Auto shopping is not that tedious and complicated anymore. With just few clicks on the mouse, the most adored car will be checked. True, automakers and dealerships should not make things complicated. This trend paved the way for the booming online shopping industry.
One of the many web sites which has benefited from the trend is Edmunds.com. Of all the people who shop for new wheels on the Internet, about one-fourth of the potential buyers check out the goods first at the Web site Edmunds.com, an auto information clearinghouse based in Santa Monica, Calif., The Courier-Journal reported.
Among the 20 cars, trucks, minivans and SUVs in 2007 that most captured the imagination, only two were related to a domestic automaker, the report said. The Mazda3, the affordable, sport performance car for the younger set, is part of the Ford lineup. The GMC Acadia is General Motors Corp.'s new CUV that gets 24 miles per gallon on the freeway but can still tow a 5,000-pound trailer.
Auto shoppers continue to reflect preferences for reliable compact vehicles such as Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Acura MDX and Infiniti G35. Take in a vehicle on Edmunds.com and you can find expert ratings, compare prices, check out resale values, or search for a used version of the car you want. "We attract people who like to be informed," Edmunds spokeswoman Jeannine Fallon said. "They want to make sure they are making a smart choice."
The maker of the could be very pleased to make it to the list. Separately, a number of best-sellers, like the Ford F-150, are not on the list, perhaps because hard-core Ford fans know exactly what they want in their truck and don't feel called to dink around a Web site. F-150 buyers "don't need to do a lot of research," Fallon said.
Among top ten cars, the Toyota Camry came in third after the Honda Civic and the Honda Accord. The Camry, the best-selling car in the country, which is made in Georgetown, Ky, "suggests reliability and long-term value," Fallon said. "Even though Camry has such a great reputation, it is still something people want to research."
While Toyota and Honda will move an estimated 400,000 Camrys and Accords each this year, Mazda only expects to sell 120,000 Mazda3 cars in 2007, said company spokesman Jeremy Barnes. Like its more stodgy Japanese-made competition, the Mazda is affordable, powerful and reliable. But the Mazda3's looks sound a siren call to the young and young at heart, he noted.
According to JD Power & Associates, Mazda has the "second youngest buyer age in the auto industry," after Toyota's Scion brand, Barnes said. "You don't have to be young," he added of the brand that includes the Miata. "You just have to feel young."
"It is rare you see a (child's) car seat in the back of a Mazda3 when they are in the shop," said Joe Trout, a Mazda specialist and owner of the Dr. Zoom garage in Fern Creek. "The driver of this car is between 20 and 35, definitely not your mom-and-dad type."
Sixty-eight year old Prentice Short of Scottsburg, Ind., would like to get into a new Camry to make vacation trips to Florida with his wife, Geraldine, affordable again. Trouble is, Short said, he can't find a buyer willing to pay the $12,000 or so he says his 2002 Jeep Cherokee is worth. The Jeep has logged only 50,000 miles but gets only 18 miles per gallon on the highway.
"Nobody wants these things that use all kinds of fuel," he concluded. "Whoever comes up with the best mileage in late 2008 or 2009 is going to be the ones that dominate the market," Short predicted. "If Ford, Chrysler and GM don't do it, they'll get their lunch eaten, and their dinner eaten, too."
