public function getDistinctTypes($appendAny = false) {
         $db = Loader::db();
         $types = array();
                        $typeUnique = array();
         $col = $db->getCol("SELECT DISTINCT type FROM DealerLocatorLocations ORDER BY type ASC");
         if(is_array($col) && count($col)) {
            foreach($col as $val) {
               $types[$val] = $val;
            }
                                foreach($types as $val){
                                    $typeUnique[] = explode(',', $val);
                                }
                               $types = $this->dealerLocatorFlatten($typeUnique);
 
         }
         if($appendAny) {
            $types = array_merge(array('any'=>t('- Any -')),$types);            
         }
         return $types;
      }
 
                public function dealerLocatorFlatten($array) { 
                    if (!is_array($array)) { 
                      return FALSE; 
                    } 
                    $result = array(); 
                    foreach ($array as $key => $value) { 
                      if (is_array($value)) {
                        $value = array_filter(array_map('trim', $value));
                        $result = array_merge($result, $this->dealerLocatorFlatten($value)); 
                      } 
                      else { 
                        $result[$value] = $value; 
                      } 
                    } 
                    return $result; 
                 }