[OT] Buying new cars online...

No, 'cos I'd never buy a new one. Waste of money.

Company car - probably. I'd just find out how much I could spend and order the fastest Alfa I could with my money ;-)

I suppose if you know *exactly* what you want - as I and many other posters in here would - then ordering online for a hefty discount would be cool.

For your average punter.... I dunno. Depends what the press tell them to buy.

I've bought used cars pretty much on the strength of Autotrader / website adverts in the past - or, at least, made the decision to drive the length of the country with the cash in my pocket on the strength of an advert.

i wouldn't buy online and i think most would agree, i'd want to see feel and touch whatever i was considering buying. it's hard to tell how spacious a car is and the quality of the build without actually seeing it. i've watched people in the showroom at work go over some cars and spend hours seeing how seats fold, see if whatever they thinking of carrying in the boot will fit ect.

although i've also seen people walk in and just say 'i want a new vectra in blue' and just slap the cash up but that's happened about twice since i been there.

i don't think it could replace the new car dealership but a website defo encourages people to have a look see whats around first before going. people who have seen something they like on the web seem more curious to go see the car for themselfs.

If you know exactly what you want (ie you know a bit about cars) then I could see that e-dealerships would be a good option, especially if you could save a fair bit over your traditional walk-in dealerships with all their associated overheads. So if I was buying a new car I'd definately use the online option if I could (also coz I'm lazy!).

However, if you're just an average joe on the look out for an average car then you're gonna want to walk around the cars, talk to salesman etc etc so a walk-in place is gonna be much better!

Yea I've mentioned that in there somewhere.

I'm trying to steer clear of members of the public with psychological problems - It's a whole other field of research ;-)

Yup yup yup - both arguments I'm building towards... The main seemed to be that the internet is used more for research than purchasing, with AOL research suggesting that 80% of all new car purchases are researched online first. BMW pumped 16% of the 1 series launch budget into internet marketing...

I'm trying to keep it specific to new car sales - but the power of advertising is a good point...

Cheers :-)

Yea that definately seems to be the consensus - all going into 'Buyer Behaviour' chapter ;)

Yea, see my response to steve for some random facts and figures about people looking online before buying :)

Cheers dude!

Yup see my responses to Vamp and Steve, these seem to be the common views, as you'd expect really, but you know how uni types like to see things proved....

Cheers dude :-)

Should have done maths, much easier to prove things :)

No worries!

And what percentage of 'em go straight home after sampling the cars and order one online ? ;)

What I like about car selling websites is that just before you sign on the dotted line, the website doesn't say "have you considered raising your budget just slightly? For only =A3x more you can have x y z... and if you take out our finance package, that's just =A32 per week blah blah blah"

No. I would want to test drive. And it would have to be a very impressive VR simulator to convince me to buy Brand A over Brand B.