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Technology Stocks : Booking Holdings (formerly Priceline) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (1997)	11/16/1999 8:49:00 AM
From: otter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2743

I bought a Ford Explorer this spring, using Priceline and other car buying services (I live in Orlando, Florida). There are five or so Ford dealers in Orlando; and several others in outlying communities. Most of these dealers are signed up with one or another of the several Internet services, so while I can't directly answer your specific questions about how this new operation will work, if it's similar to my experience earlier this year, then it might help. 1. Of course it cannibalizes the traditional sales process and cuts the traditionally commissioned sales person - who greets you on the lot when you show up and start kicking tires - out of the loop. The offers from each of the three dealers I had responses from were all from either their fleet/commercial sales reps or in one case, a dedicated Internet Sales Manager. 2. Yes, there is (or can be) competition. I received three quotes from three different dealers. Each quote was invoice plus (or minus) - not sticker. There was a $200 spread between the high and the low offer. 3. The three dealers who bid my business were between 4 and 20 miles from my home. The one who was 20 miles away was the low bidder. The high bidder was closest. I was able to negotiate another $100 off the bid price from the high bidder based on that discrepancy. Whatever the service is, "Local" must be defined by me - not by the dealer - which doesn't answer your question about Miami dealers... The long and short of it is that I was highly pleased with the buying experience. The sales process was not traditional and I benefitted; and I also benefitted from the competition. Now, I don't know if a reverse auction is the way to go or not when compared to my experience this spring. It may be, or it may be that I did it will prevail. I suspect that both approaches can coexist quite well. If it were me, knowing that 'invoice' is the benchmark; knowing that even if a car is sold at invoice, the dealer still makes a gross profit, the percentage of which can be known, and also knowing that if a reverse auction isn't successful, an alternative exists, it seems to me that if I were not to care which dealer sold me the car within a geographic area, then I would try a reverse auction first with a price below invoice; and then failing that, go with the alternate path. What is clear to me is that I will never in my lifetime buy a new car again the 'old way'.