Buying a Car and the Internet



I have always hated looking at cars and dealing with sales people. I realize they have to make a buck but there is so much dishonesty that goes on that it really is hard to trust anything that anyone tells you in a dealership. The internet helps the buyer a whole lot. I have learned more in the past 24 hrs about the scams that dealer pull off than I ever could have imagined. There are sites that you can find by doing a google search for "buying a new car" that will probably make a lot of you, like me, feel like an absolute idiot for past buying experiences.



I would like to single out one dealership that has a glowing reputation for being "customer friendly", namely the local Saturn dealership. First of all the quality of the Saturn cars that I have test drove is pretty bad. They seem incredibly "cheap." One that I test drove on Saturday had already been dented up. When the salesperson came to give me the costs on a sheet that included a "free DVD player and screen" the price had inflated by nearly three thousand dollars from the sticker price. Well upon closer inspection they (the notorious ever present "manager") had tacked on a stain protection plan for nearly a $1,000 extra and the entertainment package was about $4,000 dollars minus the $978 DVD player--so I had been lied to and frankly that is all it takes for me to have an impression of Saturn that will not go away anytime soon.



But back to the internet and car buying...



Besides learning all the tricks that are going to be played on you, the internet offers you the opportunity to research the reviews and other timely information on the car you are looking at--giving you an upper hand when actually test driving it. There is so much to learn and it is all here online for you to learn it.