Comparison car shopping gets easier

Computer Life column for 9/27/97 by
Richard Gordon

On Monday night, my son's homework included an assignment in which he was had to decide which animals he'd want to pull a wagon on the Oregon Trail back in 1843.

His teacher had sent home a handout, "Which to Hitch," summarizing the costs, advantages, and disadvantages of horses, mules, and oxen as wagon train animals.

My son overlooked high cost, expensive upkeep, and the advantages of the other animals in reaching his decision: "But horses are fastest, Daddy."

I explained how, when grown-ups have a major decision, we'll make lists of pros and cons just like his handout, "Like I did when we bought our car." But he kept repeating that horses were fastest.

Just as I kept saying "I'm not going to skid on the ice on the again," leading me to look mostly at all-wheel drive vehicles when I car-shopped. But I did my homework, spending at least $35 at Newark Newstand during my "research phase."

It was hard work to compare all the cars on the market. There were books to buy, magazines to look at in the library, dealers to visit.

Speedier research

Unlike my son the simulated pioneer, I can now do a lot of research about transportation needs online, doing in two lunch hours what took me several days of running round back in 1995.

I'm still not willing to buy something as big as a car over the Internet-although I did buy a guitar over the Net about a year ago. But I can get a ton of information on line for free or for a small charge.

AutoConnect (autoconnect.net) is my favorite of the automobile web sites. Tuesday, I spent my entire lunch hour poking around this site, setting up Web equivalents of my son's "Which to Hitch" handout: side-by-side comparisons of three different autos.

AutoConnect includes an estimate of dealer cost for each model, but not as much pricing information as you'd get by buying a report from Intellichoice (www.intellichoice.com) or another source. Using AutoConnect, I calculated the monthly payment for my new dream car, making my 2-year-old car seem just fine.

No Delaware dealers are currently listed at AutoConnect or most other sites I visited. Because most Delawareans would use these sites for research, not for making a purchase, that's OK.

Intellichoice offers complete information about a selected car model, including stopping distances, prices of options, dealer cost for options, and more-if you are willing to pay about $5 per report.

Some other sites rely heavily on Intellichoice's information. CostCo Auto (www.costcoauto.com) seemed to be the best of those, adding enough cool features to make the visit worthwhile.

One caution: Intellichoice's valuation of my used car was much higher than the valuation from the Kelley Blue Book site (www.kbb.com). I'd visit the Kelley site for more accurate information.

Edmund's, the publishers of the popular "Automobile Buyer's Guide" series, also has a terrific Web site (www.edmunds.com), with lots of information available for free.

If he were ten years older, my son would probably visit these web sites and still pick out a sports car: "But it goes fastest, Daddy."

Princess Di sites

I'll not be buying Elton John's nouveau "Candle in the Wind." And I'm not ordering Newsweek's commemorative "All-Diana issue."

But I admit that I have perused some of the folderol on-line over my morning bagel-after I check to see if Mark McGwire hit any more home runs.

Herewith the three Princess Di sites I've visited most often:

Copyright © 1997, The News Journal Company

Computer Life Index

Richard Gordon helps support faculty, staff and student computing at the University of Delaware. E-mail questions, comments or suggestions to richard@inet.net, or write him at The News Journal, Box 15505, Wilmington, DE 19850. Although each note cannot be answered individually, reader comments and questions will often be incorporated in future columns.