Buying a car online in San Diego
Today's car shopper is faced with many choices on how to buy a
vehicle, but none offers more information and up-to-date
information like the Internet. In years past, when you in were
in the market for a car, you would go to the dealership
empty-handed, test-drive the car and put together the deal based
on what you thought the car was worth. Unfortunately, many times
buyers ended up getting a raw deal, with the dealerships using
their salesmanship and behind the scenes knowledge to turn the
deal in their favor.
But now, things are different. The Web offers shoppers a tool
which they can research, price and even take a virtual test
drive of the car they want. They can e-mail or call, and have
all the information at their fingertips at sites like Kelly Blue
Book (www.kbb.com) and Edmunds (www.edmunds.com).
Possibly one of the best examples of a site dedicated to the car
buyer is www.sandiegocardeals.com, run exclusively by the
internet/fleet department of Kearny Mesa Toyota in San Diego.
The site offers a complete virtual inventory of all new Toyota
and Scion models as well as complete pre-owned inventory
listings. But what really sets this site apart from the others
is that they actually post retail and invoice prices so that the
buyer can simply "name my price", based on the research they've
done online prior to coming to the site.
This approach, of providing the buyer with as much information
as possible, is a product of Kearny Mesa Toyota's realization
that it is not status quo in the car business anymore.
"We found that the buyer responds to being treated like an
intelligent human being," said Melissa Amick, Internet/Fleet
Director at the San Diego Toyota dealer. "They have done the
research, and they just love it when they talk to one of our
Internet specialists and get a straightforward, honest answer."
Kearny Mesa Toyota has even taken it a step further buy training
and authorizing their entire Internet department staff so that
they can quote prices over the phone without having to check
with management.