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News connects with new used-car Internet location

Free service provides access to thousands of cars and trucks

By Joel J. Smith / The Detroit News

   You now can shop for a used car or truck in your nightgown and slippers, or even less. And that includes checking lots at Metro Detroit dealers.
    Beginning today, The Detroit News through its Internet site will permit those interested in purchasing a used car or truck to search car dealer lots and classified newspaper advertisements from their home or office computer.
    The free service will provide access to information on tens of thousands of used vehicles nationwide, including those at most Metro Detroit auto dealers as well as classified used vehicle ads in The News.
    The program is being run by Classified Ventures, a 6-week-old start-up on-line service that already has signed up 131 newspapers and plans eventually to list several hundred thousand used vehicles nationwide. The site is accessed through The Detroit News home page by clicking on Cars.com.
    "They say there are no two used cars the same," said Russ Shelton, owner of Shelton Pontiac-Buick in Rochester Hills and current president of the Detroit Automobile Dealers Association. "People will have a much better chance of finding exactly what they want on this Web site than by going from one lot to the next."
    Shelton said he expects the new service will result in sales he wouldn't have made otherwise.
    Cars.com will provide other information for the car and truck buyers, too. It will include such things as used vehicle prices, ownership operating costs, performance data, safety test results, recall information and even tips on how to negotiate a good price at a dealership.
    Greg Stuart, director of marketing for Cars.com, said the site already lists more than 45,000 used vehicles with the number expected to grow as additional newspapers go on-line.
    "From a consumer's standpoint, this makes the entire car-buying process easier," Stuart said.
   

Copyright 1998, The Detroit News

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