The Computer Next Door

Preventing Buyer's Remorse: Useful Online Tools for the New Car Buyer

Being in the market for a new car recently, I ventured online to see what the Web offered in the way of tools and resources to help me out.

Basically, there are three broad categories of sites that can help out the new car buyer:

1. Car Research sites - devoted to arming you with the information you know you'll need
2. Auto Marketplace sites - where you can browse and compare the current offerings
3. Online car brokers - who  act as your middlemen for you, and handle the negotiation for you.

Some sites seem to bridge these categories, but it's useful nonetheless to see what each category of site do for you.

CAR RESEARCH SITES

I may be a bit of a traditionalist, but when it comes to shelling out upwards of $20,000 for an object of any sort, I like to rely on the trusted providers of information.

Some trusted names in auto research can, of course, be found online:

Car and Driver - the old standby for car reviews.  Enough said.

Consumer Reports - they offer a New Car Price Report that will gives you  the low-down on the "Real" bottom line for any new vehicles with manufacturer's incentives to the dealer, the invoice price is generally not the whole story.)

Kelly Blue Book - invaluable, of course, for knowing what your trade-in value will be on that old klunker you're getting rid of.

AUTO MARKETPLACE SITES 

Catering to the to the needs of the today's information-hungry car buyers, the marketplace sites offer such features as reviews, previews, lots of photos and multimedia, and (most importantly), the ability to compare  vehicles from different manufacturers side-by-side - saving you a lot of running around town. They also usually provide you with ways of getting quotes from your local dealerships.

Side-by-side comparisons are particularly valuable before you visit local dealerships for those test drives you will  still need to do (don't even think about a virtual drive). Most of the marketplace sites will allow you to submit a "request for a quote" which they forward to local dealerships.

One best-of=breed site in this category, is Edmunds.com, where I was able to compare mid-range SUVs from Honda, Toyota, Ford, and Jeep all side-by-side.  In a point-to-point comparison of multiple SUVS, I was told the advantages of each car in relationship to the first one I was viewing (for example, one costs several thousand dollars less, antoher had a CD changer standard, and another got better gas mileage.)

Edmunds also offers reviews, tips and buying advice, finance and insurance, and forums.  Several calculators on the site help you figure out the true cost of ownership of a car and estimated payments.

Autobytel has a competitive offering with its suite of Websites, including AutoWeb, with  many of the same features as Edmunds.  Its "car community" MyRide  (now in Beta) also offers crash test videos, which, while not exactly light entertainment, is exactly what every car buyer should be watching before they plunk down their hard-earned money.

ONLINE CAR BROKERS

Every now and then the Internet delivers up something you don't really see in the real world.  Like, for instance, car brokers.  I certainly have never heard of a car broker for new cars, but there they are, on the Web - for all the world to see and use.

The concept as explained by one online car broker, HaggleFreeAutos, is this: the average consumer is not well-matched against any car salesman to really negotiate for himself.  You or I might go look for a car once every 3 years, whereas a car salesman may make 5 or 6 deals a day.  Not a fair match, and nobody's betting on us to get the upper hand in the deal.

So, along come car brokers to help you negotiate the best terms.  As you found out in your upfront auto research, the bottom line is not what you think it is.  Want somebody else to find you the best deal?  It doesn't take much.  A car broker will do the work for you of brokering the best deal possible for a percentage of the discount you will get (difference between the negotiated price vs the MSRP).

It's a question of personality - that is, do you want to negotiate with a car dealer, or do you want to let somebody else do it for you?  The option is yours.

 

AnswerTips - At Your Service

Even though we make a concerted effort not to speak in tech jargon, every now and then we end up using some technical term that someone out there may not know.  So, to help you out, we've added a great feature to this blog to make it easy to get definitions.

The feature is called AnswerTips, and it allows you to simply double-click on any word you see, and then see a pop-up definition. It is provided courtesy of Answers.com, and is available for any blog or Website.

One major site using AnswerTips is The New York Times. I accidentally stumbled on the pop-up definition feature while reading an article recently on the Times' Website.  You'll notice that on the Times' site, sometimes you'll get a general definition, othertimes the pop-up may include political references - very useful if you ask me. (Note: The Times uses it only in their articles).

We think this is a great example of technology in the user' interest - and we're happy to have AnswerTips working for us on our blog. We hope it helps someone out there!

Join the Web Video Revolution

Unless you're still on a modem connection, chances are you've noticed the tidal wave of interest in video on the Web.

Web video means different things to different people (and organizations).  For many years, some large media conglomerates appear to have been perplexed by video on the Web, as they struggled to align it with their business models and other media.

For the average Web user, however, Web video is free and it's fun.  For many, it has also become a highly popular form of social media - a way of broadcasting one's own interests or point-of-view that is much more accessible than anything that's come before (e.g., community-based cable programming).

We now appear to have reached a point where David is be battling Goliath in the content wars: User-generated Content vs Media Company Content. Will there be a winner?

Here's how I see it:

USER-GENERATED CONTENT IS HERE TO STAY

YouTube has the best game in town as far as this goes. One reason is, it is a highly "interactive" sites, with a large number of special ("social") features.  And you could spend days of your life there if you want to (and people do), looking at what people post.  Recently (thankfully) they have limited video lengths to 10 minutes (in response to copyright concerns about unathorized posting of television programming.

Content is categorized broadly (film and animation, for example).  Why watch it? 

1) Well, for one thing, it doesn't cost you anything, as long as you have time on your hands and a fast Internet connection.

2) You can discover people or groups (e.g., bands or other performers you might not ever see.  I watched a beautiful, 3-D animation based on Chinese painting that I never would have viewed otherwise).

3) You can learn interesting things (there are some fascinating things available from people of all ages, including memories and recipes of senior citizens, and how to do stuff.

4) It's a highly interactive experience (if you want it to be).  It just depends on whether you like this stuff or not.

Don't like YouTube for any reason?  There are a host of others you can check out.

THE SMART MEDIA COMPANIES ARE JOINING THE FRAY

Not just with "promotional" clips or recaps of shows, but with Web-exclusive programming.  Examples include New York Times video clips, or NBC's (slightly silly) Web exclusives.

Does that mean the less smart media companies aren't joining the fray?  Let's just say some haven't figured out that Web video means "free" or "different."  Some media giants are moving very slowly in this realm, and trying to hold onto older business models where everything is a "Store." 

THERE IS A NEW WAVE COMING

Not old world, traditional media.  Not entirely user-generated. There is a new wave of media sites that are attempting to bridge the gap between amateur and professional programming, and are trying some innovative approaches to video content on the Web. Some of these have social media elements, such as contests or voting systems that allow users to rate content, whether professionally produced or user generated (examples: Channel 102, with its quasi-TV programming and Funny or Die, with its user-rated comedy videos that are seen by millions).

IT'S EASY TO JUMP IN; LESS EASY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

It's pretty easy to get started as a Web video producer.  All you need is a camcorder or Web cam, and a high speed Internet connection.  The sites make it pretty easy to upload your video.

Oh, and one other thing - you also need an idea or two.  In the end, it's the idea that counts - not the production values.  We'll all be watching, I think, to see whether David, Goliath, or the space in-between is where the action happens.  And some of us - many of us - will be the action.

Batten Down the Hatches! Searching the Web, Safely

I don't know you, but I'm a little concerned about the safety of my computer.  I feel under fire by the number of things that can wrong, and so should you.  These include SPAM (see also our March entry), e-mail fraud, phishing, pharming, and malware (malicious programs accidentally downloaded that can do nasty things on your computer, such as steal your passwords).

So the question is, how safe is searching on the Web?

According to a recent report on Search Engine Safety by the security firm McAfee, whenever you do a search on any of the most common search engines,  there's a 5% chance that the sponsored text ad you click on could be a suspicious site.  Every one out of 20 sponsored search ads could be leading you to a site that:

• Has risky downloadable files
• Sends out high volume or "Spammy" like e-mail
• Is a scam of some sort (fly-by-night business)
• Has other risky links that could cause you sleepless nights.

Although this is slightly better than the previous year's report, it's still a pretty sorry state of affairs if you ask me.  The slightly better statistic McAfee reports is that of search engine organic links (links in the middle of the search results page) - there is a 3% chance that the organic search result is a "risky" site.  Sounds better, except that if there were a 3% chance I were going to be mugged when I went into a certain neighborhood, I'd actually stay away from that neighborhood. 

What's an ordinary Web surfer like you or me to do?  There are several things you can do to protect yourself from "unsafe searches," including:

1) Search from the safest search engine

According to McAfee, the search engines with the best safety records (allowing the smallest number of risky sites in their search results) are (drumroll, please):

AOL
Google
Ask

The less secure of the major search engines are: Yahoo and MSN. 

2) Favor organic links over sponsored ads. This is what most people do, anyway, but keep in mind that text ads are slightly less secure than organic results.

3) Be aware that some Web searches will give you riskier results than others.  Music or ringtone downloads or searches for "free software" for example, are likely going to produce more risky links than, say, health care research.

4) Install a "security" checker.

Microsoft's IE browser comes with its own built-in security checker (which rates sites based on their ability to validate the organization behind the site). McAfee also has a new (Free) "security checker" software called SiteAdvisor, available for virtually any browser.

I tried the version they made available for Firefox.  It's easy to download from the McAfee site.  When you do a search, such as on Google, you will see little green, yellow, or red icons to the right of the Web links.  These are indicators that tell you ahead of time how secure that site is rated.

Additionally, there is a "SiteAdvisor" button that appears in your Browser's Status Bar when you are on any Website (just remember to turn your Status Bar on in your "View" options). The button, like the icons, has three states = "green" for sites that have no problems, "yellow" for sites that may have issues, and "red" for sites that are apparent offenders.

Even if you don't use the plug-in for your browser, you can test sites out on the McAfee Site Advisor web site, and they'll run a report for you that tells you whether the site has any of the risks identified above.

Check it out at: McAfee SiteAdvisor