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Strategies & Market Trends : Angels of Alchemy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HandsOn who wrote (9687)	8/24/2000 11:25:46 AM
From: ColtonGang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24256

According to a recently published Gartner Group (NYSE: IT) survey, 48 percent of car buyers between September and March used the Internet to research or actually purchase an automobile. Two years ago, only 25 percent of auto buyers used the Web. The survey confirms the Web is becoming an integral part of the way Americans buy cars. The Internet offers free troves of product information previously unavailable to consumers, arming them to do battle with what many people see as dreaded car salesmen. Respected companies such as Edmunds and Kelley Blue Book give consumers powerful negotiating tools such as wholesale prices of cars. Other sites that act as Web brokers such as Autobytel.com (Nasdaq: ABTL) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s Carpoint are becoming extremely popular because they find cars at specific, haggle-free prices. These online brokers relegate auto dealers to being mere distribution outlets. Other studies also support these trends. J.D. Power & Associates, which rates the automotive industry for consumers, predicts that by year-end 65 percent of all car buyers will use the Web as a prepurchase research tool. Financial analysts at Jupiter Communications (Nasdaq: JPTR) say 1.2 million cars (out of 16.9 million total) were sold last year through Internet referrals.........CBLT#1........................Cobalt Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBLT - news), based in Seattle, Washington. This rapidly growing Web strategist, serving automobile manufacturers, dealer groups, and dealers, is one of the rare companies to have both a dominant market share and relatively little competition. (Analyst: Dan Geiman)