Every five or so years, I shop for a new car. I hate car shopping. The haggling, the long trips to dealerships way outside of town, the hours and hours of waiting, punctuated by furtive whispers to my husband, “Don’t give in! Stick to our budget! But don’t tell them our budget!” and similar. But that’s toward the end of the process. There’s a lot of work leading up to it.
First I hit the Consumer Reports site to research cars. A subscription is just $5.95 a month, but it auto-renews so you have to remember to unsubscribe or it quietly chips away at your wallet forever.
I find the five safest vehicles according to my car type and year. When I say new car, I just mean it’s new to me. I like to benefit from someone else’s new-car depreciation, which is something like 25% the minute you drive off the lot.
Anyway, I get on several different car sites like CarsDirect.com and AutoTrader.com to look for my next set of wheels. First I have to pick make and model, then enter my ZIP Code, then there’s a long list of cars. If I want to, I can see the list from lowest price to highest. The trouble is, I want to compare five different models and several different years. I’ve got to select the same filters over and over for all five and then compare the info.
It takes close to an hour to see if the Sante Fe at one dealership stacks up with the RAV4 at another. The whole time dealers and ads are being pushed in my face. It’s more about getting me to a dealership than helping me find the right car.
You know what I want? I want a site where I can plug in the kind of car I’m looking for — safe, small SUV at least a year old, not all-wheel-drive — and every good possibility is displayed. I might consider a bigger SUV if it still rates high on safety. Or even a quad cab pickup if the price is right.
I guess that’s what a car salesperson would do for me. Not just show me to the exact car I think I want, but show me other possibilities that could fill my needs just as well.
Car websites of America, treat me like I’m on the lot. Help me find not just the car I say I’m looking for — help me find the best vehicle that fills my needs. That’s what it will take to put me in a car today.
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