Not really sure of the details of the Direct Car sales approach but I feel this may be the opportunity for AWEB to shine mid the various wanna be's and online dealers.
Looking for a new car, I tried the various sites. I am fairly intuitive and like to compare with real facts. Then I look to make a straight deal with little hassle.
The online world didn't really cut it for me. The various sites had some useful information. A basic search such as which cars (not SUV's)have 4 wheel drive was pretty much left unanswered.
Finally, I was given the name of a dealer who would give me excellent service I was told. That dealer really was the same dealer I would have travelled to see with all the same "shtick" and bs.
No real difference on any site. It's a tossup whether I wasted more time for sites to load vs. trip to the dealer and waiting in that smelly room for some in person "excellent service."
The upside is that I found AWEB's site very user friendly and the most intuitive of all. If they would improve the search quality and sell me a car directly, then that would eliminate all the time I waste haggling with a dealer and figuring out which of his/her statements are real or fake.
I envision a site where you put in your requirements for a car, with artificial intelligence they narrow it down, they tell you where you can take a test drive including time and place, and then give you a no haggle price. Furthermore, put in equations showing real invoice prices, dealer incentives, cost of financing, implied finance cost of lease, tax benefits of leasing, etc. I do all those things myself and I bet people would flock to a site that has the things I have done myself just shopping for a car. I don't understand why the websites can't do this. If they just want to "fool" people as dealers have been doing for years, then they will not survive in a world where inefficiency is not rewarded.
Sounds simple and I bet it would spring to #1. Hopefully this will be AWEB.
Anyway, at this price, total value of AWEB is rock bottom. It should double just on a comeback from its oversold condition. Alternatively, I see it taken over by AOL or Yahoo or perhaps a large dealer looking to compete with AN. |
