Basic Research: Getting Online Reports

You want to be a cunning consumer, a savvy seller, or a brainy buyer, don't you? The Internet is by far the greatest research tool ever devised. It changes constantly — so its information remains up-to-date. The Internet is also massive. One of the better search engines, Northern Light, maintains 208 million pages of data. Other engines claim in excess of 300 million pages. And to make this mass of information useful, several excellent search engines can guide you to what you're looking for intelligently and rapidly.

This chapter explores some of the most reliable sources of objective information about cars that you can locate online: respected automobile critics; famous test labs and reviewers, such as Consumer Reports and Edmund's; government reports; and court rulings. The information you'll gather from these sources is invaluable when you're deciding which car is best for you.

Reviewing Car Publications

Advertising people sit around for weeks thinking up the perfect phrase:
Where's the beef? Don't squeeze the Charmin, and the now-trademarked word used by Wal-Mart, Always. You wouldn't believe how much money is spent on a 30-second car commercial designed to convince you that you can not only drive a particular SUV up Mount Everest, but that you'll also look breathtakingly beautiful doing it.

This advertising is fake, and on some level, everyone knows it's fake. It's your job to dig beneath appearances and hype to find out as much as you can about the real value of the auto you're thinking of buying. To find this information, you should look for reports, reviews, and driving tests. Some of the best sources of objective information are independent car publications. These sources conduct extensive tests on automobiles, exploring everything from turning radius to radio tuning.

Reading Consumer Reports online
Give Consumer Reports (www.consumerreports.org) credit for some of the very best car reviews available anywhere. The Consumer Reports (CR) site, includes special features such as tips for buying a new car, a leasing quiz, a description of their testing process and their test track, and used car advice. However, CR's specialty is its famous auto reports. Alas, they're not free. But in this case, you do get what you pay for.

For $12 ($10 per additional report requested at the same time) you get: the invoice price (the dealer cost); the typical sticker price (manufacturer's suggested retail price); additional costs of the factory-installed options; any rebates or incentives; CR's recommendations about what optional equipment you should purchase; CR's safety ratings analysis; similar cars you may want to consider; and suggestions on negotiating the best deal for this car.

It's $12 well spent. Free price quotes are available elsewhere online, but they don't provide some of the additional information you get from Cr. For $24 a year, you can look at everything CR tests for that whole year.

Consumer's Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, has its own distinct Web site at www.consumer.org.

This site specializes in governmental actions, recalls, court cases, environmental issues, and similar topics. For instance, at the time of this writing, a series of interesting articles titled "The Risk of Rollover in Some Sport-Utitity Vehicles and Consumer Union's Testing for Such Risks" appears there. These reports are free.

Checking Out Edmund's
Featuring the three famous magazines — New Cars Prices & Reviews, Used Cars Prices & Reviews, and Used Cars & Trucks Prices & atings — this site also offers a wide variety of information, including road tests, vividly written reviews, Town Hall (online discussion groups on all aspects of vehicle ownership), the "deal of the month," and a useful New Car Buyer's Workbook (available for $9.95; specific to the auto you're interested in). Many people consider the Edmund's reviews to be among the most reliable and thorough find them at www.edmunds.com.

Pricing from Pace
The Pace Buyer's Guides have been published since 1974. Now they're online at www.carprice.com.
You'll find free price information and other auto data at this Web site. If pricing is your main interest, this site is extremely comprehensive. However, it also includes a variety of additional information, including calculators, recalls, rebates, insurance information, warranty information, tips, negotiation suggestions, motorcycle information, and other data. This is an efficient, quick, easy-to-navigate, and valuable site. Give it a look.

Intelligence from IntelliChoice
Since 1987, IntelliChoice has been publishing auto reports in the award winning The Complete Car Cost Guide. Find it online at www.Intellichoice.com.

You'll be able to compare vehicles side by side, and a Spanish language version is available. You can also learn about current rebates and incentives, try the finance calculator to plan your purchase intelligently, find out all about pre-owned vehicles, and much more. IntelliChoice, an independent research firm, also announces its IntelliChoice awards annually. The firm projects that these vehicles will be the best values based on factors including price, depreciation (which can vary considerably among makes and models), repairs, financing, and maintenance. Historical data are used to create projections for a five-year period.

Autos from AutoByTel
Best known as an online car-buying service, AutoByTel is also a good source of automobile and truck reviews. You'll likely be pleased with the accuracy and depth of their coverage at www.auto-reviews.com.

Finding Online Pricing

Your goal in researching pricing online should be to come to a fair and equitable price. You want to give the dealer and salesman a fair profit, but you don't want to lose your shirt. The feeling that you may end up paying too much for a car is what can make the buying process uncomfortable.

Luckily, you can get pretty accurate information about how many automobiles cost online. The more you find out about what the dealer is paying for the car, the better prepared you are to give the dealer a fair return on investment that doesn't cramp your pocketbook.

Prices and more from Kelley Blue Book
Kelley Blue Book is a venerable, respected institution that's now available online. Here you can find out the invoice price that the dealer pays for each type of vehicle, along with the cost of various options. And Kelley Blue Book serves as a one-stop resource for automobile information as well. From within the site, you can find insurance quotes, vehicle reliability data, and some of the best, most comprehensive automotive data at www.kbb.com.

Using the Black Book
Available since 1955, the Black Book specializes in providing "the latest wholesale prices direct from the auction lanes." Its publishers claim that one of its great strengths is up-to-the-minute pricing.

Sale prices are checked at auctions daily, then added to the Black Book database. A complicated process is used to determine price, taking into account such effects on an auction as weather, current popularity of the model, quantity of a given model that was for sale at the auction, and other factors.

This service is quite similar to the highly responsive price shifts that occur on the stock market, where values move virtually hourly.

Check out their site at www.blackbookusa.com.

Checking Out Car Magazines Online
Online you'll find both sites for traditional prints magazines, such as Car and Driver, and also Internet-only magazines. Both varieties can be helpful when you're gathering information.

Car and Driver
At www.caranddriver.com, you can find tests, reports, reviews, buyer's guides, archives, lists of the 10 best cars and 100 best roads, concept cars shows, and various other information's from the well-known publisher.

Motor Tren Online
Data from this publisher is yours to peruse online at www.motortrend.com/b1/b1f.html. Reviews, news, links and other features are yours for the clicking. Note that this site, and the Road and Track site, are both particularly aimed at the enthusiast market. Some everyday cars ignored. Also, you'll find limited information if you're a non-subscriber.

Road and Track
Yet another magazine publisher creates a presence online. Find it at www.auto-reviews.com.

Auto Week
This site offers some fast-breaking news because it's a weekly publication. It also includes respected reviews about driving, with consumer commentary. Try it at www.autoweek.com.

Other magazines online
We mention the sites of several famous car magazines, but many more are online. Some are sites offering electronic versions of their newsstand paper counterparts. Others are all electronic— no paper involved

Online-only magazines are often referred to as zines. One such zines is AutoZine. AutoZine (home.netvigator.com/-europa) is an interesting site that publishes independent reports (no ads, and, as the author says," .no income. In other words, I do it just for fun."). It covers a wide variety of vehicles. Established in September 1997, it includes photos, ratings, reviews, specs, and additional information.

Use your favorite search engine to locate any of the following online magazines that interest you: Autofacts; the Autonaut; Autopedia; All Auto Online; American Automobile Association; Autoweek Online; CarMag; CarSound Magazine; C.A.R.S. Unlimited; Car Talk with Tom and Ray; Eric Anderson's Car Crazy; Kit
Car Buyers Guide; Popular Mechanics Auto; Top Gear Magazine; TURBO Magazine; Turbozine; Vette Vues Magazine; WheelBase and World of Wheels.

Microsoft's CarPoint

Launched in 1995, CarPoint is one of the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive sources of information about cars on the Internet. The site gets over 3 million unique visitors every month. (Uniqueness is important because some Web sites inflate their activity by counting every visitor, even repeat connections.) Find CarPoint at carpoint.msn.com/home/New.asp

Go to CarPoint to find substantial information, including
-Classifieds.
-Troubleshooting.
-Automotive reviews.
-Specs.
-Prices.
-Safety reports. You'll find ratings based on more than 250,000 incident reports annually from the Automotive Information System's Identifix program.
-Reliability ratings.
-Buying services for both new and used cars with no-haggle quotes.
-A Side-by-Side Compare feature that lets you contrast the spec of two new or used cars.
-A payment calculator to let you figure loan payments, total cost, interest rate, loan duration, and down payment. CarPoint offers the current interest rates from more than 2,700 lending institutions.
- A power search where you type in your desired cost and type of vehicle, and models meeting your criteria are listed for you.

Keeping track of your car's maintenance
Also, take a look at the Personal Auto Page, where you can track your auto's maintenance and repairs, as well as see the current value of your vehicle. Microsoft says that 500,000 consumers have used this feature alone. With the Personal Auto Page, you can see when seasonal maintenance is needed, when it's time for an oil change, and so on. You can even request to be sent e-mail when scheduled maintenance is required or if any reports or recalls have been issued relating to your vehicle. And Microsoft says that soon you'll be able to use a pricing utility that will automatically estimate service and repair costs, comparing various options for you.

Microsoft's MSN claims that CarPoint has more than 3,500 affiliated dealers nationwide and that hits to this site each month trigger more than 145,000 leads, resulting in more than $600 million in car sales. That's an impressive e-commerce activity level. CarPoint can give you data on more than 10,000 models and boasts listings of more than 100,000 used (or pre-owned, as dealers prefer to call them) cars.

Try the Exorcist 360-deqree head twist
One cool tool you can find at CarPoint is the 360-degree video. You're able to "walk around" the outside of many new car models and also sit inside and "twist" your head in a complete circle, just like Linda Blair, and see all the interior details.

100 top ten lists
Would you enjoy seeing what the experts consider the ten best vehicles in many different categories? Want to know which cars are most often stolen or considered the best of the best by Consumer Reports? CarPoint has collected 100 top ten lists at carpoint.msn.com/Windowshopping.asp.

Among the top ten lists you'll finds are:

- Gen Xers' Top Ten (J.D. Power and Associates list of automotive preferences of 20- to 34-year-olds)

- AAA Picks Its Top Cars (the famous awards given in 12 classes)

- CarPoint's Top Ten (the cars that were selected as CarPoint's New-Car Buying Service 1999 Top Ten)

- IntelliChoice's Best Overall Values (used vehicles rated Best Overall Value by IntelliChoice, Inc.)

- Get the Most Bangs for Your Buck (the most affordable horsepower powerhouses)

- Top Ten Towing Rigs (thinking of getting into hauling?)

- High Rollers' Top Ten Cars (if money is no object)

- Consumer Reports picks their "Best of the Best"

- Top Ten Fuel Misers (the ten thriftiest cars)

- America's Most Loved New Cars (in 15 categories)

- Most Popular Foreign Cars

- America's Top Ten Bestsellers (hint: they're trucks!)

- America's most stolen (the cars that thieves love most)

- Car and Driver's 10 Best

- Four-Wheel-Drive Systems

You can find these and many more, including convertibles, muscle cars, cars priced over $100,000, SUVs, vans, and trucks.

Take the Car-O-Scope psychological test
Do you want to know if you are driving, or considering, a car that harmonizes with your personality? Don't fight your own character by trying to fit into a vehicle that is just plain wrong for you. The Car-O-Scope test promises to "help you determine if you're driving a car that fits your psychographic profile." Try it at: cartalk.cars.com/Survey/Results/Psychographics

Visit the manufacturers themselves
You can, of course, risk visiting the Web sites of the automobile manufacturers. You'll find a good deal of sizzle, as you might imagine, and no biting, or even very objective, reports. But for completeness of specifications and glamorous color photos, nothing beats the home site of a car's own maker. If you've already made up your mind about the car you want to buy, look up its manufacturer's description so you can feel good about the great machine you're about to own. The creators of the car do their best to put their product on a pedestal.

Ford Motors
See Ford products at www.fordvehicles.com.

General Motors
General Motors has a Web site at: www.gm.com. Try GM's Buypower feature. It includes research, a way to specify which features you want in a car, dealers' inventories, and allows you to schedule a test drive and ask a dealer for their best price (better also check out the other sources of "best prices" as well).

Gillet Vertigos, Solectrias, Twikes, and 1,000 others
Do you want to visit a less mainstream site than Ford or GM? Interested in something like a Gillet Vertigo, a Solectria, or a Twike?

Find the Web sites, and 800 numbers, of everything from Subaru to Steyr-Daimler-Puch at autopedia.com/html/MfgSites.html

.If you're French...
Respected French-Canadian journalist Denis Duquet has been writing about cars for 20 years, or as he puts it: "Denis Duquet est chroniqueur automobile depuis 20 ans. Professeur d'histoire ancienne venu au journalisme automobile par un curieux concours de circonstances, il en a fait son unique gagne pain depuis 1982." If you understood that, find out what else he has to say a twww.duquet.com/.

Car Secrets Revealed

Car Secrets Revealed is said to be among the most-visited automotive sites on the Internet, and you'll find issues raised here that are rarely covered elsewhere. Do you feel you're getting ripped off on repairs or insurance? Are you worried that the new car you're about to buy may turn out to be a lemon? Automotive consultant Corey Rudl's book may be just what you're looking for. You can get a taste of the book online at www.igs.net/carsecrets.

About.com
This Web site is a good source of links to other sites for all kinds of information, discussions, books, awards, repair histories, museums, parts, dealers, and loads of other topics of interest to car buyers and owners. The information at this site itself is broader than it is deep, but it's deepening all the time. Give it a try:
cars.about.com/autos/cars.

The site sells the book, but you may want to explore other intriguing topics here, including these teaser descriptions the site provides of some of the points covered:

- One thing you must do so you'll never buy a lemon.

- Learn how every dealer gets a secret rebates on every car they sell…their most guarded secret is revealed.

- Which day of the month to buy/lease gets you an extra $400 discount instantly (no, it is not the last day of the month)?

- Are you paying the lowest car price? No, you're not! You'll be shown the exact dialogue you must use to get the best deal on your new or used car. Purchase in confidence that you have obtained the lowest price possible.

- Discover hidden bogus extras and double-charging tricks that can cost you thousands... and you'll never know it.

- The hidden truth about government seizure auctions (you know, drug lord cars) - can you really buy a Corvette for $200 as they advertise?

Got a Lemon?

A lemon is a new vehicle that has one or more serious defects, but these defects are not found in all vehicles of this model (therefore, there will be no recall to correct the problem). Perhaps somebody forgot to secure the oil pan on your brand new car, so after a few miles the engine began to chew itself to pieces. What can you do?

A site named Autopedia boasts a number of valuable resources, including a complete listing of the lemon laws by state. If you suspect that you bought a lemon, here's where you can begin the process of getting a fair shake:
autopedia.com/html/HotLinks_Lemon.html.