Web Car-Buying Sites as Varied as Auto Models
First, the disclaimer: I’m not a Luddite, but I don’t find the Internet and all of its Web sites a great source of soul-satisfying joy, either.
That said, “www.let’s-buy-a-car” isn’t a bad idea.
Most people really do dislike the negotiating that is so much a part of the traditional car shopping experience. Anything that can reduce that stress is a pretty good thing. If it can also help us rest assured that we didn’t pay hundreds more than our cousin did for the same make and model, all the better.
Internet auto shopping is great for those who know what car they want, are comfortable with the idea of someone else pre-selecting the dealers they’ll be buying from and don’t want the trouble of hassling with dealer people, including the inevitable go-for-the-jugular finance manager who can’t believe you’d let your daughter park in some dark spot late at night without this nifty $895 alarm and power door lock system.
I recently tried out nine popular car-buying Web sites and found:
* They are easy to use, with lots of trails to wander off on if you still want to gather more information before committing to doing a deal.
* They come in two basic flavors--those that let dealers set the price and require shoppers to talk to a dealer representative to get a quote, such as Autobytel.com, CarPoint.com and Autoweb.com; and those that set the prices themselves and provide immediate online quotes, such as CarsDirect.com, CarOrder.com and Invoicedealers.com.
* Pricing is very competitive--rarely will differences from quote to quote exceed a few hundred dollars.
My favorites were the direct sales sites that provide a price quote on-screen as soon as you ask for it--no waiting for a dealership’s fleet manager to call, no need to interact with a dealer at all.
CarsDirect and CarOrder provide one price, take it or leave it. Invoicedealers loads the screen with quotes--I asked for a basic black 1999 Ford Mustang coupe with 4-speed automatic transmission as the only option and got seven quotes ranging from $16,744 to $17,164.
By comparison, the CarsDirect quote was $16,729.03. CarOrder would only let me ask for a 2000 model with an MSRP--manufacturer’s suggested retail price--$50 higher than the $17,810 on the ’99 model--and offered to sell me one for $16,873.
Dealer-driven sites such as Autobytel and CarPoint require a pricing request along with info like your home phone and address, which they forward to the dealer or dealers in your area who use their services. The dealers then call you back and give you a price quote on the phone. Many also will try to talk you into coming down to the facility, sometimes promising to negotiate an even better price if you do.
The Mustang quote from an Orange County dealership that responded quickly to my inquiry via CarPoint was $16,910. A second dealership CarPoint referred me to never called me, although I did get an e-mail promising me a call.
I’ve actually purchased two new cars this year, and in both cases submitted inquiries to Autobytel. The prices quoted were fair, but the choice of dealers wasn’t very broad. When I was looking for a Subaru in January, the only dealer affiliated with Autobytel was in Thousand Oaks. I live in Orange County, which would have made for quite a trip.
After going interactive in both cases, I also picked up the phone and called the Automobile Club of Southern California’s auto buying service. I was referred to two dealers for each car, both close to my home. And the prices they quoted were slightly lower than the prices I got from the Internet dealers.
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Cars
Web sites reviewed: Autobytel.com: https://www.autobytel.com; Autoweb.com: https://www.autoweb.com; CarsDirect.com: https://www.carsdirect.com; CarOrder.com: https://www.carorder.com; CarPoint.com: https://www.carpoint.com; Invoicedealers.com: https://www.invoicedealers.com.
