04/29/96 KICKING TIRES ON THE WEB

KICKING TIRES ON THE WEB

Jacob Mathews was tired of haggling. A systems analyst for a New York investment bank, Mathews checked out a half-dozen dealers in his search for a new Nissan Pathfinder. But he couldn't strike the right deal. ``I was fed up with the treatment I got. I'd get quoted one price over the phone, but when I got to the dealership, they'd tell me the last car was just sold,'' he said. Or, ``they'd say that price was for a vehicle with a dent in it.'' So Mathews called upon a new car-shopping tool: a World Wide Web browser.
Mathews pointed the browser to a Web site known as Auto-By-Tel, a service that purports to make car buying hassle-free. He filled out an Auto-By-Tel purchase-request form listing the model, color, and options he wanted, along with his desire to lease. Two days later, he received a call from a sales manager at Koeppel Nissan in Jackson Heights, N.Y., which, as it happened, was one of the dealers Mathews had visited in person. Auto-By-Tel has an arrangement with 1,400 dealers who pay $2,500 annually plus $250 to $1,500 a month for referrals. The sales manager who phoned was not the fellow Mathews had dealt with earlier, and his leasing offer was about $40 less per month than what was originally quoted. Mathews agreed to the price, made an appointment to fill out paperwork, and--without dickering--got the keys to a new vehicle.
Today, car shoppers can cruise the Information Highway for all kinds of assistance. Just about every major auto manufacturer, plus numerous individual dealers and regional networks, have pages on the Web. A Yahoo! search turned up such sites as the AutoBase of Minnesota and the Kentuckiana AutoMall.
At the Ford WorldWide Connection site (http://www. ford.com), users can fill in forms to determine what kind of car payment they can afford and whether it makes sense to buy or lease. The DealerNet service from Reynolds & Reynolds has about 30,000 pages and links to 500 dealers and 1,600 new models. Consumers will also soon be able to get data on 200,000 used cars and apply for General Motors Acceptance Corp. (GMAC) credit.
WEB OF PITCHES. But much of what consumers are being served up on the Web is plain old advertising. Moreover, they're being shown suggested retail prices that don't adequately represent what the dealer paid for the car. That's not surprising. Dealers fork over $1,495 to $2,495 to have DealerNet set up a Web site, plus $495 to $695 a month to maintain it. ``The dealers are the primary ones funding the site, and they have not encouraged us'' to offer invoice prices, admits Kevin Distelhorst, director of online services at Reynolds & Reynolds.
Fortunately, consumers can get objective pricing data from other sources. One of the best: the free site for Edmund's Automobile Buyer's Guides, where users can learn the invoice price, dealer holdbacks (a concealed profit kept by the manufacturer until the car is sold), destination charges, and the skinny on current incentives and rebates. The Edmund's site also carries car reviews, as do those for Car and Driver (http://www.car and driver.com) and Popular Mechanics (http://www.pop ularmechanics.com).
Once you're armed with that kind of information, an outfit such as Auto-By-Tel can help you lubricate the transaction. Those who receive an offer are under no obligation to accept. After E-mailing a purchase request, buyers are supposed to receive a call within 48 hours from a dealer who will, in theory, present a fair price. In practice, it doesn't always work. Roger Vaught, a training specialist at American Overseas Petroleum in Houston, says he never heard from a dealer, even after submitting an Auto-By-Tel application twice. Buyers who aren't pleased can register a complaint via E-mail.
The Internet's vast reach potentially puts consumers in an unprecedented position of strength. In seeking out a bargain, car buyers can now easily contact dealers that might be located two states away. (Buyers can still get authorized service at a dealer closer to home.) What's more, Donald Keithley, a partner at J.D. Power & Associates, can foresee a time when consumers might exploit the Internet and send E-mail to dozens of dealers to broadcast their intention to buy a car. They might say: ``I know the car I want. I've got financing. I'm ready to buy. Give it your best shot, and I'll accept the top bid by such and such a date.'' Should that occur, haggling will indeed be history.
EDITED BY AMY DUNKIN By Edward Baig