Car Shopping Online
Just last week I was reading my daily Detroit Free Press newspaper and came across the following article about shopping for a car online. While “free car quotes” and online car shopping is nothing new, it still hasn’t really caught the mainstream. Many consumers still drive to the local dealer without doing a lot of research or price shopping.
This was a great read because it typifies the consumer experience with an online quote.
DESIREE COOPER: Relax, shop for car online
August 11, 2005
BY DESIREE COOPER
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
I haven’t cared about what kind of car I drove since children forced me into minivans in 1993. Twelve years later, I woke up with teenage drivers and the hope of once again driving alone in my own car and listening to my own music.
Like every caged creature that finally faces an open door, I was afraid to go through it. I hadn’t paid attention to cars for years. What kind of car did I really want? And was I wily enough to get a good deal?
There’s something about the antiseptic smell of showrooms and the Cheshire grin of salesmen that make me feel like fresh meat delivered to the butcher. Why can’t shopping for cars be more like shopping for clothes at T.J. Maxx, where everything is already marked down? If you like a pair of shoes, and if you like the price, you take them home. No bargaining and no feeling of obligation to the salesman who spent two hours “trying to get you into something nice.”
So I did something I’d never considered before — I shopped for my car on the Internet.
Wheeling and dealing
The first stop was www.cars.com, where I used a price calculator to figure out how much my car payments would be based on the sticker price. Or I could go in reverse: If I only wanted to pay a certain amount each month, how much car could I afford?
I wanted a hybrid vehicle that wasn’t a truck. Enough of big cars and fuel bills to match. I was able to read articles about hybrids on the Web site. Finally, I put in my criteria — including model, options and distance I’d travel to a dealership — and hit a button.
BOOM! Nothing happened.
But a day later, I had messages from three dealers. Imagine, car dealers coming to me rather than me schlepping all over tarnation!
This was getting serious, so I went for a test drive at a nearby dealership to make sure I really wanted a hybrid. I was in love.
Meanwhile, one Internet dealer was particularly eager for my business. In the end, I was pitting the test-drive guy against the Internet guy. I became a dickering fiend, all because I knew what I wanted, I knew what it cost and, best of all, I knew that the Internet guy didn’t know me from Adam. I could be hard-nosed without feeling guilty.
When I’d had enough of his hemming and hawing, I sent this message: “My money is burning in my pocket. I am going to buy a car TODAY. I have a noon appointment with a dealer close to me. Call me on my cell if you have something you think I’d be interested in.”
He called. I was interested. That evening, I drove to the dealership to sign the papers, saving several thousand dollars off the sticker price. I wondered if this was what Internet dating was like.
Driving Miss Desi
A month later, I was driving my new Honda Accord hybrid with the radio blaring. A cop stopped me on an empty stretch of highway going 10 over. When he asked me why, I told him, “Because I’m happy to be in my own car with my own music.”
Even with the price of a ticket tagged on, I still got a good deal.
Contact DESIREE COOPER at 313-222-6625 or cooper@freepress.com.
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