Drive-thru cyberspace - buying a car on the Internet or with online services - After Hours - Internet

Home Office Computing, April, 1996 by Emerson Andrew Torgan

Finding a New Car In a High-Tech World

AT AGE 13 I WAS GIVEN A YEAR'S SUBSCRIPTION TO Road & Track magazine. Each month, a new issue arrived in the mailbox, with its cover featuring a shiny, new hot rod that cost more than my father paid for our house. For two weeks every month, I was impossible. Simply impossible. "Why can't I get a 1954 Ferrari Mondial?" "Can we move to Texas? You can drive on a farm in Texas when you're 14!"

We never did move to Texas, nor did a Ferrari ever grace our driveway. But eventually, I got my license and drove a series of family-owned, hand-me-down vehicles that barely passed inspection. Cars, at this point, had ceased to be dual-overhead cammed objects of desire in my mind--they were merely transportation, a means of getting from here to there with a minimum of refueling stops. You might think I'd successfully made the transition from fantasy to reality--but you'd be wrong.

I see myself as a 1990s version of a gearhead in that I'm technologically adept but have a 1970s muscle-car mentality. If I could put chrome tailpipes on my computer, I would. I talk about processors and RAM like teenagers talk about horsepower and nitro-injection blower drives. Consequently, I subscribe to only two types of magazines--computer and car--and I daydream about both. So it was only natural that I took the wheel of my jacked-up PC and went for a spin in cyberspace before facing the dilemma of buying a new car.

My first stop was America Online, home of the online versions of my beloved Road & Track and its sister publication Car and Driver (available through the Newsstand menu or use keyword: road, and car and driver, respectively). Here I perused head-to-head comparisons of imported sedans, domestic minivans, and sport-utility vehicles--those wonderful suburban machines that you can go offroading in, should you happen to take a wrong turn onto your neighbor's lawn. These reviews were up-to-date and sexy; after all, both publications make their livings by making cars the objects of desire. I spent a good deal of time lingering--and drooling--over reviews of James Bond's new BMW Z3 roadster and the monstrous 400-horsepower Dodge Viper, all the while trying to come up with a good excuse--any excuse--to justify such an extravagance. The 13-year-old in me was beginning to resurface and was trying to convince the 30-year-old that these were necessary items in my otherwise ordinary life.

Switching Gears Before allowing myself to get carried away, however, I decided to log on to CompuServe, where I'd heard that countless car owners and car buyers spend time in the Automobile forum (go: cars). Unfortunately, like many special interest groups, all the people who log on there are would-be reviewers. I found much starry-eyed praise of certain makes and models, vicious criticism of others, and lots of tech talk. Objective and qualitative appraisals, however, were somewhat scarce.

Next, I swung over to Consumer Reports (an option off CompuServe's services menu under Reference) for some scientific analysis of the 1996 car market. What I found were sophisticated, detailed reviews of what the magazine called "the most popular cars, minivans, and sport-utility vehicles sold in the United States"--and all 1995 models. In these reviews I discovered that the editors of CR found the 1995 Nissan Maxima to be a "competent sedan" with "strong, smooth acceleration," whereas the 1995 Ford Aspire was "a chore to drive," as it handled "clumsily" and leaned sharply in turns. When I posted messages, trolled CR's libraries, or chatted in forums, however, I never felt like I got objective replies; people tended to use the forums as places to wax poetic about their favorite Volkswagen rather than say why they were happy with their current set of wheels. And the forum itself' is plain and rather bland with mostly text layouts. Also available is Consumer Reports New Car Price Service, which helps you negotiate the best deal. These reports compare a 1996 car's sticker price with the dealer's invoice and provide rebate information and tips on how to deal with the dealer. The cost is $12 for the first report and $10 for each additional; call 800-933-7700.

Cruisin' on the Info Highway

Out of pure frustration, I decided it was time to go directly to the source: car manufacturers' home pages on the World Wide Web. I revved up my Web browser and set out on the Internet. At first I blindly typed fill-in-the-blank URLs, like http://www.ford.com and http://www.toyota.com, where I found some sites under construction, others up and running with page after page of promotional materials and buttons to click to request brochures. I also came upon a nifty little device called the dealer locator (most of the manufacturers' sites offer this feature): Just type in your zip code, and up comes a listing of all the car dealerships in your area selling that brand of auto. By the time you read this, most of these manufacturers' pages should be open and screaming with great graphics and lots of photos and action shots of vehicles doing impossible maneuvers on closed tracks (remember they use professional drivers, so please don't try this at home).