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netting a good deal - Inter

Kiplinger's New Cars & Trucks, Annual, 1999 by Marc L. Schulhof

Online buying services let you shop from the comfort of home, saving you time and hassle.

Aaron Cohen tried to play the car-buying game by the rules. When his 1991 Plymouth Voyager started fraying around the edges, he went to a local dealership, kids in tow, and listened to the sales schtick on a new minivan, a 1998 Isuzu Oasis.

"They tried to sell me a one-year-old demo model for $25,000," he recalls. "I think I laughed in the guy's face."

That's when Cohen got fed up. Got fired up. Got that Internet religion.

"I was so pressed for time, and I wanted to avoid the pain of going to the dealership," he says. "I knew this was the car I wanted, so it simply became an issue of price and convenience."

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Cohen, editor of the Chicago-based Jewish United Federation News newspaper, went home and logged on to the Internet. Within an hour, he had compiled detailed specifications on the Oasis; the dealer's invoice price on the exact model he wanted; and a fair trade-in value on his old minivan.

Armed with that complete range of data, he submitted requests for price quotes to a number of online buying services, which promise competitive, no-haggle prices through their nationwide networks of affiliated dealerships.

"The dealer called me with what seemed to be a fair price for the vehicle, which was about $23,000," Cohen says. "When I went in to sign the papers, they didn't try tacking on one additional charge. Before we even talked about whether I had a car to trade in, they said, 'Oh, you're with MSN CarPoint [one of the buying services]? This is the price.' It was completely straight up."

Within an hour, Cohen drove off, unscathed, with his new minivan. "They drove a very tough bargain on my trade-in," he notes, "so in the end, I figure I saved about $1,000. Maybe I could have gotten more for my old car selling it myself, and I probably could have haggled a dealer down on the price of the new one. But I probably saved 20 hours of my time, which to me is even more valuable."

"Would I do it again?" he asks. "I can't imagine doing it any other way."

Play by the rules. Your rules

Indeed, in the pantheon of human experiences, few are more disliked than stepping into a dealership to buy a new car. The salesperson's earnest, probing, "What can I do to get you into this car today?" is the opening salvo in a pitched battle for your checkbook: the sound of a predator circling, of negotiations begun, of a headache setting in.

But with the growing popularity of Internet-based buying services (which focus on new-car sales but also broker used cars), the car dealer's persuasive mother tongue could be a dying language. If you're in the market for a new vehicle, you owe it to yourself to at least check the online services out. You'll probably get a good deal, and you'll definitely save yourself time and hassle.

The Internet-based buying services all work in generally the same fashion. Customers send in a detailed purchase request through a main Web site; the request is forwarded to one or more of the network's local affiliated dealers; and the customer is contacted via phone or e-mail within 48 hours with a no-haggle price.

Telephone-based buying services have been around for years, of course, but the online services take that concept at least a few levels higher. They provide users with more information, more quickly. They tout a process that includes absolutely no negotiating with salespeople. And they connect buyers not only with prescreened dealers, but with insurance, financing and leasing companies as well.

The upshot: You can sit safely behind your computer screen, immune to any questions or influence from a dealer; ferret out every bit of information you need to choose the car you want and determine what price you should have to pay for it; then choose when and how you will contact a dealer for a price quote.

"The days of hiding information from the customer are over," says Autobytel.com dealer Ronnie Rushneck, co-owner of Rushneck Honda/Subaru, in Tarrytown, New York. The online buying services remove the cloak and dagger, the "I have to check with my manager," from the sales process.

Getting started

Before you get a buying service and its dealer involved in the act--something you shouldn't do until you're absolutely ready to buy--arm yourself with as much information as possible. For starters, you have to know what car you want. Down to the paint color and options packages. You'll be asked for that much detail when you sidle up to the counter (er, Web site) to place your purchase request.

And don't forget to take a test-drive. Who knows? You might find that the car you really want isn't the car you really want. Better to find out ahead of time rather than when you've already gotten a price quote.

The next step, and the most important for most online car shoppers, is ballparking a fair price. In that, the Internet has no equal. It has shined a bright light on the invoice price, the crucial figure that for ages was cloaked in darkness.

netting a good deal - Inter

Kiplinger's New Cars & Trucks, Annual, 1999 by Marc L. Schulhof

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