Has anyone bought a new car online? How does it work? I just send out what I want and my price, and dealerships respond with numbers? Do you have to pay for the shipment of the car to the local dealership? What are some reliable car sites?

there is http:www.autobytel.com (http://http:www.autobytel.com) . Typically a site like this routes your request to a dealer in your area. However, you can probably go to any dealer and say I can get this car at $200 (or some number like that - if you go with edmunds advice, invoice + 3%, you can get a car without any pain - say $600-750 on an RS WRX) over invoice on the Internet and they'll give you that same deal - get the invoice price from edmunds, and then they don't have to pay the Internet router a fee for your deal.

I went through autobytel last year when I got my RS. My local dealer, who has a great reputation, was very tight when it came to dealing with me and I walked. The dealer that I dealt with through autobytel was great. I knew exactly what I wanted and didn't get anything that I didn't need. I paid just over invoice and they delivered the car to my work the next day. I would definately by online again. I think this is a great way to get a car for people that know exactly what they are looking for.

For what it's worth, the local dealer got rid of the "manager" that wouldn't work with me a few weeks after I got my car and I currently get all my service through them and have been very pleased with their service.

Matthew

I got in touch with a dealer in Daton Ohio through Autobytel.com. I was looking for a WRX with no options other than a spoiler. They said they had on so I went to take a look at it and they wanted $26,500 + T,T,L. They where trying to mugg me.. I went ot the dealership here in town a few weeks later and got one the next week with Prem.auido, Armrest, Autodim, Alarm. On the road for about %5 over invoice..not bad seeing how the car is fresh on the market.

I have purchased two cars on line. The first, a BMW. It was a successful one and the price was very good. My WRX, I guess you could say was purchased on line --- here's how it happened. I wanted an WRX so I went to my nearest dealer and a smart ass salesman told me they had none but I could order one at 4,000. over MSRP! 'Nuf said. I then got on line, got a list of all the Subaru dealers in So. and central Fla. and e-mailed them a request for a WRX at, at the very least, MSRP. I got two replies and went to one dealer, ordered the wagon and am paying MSRP. It was hard to bring myself to pay MSRP because I always bargin, if possible. But not on this baby. And I think that because of the great demand and limited supply of WRXs that that is how it is going to be at least for now.

I used autobytel.com to purchase my used 98 OBS. One particular reason it was helpful is that I couldn't find any locally. Even using autobytels nationwide search there were only about 10-15, and only 2 that were manual transmission. I hooked up with Kelly Subaru in Tallahassee through them and was overall pleased. They did try to drop a few things on me at the last minute, but they were fairly minor in the grand scheme of things.

One thing that I really liked is that when you go through autobytel.com, you don't deal with a normal salesman. In my case, I dealt with the general manager of the dealership.

In the end, I ended up paying about 10% under KBB Retail for the car, and the whole process was fairly stress free.