Which CMS solution is better for a community driven website with classifieds

Hi Everyone

I'm trying to create a community portal for cars and everything automotive, and I'd like some help on the best way to do it.

What I'm trying to accomplish is a homepage that allows users to

- Search new cars by make, model, price (Cars in this section will be added by the website admin)
- Add or Search used cars by make, model, price, location (Cars in this section will be added by the community, i.e. anyone who wants to list their car for sale)
- Read articles and news about cars posted by the site admin

The website is also going to include a forum, so it would be an advantage if users can use both the cms and forum with the same account.

I've seen a lot of tutorials talking about converting wordpress to a cms, but none of them matched my requirements.

Would you please suggest the best platform to do this, and any help references.

I'm also open to paid options, be it a turn-key solution or a customized one.

Thanks in advance

M.F

 

You'll have to get creative one way or another... either with a reliable forum+cms bridge that can add a directory capability or by finding a system that caters to the car directory system you need and can integrate with a forum still.

 

Both Joomla and Drupal should meet your needs.
However, Drupal forums can be a bit slow out of the box.
For Joomla you have the Kunena extension that adds a forum to your site.

I've experimented with Drupal and Joomla, but couldn't adapt to Joomla. I found Drupal easier to use and tune. You can even configure Drupal to be a social networking site like Facebook.

 

Seconding Drupal. The Views module will handle all your searching needs and Advanced Forum is pretty awesome for all but the most feature-lusting forum owners.

 

i use and love joomla

 

There are only just a few good social networking scripts around.
Actually 3 well known and solid, they exist for many years already and have good support too and private forums.

phpFox - http://www.phpfox.com (the best of the 3 if you get the COMMUNITY version with all features, including Marketplace, which is classified what you're looking for.)

Social Engine - http://www.socialengine.net

Jomsocial - http://www.jomsocial.com (this is a Joomla component, Joomla itself is free)

 

What about wordpress + buddypress + any good classified ad plug in ?

 

1. Classipress http://www.appthemes.com/themes/classipress/

2. Sitemile http://sitemile.com/products/wordpress-classified-ads-theme/

These are Wordpress plugins, not sure if they work with Buddypress though...

 

I find many positive comments regarding joomla and drupal. Is wordpress era over?

 

Is there anything hybrid Joomla and Wiki?

 

Most important things is "content" + "customization to suit your site genre"

CMS : Preferred : Jhoomla. (user Friendly)
Drupal 2nd (Highly customizable but you have to know basic CSS , spites , etc to work)

Cheers..