By most accounts, 1994 is the year America’s car culture first pulled onto the Information Superhighway. Don Hayes, a vintage car buff in Chelmsford, Mass., was there to see it.
Hayes, vice president of the Airflow Club of America, was introduced to the Internet by a friend in 1993, “just at the tail end of when the Net was only for computer people.” In those days, the World Wide Web was in its infancy, with a handful of tech-savvy people surfing the Web with text-only browsers.
In September 1993, Mosaic, the first graphical browser and predecessor of Netscape, was released for personal computer and Macintosh users, and it proved to be the spark of the WWW explosion. As average computer users got access, businesses and special-interest groups followed in droves.
“When I first started using search engines to look for car sites, you didn’t get thousands of hits; you’d get 50 or 60,” Hayes said. “But now, 4,000 is not an unusual number to see when you type in something like `car’ or `Corvette.’ “
Hayes, 50, has tapped into the Web for all sorts of auto information. He keeps up with antique car sites, especially those devoted to the DeSoto and Chrysler Airflow. He tracked the development of the C5, the newest Corvette, by visiting the sites of “car spies,” who hide behind trees and bushes and photograph tomorrow’s hottest cars. Recently, he turned to the Web to shop for a new mini-van.
The melding of the World Wide Web and the world of wheels is natural, according to Nicole Vanderbilt, senior analyst for Jupiter Communications, a New York research company. “The demographics (of both groups) tend to be male and upper-income.”
No one knows for sure how many Web pages are devoted to automobiles, but they number in the thousands. A recent Yahoo search for “Cars” turned up 6,069 sites. They run the gamut from a page on how to get away with speeding, attributed to Car & Driver magazine, to a site about the VeggieVan, an RV converted to run on french-fry grease. There are even a few pages lending credence to the theory that former Beatle Paul McCartney died in a car crash in the band’s heyday.
Whatever you’re looking for, there’s a good chance you’ll find it on the Web–so long as you have an Internet connection, a modern (read: released in the last year or so) Web browser and lots of patience to sort through the information you’ll find. To help you get started, we’ve bookmarked some of the highlights.
Shopping around
The first step in buying a new car is determining what you want. This used to mean trudging across miles of auto lots and fending off sales associates. Now you can view hundreds of models without leaving your chair.
A logical starting place is with the manufacturers. Everyone from Acura to Volvo has a home on the Web, and most offer general information about their product lines. Retail prices, specifications and dealer locations are the staples, but many also list current specials and incentives, as well as financing and leasing options.
When Hayes was in the market for a mini-van, he turned to the manufacturers’ Web sites to do his preliminary research. “It was so much easier than going to the dealers and having to put up with their nonsense,” Hayes said. “When you go down to the dealer, you’re already well-informed. All you really want to do is drive the vehicle, see how it feels, how it handles, how it rides and see if your kids fit in the back.”
Some manufacturers, including Chevrolet, Ford and Nissan, feature “configurators.” Like a virtual window sticker, a configurator allows the user to add options to a vehicle and check the retail price. Cadillac’s version “builds” the car on your screen as you select options such as color and interior.
Think of the automakers’ sites as souped-up brochures or interactive commercials; their main focus is to sell you a car.
Digging deeper
The savvy car buyer will want to dig deeper before heading to the showroom. The Chicago Tribune Autos site is a good place to start. Its price and equipment database offers easy comparison of retail, invoice and target prices for hundreds of models and trim lines. A printout of this data, along with standard features and option prices, is a valuable aid when it comes time for negotiating with the sales manager.
Surfers at the Tribune site will find a similar database for used cars with links to classified listings. A dealer directory makes it easy to locate and print maps to Chicago area dealerships.
Robert Mahowald, 32, of Chicago turned to the Tribune and other auto sites before his recent sport-utility vehicle purchase.
“I knew the type of vehicle I wanted, but I didn’t know what model, make or size,” Mahowald said. “The Web helped me to find the pricing, gave me reviews and an idea of how much space I needed.”
Most important, he was able to negotiate a good deal armed with the dealer invoice and retail prices of the three or four vehicles he was considering. Because he also had looked into rebates and dealer incentives, he knew what the dealers would be making on whatever price was quoted.
“I found that disarmed quite a few dealers,” Mahowald said.
Other handy sites are scattered all over the Web, each with its own surprises.
The Edmunds online buyer’s guide offers price and equipment comparisons, road tests and a list of fun-to-drive vehicles based on acceleration, braking and road holding. (The Porsche 911 Turbo ranked highest with a 0- to 60-mile-per-hour time of 4.1 seconds, a 60-to-0 braking distance of 108 feet and a cornering rating of .96 g-forces, though that sort of driving would lower the 13 m.p.g. city/19 m.p.g. fuel economy.)
Carpoint, Microsoft’s entry, adds 360-degree photos of more than 50 vehicle interiors to its features, which include invoice information, vehicle reviews and consumer advice.
Buying time
It’s not as easy as ordering a pizza, but it’s possible to buy a car without leaving the house. A few sites have organized a network of dealerships around the country that will take a purchase order, offer a “hassle-free” price and deliver the contract and car to the buyer’s home. The user enters information about the desired vehicle. Within 24 hours, a nearby dealer calls with a price.
Auto-By-Tel, which claims more than 750,000 customers and 40,000 purchase requests a month, and AutoWeb Interactive, a similar site, allow buyers to arrange financing and insurance. Both offer a used-car locator. The AutoWeb site will take a used-car request and e-mail the user when the car is located, and it will list your used vehicle for sale.
Keeping it running
Transmission making funny “clunking” sounds? Engine losing its vim and vigor? Whether the car’s sick or you just want to keep it healthy, the Web offers page after page of advice. Many newspapers carry an autos columnist on their Web sites. These range from question-and-answer columns where mechanics tackle specific problems to general advice columns. Tribune has two experts: Jim Mateja, who reviews new cars and writes a weekly Q&A, and Bob Weber, an ASE-certified master automobile technician, who answers readers’ questions about things that go bump under the hood.
Tom and Ray Magliozzi, hosts of the National Public Radio program Car Talk, have their own site, which offers everything from their radio and newspaper content to a database of mechanic recommendations.
Tools for drivers
For some drivers, nothing is as exhilarating as flying down an open road with the windows down and the radio blaring. For others, the feeling of leaving five minutes late and arriving on time provides the rush.
But nothing sours the mood faster than seeing that red light in your rearview mirror, signaling that you’ve been caught in a speed trap. But with the Internet at your disposal, ignorance of speed trap locations is no excuse.
Andrew Warner’s WWW Speed Trap Registry, launched in 1995, is a collection of common cop-hiding places around the world. With hundreds of interstate, highway and surface street listings for Illinois alone, the registry is a good place to check when your commute takes you through unfamiliar areas or before setting out on a road trip.
The site includes other handy information, such as radar detector regulations and descriptions of law enforcement vehicles by city and state.
Another useful resource for motorists traveling unfamiliar areas is MapQuest, an interactive cartographic site that allows visitors to point and click to detailed maps of more than 3 million locations worldwide. There’s no charge to sign up, and MapQuest boasts more than 1.4 million members, giving it one of the largest memberships on the Internet.
MapQuest’s “interactive atlas” allows users to locate more than 11 million points of interest, such as museums, parks and stadia, without knowing the address. Users also can generate door-to-door written driving directions as well as digital maps that can be posted on personal Web sites.
MapQuest claims to serve up to 1 million maps a day, so when the Information Superhighway is bumper-to-bumper, you might want to check out MapBlast, which is fine when all you need is a map of a certain area, or Maps on Us, which allows users to have their computer “read” driving directions to them in a male or female voice.
Fun stuff
Utility aside, the Web is also a place where the car enthusiast can have fun. Whatever the interest, you’re sure to find something.
The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village site is devoted to the museum complex founded by Ford in Dearborn, Mich. Visitors can plan a visit to the museum, which celebrates “change and innovation as a continuing value in American life,” or they can browse its virtual hallways and corridors. One of the highlights is the Showroom of Automotive History, where guests can view photos, advertisements and specs for groundbreaking vehicles in American history.
Other sites aren’t as serious. A few minutes spent searching will turn up sites dedicated to The General Lee, the obnoxious 1969 Dodge Charger of “The Dukes of Hazzard” television fame, K.I.T.T. from the “Knight Rider” series and, of course, the Batmobile.
A favorite is Leon Poon’s Vanity Plates page. Hundreds of plates from around the country include
-CSHFLW (negative cash flow), 10SNE1 (tennis anyone) and 1MONPAY (one month’s pay, seen on a $105,000 BMW 850Csi). And the story “Oedipus the King (of the Road)” can be found written in license-plate speak.
Perhaps the most common car pages of all are mixed into the millions of personal vanity sites. If you look long enough, you’ll find pages picturing owners posing with every make and model imaginable. Americans still have a love affair with the automobile, after all, especially their own.
BOOKMARKS
Notable auto-related sites on the Web and their addresses (http:// should precede each URL):
Shopping around
Acura: www.acura.com
Audi: www.audi.com
BMW: www.bmwusa.com
Buick: www.buick.com
Cadillac: www.cadillac.com
Chevrolet: www.chevrolet.com
Chrysler: www.chryslercars.com
Dodge: www.4adodge.com
Ford: www.ford.com
Ferrari: www.ferrari.com
GM: www.gm.com
GMC: www.gmc.com
Honda: www.honda.com
Hummer: www.hummer.com
Hyundai: www.hmc.co.kr
Infiniti: infinitimotors.com
Jeep: www.jeepunpaved.com
Kia: www.kia.com
Lamborghini: www.lamborghini.com
Land Rover: www.LandRover.com
Lexus: www.lexususa.com
Lincoln: www.lincolncars.com
Mazda: www.mazda.com
Mercedes-Benz: www.mercedes.com
Mercury: www.mercuryvehicles.com
Mitsubishi: www.mitsubishi-motors.co.jp
Nissan: www.nissan-usa.com
Oldsmobile: www.oldsmobile.com
Plymouth: www.plymouthcars.com
Pontiac: www.pontiac.com
Porsche: www.porsche.com
Rolls-Royce: www.rolls-royce.com
Saab: www.saabusa.com
Saturn: www.saturn.com
Suburu: www.subaru.com
Suzuki: www.suzuki.com/carquest.htm
Toyota: www.toyota.com
Volkswagen: www.vw.com
Volvo: www.volvo.com
Tools
MapBlast: www.mapblast.com
Maps on Us: www.mapsonus.com
MapQuest: www.mapquest.com
WWW Speedtrap Registry: www.Nashville.Net/speedtrap/
Fun stuff
Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village: www.hfmgv.org
Paul McCartney: www.further.com/paul.html
Leon Poon’s Vanity License Plates: www-chaos.umd.edu/misc/plates.html
Route 66: route66.netvision.be
VeggieVan: www.veggievan.org
Digging deeper
Carpoint: carpoint.msn.com
Chicago Tribune Autos: www.chicago.tribune.com/autos
Edmonds: www.edmunds.com
Kelley Blue Book: www.kbb.com
J.D. Power and Associates: www.jdpower.com
Buying time
Auto-By-Tel: www.autobytel.com
AutoHelp: www.autohelp.com
Autoweb Interactive: www.autoweb.com
Auto World: www.autoworld.com
Keeping it running
Auto and Parts: www.autop.com
Car Talk: www.cartalk.com
