretty cool.

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As you'll see from the 'reviews' in the Ovi Store for Auto Trader Mobile, many people have had problems getting this (Web Runtime-based?) application to connect - possibly a server problem back at Auto Trader HQ? - Rafe had the same difficulty.

In addition, I had the app lock up on me and I had to quit it from the Symbian multitasking panel. Plus I had some issues entering text in note fields, with my N8 not offering me a virtual qwerty keyboard, so I had to use just T9 to write my scribblings!

More data points are welcome if you've got time to try this on your own touchscreen Symbian smartphone. If this is indeed a Web runtime-written application/widget then it's one of the most advanced I've yet seen, rivalling even the Ovi Store client - but it's clear there are some quirks and bottlenecks in the Auto Trader server set up that need ironing out!

Over to you, give it a try, it's free etc!

Steve Litchfield, AAS, 3rd Nov 2010