Little Dotcom Coupe

The love affair began -- give or take a few years and a few expert opinions -- on October 1, 1908 somewhere along Detroit's Mack Avenue. It was then and there that Henry Ford introduced the first automobile designed and priced for the masses -- the spunky, clunky Model T. Americans throbbed with passion for the horseless carriage. They named her "Tin Lizzy." They purchased nearly 11,000 units during her first year of production. And they began to consider transportation a near-religious experience.

Ninety-one years later, at a time when Christianity Net and Jew FAQ deliver religious experiences 24 hours a day, car buying has become just another emotional voyage turned sterile and anonymous by the dot com phenomenon.

Or has it?

Has the breakthrough of Autobytel.com and CarPoint, among others, begun to numb and demystify the six-cylinder, dual-exhaust zeal of a country that has forever worshipped its "Little Deuce Coupe," "Greased Lightnin'," and "Cadillac Ranch"? Can any Web site truly replicate the soft sheen of new upholstery and bristle of factory-direct floor mats? Will virtual venues like Cars.com actually entice Goodwrench goofs to maintain, repair, and adore their wheels with a little help from accessible online experts?

In search of answers, Fast Company recently approached the best known grease monkeys in America. Tom and Ray Magliozzi came of age in auto shop class, and have not yet identified a decent substitute for the sense of wonder and ingenuity they find under the hood of a '63 Dodge Dart. For 22 years, the Magliozzi brothers have encouraged America's infatuation with hot rods, low riders, and luxury gliders through their award-winning National Public Radio show, "Car Talk." Better known as Click and Clack, these two M.I.T. graduates have witnessed automotive trends ranging from tail fins to DeLoreans and"ponycars" to minivans. Most recently, they have begun to field listener inquiries about the novelty of online automotive research and purchasing -- a trend that could forever alter the car industry as we know it.

In the following Q&A, Click and Clack discuss the importance, functionality, and dangers of evaluating cars on the Internet, and answer the question: Does the Web really put you in the driver's seat?

The Web is brimming with car-buying resources on sites such as Autobytel.com, CarPoint, and Autoweb.com. What sites do you believe provide fair, well-respected information for car buyers? What distinguishes useful, praiseworthy sites from online renditions of crooked used car lots?

[Tom]: Our favorite site is actually Cars.com, because:
1. It's the only URL we can remember.
2. They're the only ones willing to face widespread Internet ridicule by teaming up with us.

[Ray]: We don't actually do any car pricing or dealer referrals in our part of the site; they handle all that stuff. But we produce a bunch of real consumer-oriented content like a database of recommended mechanics and the "Car-O-Scope"?

[Tom]:...You answer a few, simple personality questions, and our computers tell you whether you're compatible with your car, and if not, what make and model you would be compatible with. It's pretty cool. Although my brother's still miffed that his recommended vehicle was a "Schwinn."

What are the greatest dangers associated with purchasing a car online?

[Ray]: Well, one danger is that some of the online "car sites" are just fancy advertisements for dealers. They charge the dealers money, and when you say, "I wanna buy a car," they send you to the dealer who paid them for the referral. There's no advantage for the buyer in that. You want a site that gives you good, non-biased research tools, a good variety of dealers to choose from, and tons of individual car listings.

[Tom]: You're absolutely right, but even then, you can't do the whole thing online. Unless you're the kind of person who always buys a new Camry every two years come hell, high water, or tail fins, you have to go out and test drive the car. There's a human element you can't avoid...

[Ray]: The stale coffee and jelly donuts at the dealership?

[Tom]: Yeah. And seeing the new '99 plaids!

[Ray]: What you can get from a good Web site is a hell of a lot of background information. If you do your research online and go to the dealership "well advised," you're less likely to get talked into buying a car that everybody else on the planet knows is a piece of junk, or even paying way too much for a good car.