|
The idea of buying a car online, in my opinion, is sheer genius. Being able
to avoid dealers, while still having the luxury to view a car and select my
options is an appealing concept to say the least. Regardless, I would
still be somewhat nervous to make such a momentous purchase with a simple
click of my mouse. The average American consumer tends to agree. Perhaps
it's a wariness that keeps us from buying something we haven't actually
touched, or maybe it's just the ingrained cultural notions we have about our
cars. The test drive, for one, is almost as much a traditional mainstay as
mom and apple pie. Whatever their reasons, most people prefer to do their
research online and then head out later to a brick-and-mortar dealership.
While there are a few sites that promise to deliver your newly purchased
vehicle, most car buying sites specialize in putting the potential buyer in
contact with an "authorized dealer." So if you were shopping online to avoid
the dealer, you should probably resign yourself to having to deal with a
live salesperson at some point in the process.
Why bother shopping online then? Well, the great thing about it is not
that you're necessarily buying anything from the comfort of home, but that
you're doing some in-depth window-shopping, which will allow you to walk
into the dealership a much wiser (read: less vulnerable) consumer.
One of my co-workers enthusiastically endorses the online car "shopping"
process. While he didn't actually purchase online, the car he drives now is
the result of some thorough mouse-clicking research. He searched through his
preferred manufacturer's pre-owned certified stock, picked several cars that
met his needs, and compared the prices that the manufacturer offered against
the online Kelley Blue Book to make sure that he wasn't paying for a huge
hike-up price. He even ran lemon checks and VHR reports on his choices.
Finally, he compared and ultimately obtained insurance for the car of his
choice. In short, he did everything a potential buyer should do to make sure
that a car buying experience is rewarding. He offers these words of advice
for the online window shopper: "Car shopping is like buying jewelry -- you
should actually go look at it before you buy it."
How it Works
When you're car shopping, the Web can provide two services: providing the
means to buy and finance online, and providing a massive quantity of
information. Any of the larger search engines, such as Gor MSN, have auto
sections dedicated to providing users with online price quotes, a wealth of
tips on everything from avoiding "lemons" to getting the best price out of a
dealer, to online calculators to help you determine your monthly payments.
Online Comparisons.
Any number of sites, AutoWeb,
Autobytel,
CarPoint,
Cars.com, DealerNet,
AutoVantage, and
AutoTown, for example, allow you to
request free price quotes from local dealers. You simply provide the make
and model of the car you're interested in purchasing, your contact
information and you receive a quote in a short period of time, usually
within the next 24 hours. Most of these sites also offer model comparisons,
reviews, ratings and images in addition to providing price quote services.
Better yet, you can shop for financing in much the same way. Apply for a
loan online -- from online lenders like
CapitalOne Auto Finance,
ELoan, and
LendingTree.com -- and you receive
quotes within a matter of days, if not hours.
Consumer Resources.
Another advantage to online window-shopping is that you have quick access
to sources like the Kelley Blue Book,
which provides a car guide with invoice prices for new cars and current
trade-in values (to help you negotiate that trade-in to your best
advantage), and Consumer Reports
online, which rates just about everything in terms of value-for-your-money.
For auto shopping purposes, however, the CR site has an entire section of
the site dedicated to advice and ratings on every conceivable aspect of new
and used cars. While Consumer Reports online offers extensive information
for free, you have to subscribe to their site for a fee of $4.95/month to
access their entire ratings and reviews archive. That fee may keep you from
making a $20,000 mistake.
Edmunds.com also has extensive
vehicle guides for both new and used cars, as well as consumer advice and
resources that range from road test editorials provided by the site's staff,
to crash test data. Best of all, the pricing and rating information is free
of charge.
The Step-by-Steps.
There are several sites that are godsends to those who, like myself, have
never really been familiar with car lingo and need every tip available to
make an informed decision.
The MotleyFool.com offers an
extensive thirteen-step guide to help you make an informed choice, and
alerts you to any of the pitfalls of making such an enormous purchase. It
even provides worksheets to take you through any of the car-purchasing
processes, giving you handy lists to bring along when you test drive a new
or used car.
The guys at CarTalk.com, who host
the NPR talk show by the same name, also provide a handy guide for the car
novice. The site provides a link to Cars.com's pricing guides and
classifieds, but most helpful are the Car Report and the Test Drive
Notebook. The report allows you to access varied information -- from
performance on crash tests to common user complaints -- on the make and
model of your choice. The Notebook provides observations made by the Car
Talk hosts -- the reigning experts on any kind of "funny noise" your car
might be making -- on their test drives of an extensive list of vehicles.
Now get out there and click that mouse. |
