If you're thinking about buying a car, either new or used, the net should be one of your stops. That's because the net has changed this dramatically in your favor. Here's what my experience was like.
I haven't bought a lot of cars in my life. I usually drive the one I have until the wheels fall off. The last car I bought for myself I drove for over a decade and 200,000 miles. I got rid of it when it wouldn't run anymore.
About that time, my daughter, Debbie, and her husband were heading overseas to Martin's new duty station. It would have been a real hassle for them to take their Explorer. So Debbie and I cut a deal.
I'd take the Explorer for the three years they were going to be in Germany. During that time, I'd handle the upkeep, the payments, and the insurance and stuff. With that money freed up, they would be able to get a vehicle for while they were in Germany. It looked like a pretty good deal all around.
I drove the Explorer for three years, starting with a trip from California over to North Carolina. The deal we'd made worked well for me and for my kids.
But, a couple of months ago, their tour in Germany was over. Debbie, Martin, and the boys stopped in North Carolina on the way to their new duty station in Texas. They spent time with me and The Most Beautiful Woman in the World. The boys saw their first beach. Then they took the truck and drove off to Texas.
That left me with no transportation. It was time to go vehicle hunting. You might think I started with research on the net, but I didn't.
I started by thinking what kind of vehicle I'd like to have. I talked to people and exchanged emails with some. We discussed what kind of vehicle they thought would work for me and what their own buying experiences had been like.
Ultimately, I decided that what I wanted was a small pickup truck. That would mean that between us, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World and I would have sedan (that's what she drives), and the truck that I was going to buy.
Researching details was next. I was off to the Web to figure out what kind of vehicle I'd want if I could get the absolutely perfect one. I looked at lots of different small pickups. I got an idea of what the prices were. I found out what kinds of features each could have.
There's lots of information out there, which is why more and more folks are using the web as part of the new car shopping process. According to a recent survey by Carpoint, 85% plan to do some research on the Internet before purchasing their next vehicle.
You might think that the automobile manufacturer's sites would be the best sites to visit, but I thought they were the worst. They were loaded with graphics and "cool" features that slowed the process down. They were very light on information.
I'm not alone in these sentiments. A recent Accenture study found almost half of the consumers who visited auto manufacturer sites were either neutral toward them or dissatisfied with them. What do they want? Accenture put it this way: "Online consumers prefer simple Web sites. They turn to an autosite for quick access to information rather than an interactive experience."
The automobile companies also seem intent on making it as hard as possible to find usable information. Again, and again, I ran into information that I could have this particular package if I had that particular engine, but only if I bought it in a month ending in "e" and on an odd day of the month.
It would sure be helpful if the people who build the cars would do a little work on how they present information about those cars. They could also use web technology to help buyers.
That's happening, but it's not happening on the automakers' sites. Instead, it's happening on lots of third party auto buying sites, like Intellichoice, Autoweb, and Carpoint.
Those sites use web tools like search tools, configurators, comparators, and calculators to help you make sense of all the information that's out there and what it means for you. They also have discussion groups and user recommendation boards, but I didn't find those very helpful.
In any case, at this point, I knew what I wanted, and I had a pretty good idea of what prices and options were likely to be. Web research had helped a lot.
Now it was time to hit the road and visit a few dealerships. Joanna, the daughter of The Most Beautiful Woman in the World, turned into my car-buying guide and escort. This was really helpful, because she knows more about cars than I will probably ever know or care to know. We set out together to visit a number of car lots.
Here's the short rundown on what happened out there on the road. I met six different salespeople. I eliminated two of the dealerships right off. They were both of the "your trade-in is worth at least $2000" variety. My gut told me that buying there would let me in for a fight every step of the way. I listen to my gut.
At each of the other places, I told the salesperson what I wanted. I wanted a small truck and it had to have certain features. I was going to buy in the next couple of days, if I found something that met my requirements at a fair price. Four salespeople nodded, just like they understood, and took down my phone number.
If I were in the business of selling cars and somebody showed up and told me they were going to buy a car in the next couple of days, I'd certainly make an effort to get back to them. But only one of those four people called me.
It turned out to be the one that I'd had the best impression of during the first round of visits. He presented a couple of possibilities to me that didn't quite meet the package needs that I wanted. None of them really did, but he kept answering questions and I kept giving answers. Finally, he came up with something he thought I'd like.
We arranged for a test drive. The next day, he brought the truck down to my office, and I took it out for a couple of hours of driving. I put it through its paces in the city and out on the freeway. It had everything I wanted. It was a make and model that was in my top three. In fact, it was the top one for its year.
Before I went ahead with the purchase, I checked out the car's maintenance history. The dealership was guaranteeing a couple of things that I didn't need to check, but I got a report on the truck I wanted anyway. It came away clean, which was good; because by then, I really wanted it. Now for financing.
The dealership was hooked up to the national manufacturer's credit subsidiary. They ran the numbers through their system, and I came out good enough to drive the truck away that day if I wanted it. A net-based system at the dealership pulled my credit report, took the answers on the application I'd filled out, and ran a scoring process. That speed translated into convenience.
The only question now was precisely how much it was going to cost. We had to get past the haggling part.
I really don't like to haggle, so I told that to my salesperson. I said, "Look, Keith, I know what the sticker price is, and I've got a pretty good idea of what the cost and value of this truck is. Make me a fair offer, and I'll go for it. Force me to bargain or haggle, and I'll go buy my truck someplace else."
Keith went off to huddle with the sales manager and come up with a price. I'd already used my Web research to figure out what the top amount was that I would pay. The offer came in well under that.
By the end of the day, the deal was done, and I drove away in my new Ford Ranger XLT, after a good buying experience. Here's what you can take away from that good experience.
The net gives you an amazing array of tools to gather information that will help you in the car buying process. You can find out about makes and models, details of option packages, repair and crash ratings, dealer costs, book prices, individual maintenance records and a lot more. This truly enhances your power in the buying process.
Most of the salespeople I met were manipulative slugs. If you roll over and bare your throat, they're more than happy to sell you what they want, whether it meets your needs and budget or not.
Good salespeople are rare, but you can find them. You'll know them by their reputation. Just ask around. I talked to friends and to folks in the dealership service waiting room. You'll also know good sales people by their behavior. They're the ones that ask questions and listen a lot. They follow up.
Most of the loan processes today are automated. That means it makes good sense to check out your credit history before you start shopping and fix anything that's incorrect. Net contacts and credit scoring have speeded up the process, and also broadened the range of lenders you can check out easily and quickly.
You don't have to haggle if you choose not to. You can play the "be nice to me or I'll take my checkbook and go home" game that I played. Or you can haggle away more effectively if that's what you like. Information is truly power here.
At the end of the day, it's the people who help you and the people at the dealership that make your experience a good one or a bad one. The technology helps you find them and recognize them and deal more effectively with them. As always, people and relationships are the key.
RESOURCES
If you're looking into buying a car, here are some web resources that should help. Please note that I don't keep these up to date. They're current as of 20 August 2001, when this feature appeared.
First, the sites that try to pull it all together. These three site all have a complete array of features that will help you decide on a vehicle, do research on things like maintenance ratings and individual repair histories, research and purchase insurance, get financing and more. They try to do it all, and, truth be told, they do a pretty good job.
Intellichoice (This was the site that I used the most.)
Carpoint
Autoweb
These sites are less comprehensive than the ones above.
Autotrader.com
DealerNet
Autobytel
The following sites have information that can help you in your buying decision if you're looking at a used vehicle. You can actually find these folks on most of the comprehensive sites, but sometimes that takes some searching.
Kelley Blue Book
Edmunds
Carfax
Once you've got your vehicle, you should check this site out for some of its reminder features.
MyCarpage
This feature appeared on 20 August 2001
