Death of a salesman
AMERICA'S car dealers are scared. First they were beset by monstrous out-of-town used-car superstores, offering a huge range and “no haggle” pricing. Now they face an onslaught of invaders from cyberspace. Of the 15.1m cars and pick-ups bought by Americans last year, 2m went to customers who set foot in a dealership only to collect the vehicle. They either used a car-broking service or did their window shopping and price comparisons on the Internet and used a broker to line up a local deal.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Death of a salesman”
From the March 8th 1997 edition
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