The internet is now being used by the overwhelming majority of today’s car shoppers as the primary source for obtaining their information. Researching and comparing various models on popular automotive websites provides potential buyers with mostly reliable data.
Almost all of these websites have prominent offers for “Free Dealer Price Quotes” which the web user is encouraged to take advantage of. A tremendous amount of customer leads are generated by these sites as a result. This is where dealers compete for your business and things are likely to get confusing.
Pricing at this level is commonly quoted at artificially low prices to lure consumers into showrooms. Hard to decipher and buried disclaimers are often attached with extra charges and certain restrictions that raise these prices so quickly that noses bleed.
Sadly, price comparison shopping via the internet is unlikely to yield any reliable information for the consumer because each dealer quote will have a different set of and varying amounts of additional charges that ultimately get added in.
Misleading information can result in apples to oranges comparisons and frustrate anyone trying to utilize the internet to find their best price. Unfortunately, as long as dealers vie for business on the internet in this way, it is the consumer that will continue to get the runaround and loads of misinformation.
I’d like to hear from anyone with questions on this topic or would like to comment on their own car shopping experiences. Hopefully we can spare others from some of the aggravation. Thanks for your interest!
