When it comes to war, it’s all about firepower. In a sense, the same thing is true about the car-buying process. Traditionally, dealers had all the weapons at their disposal, but the Internet has changed that equation.

When you enter the showroom, your best weapon is knowledge, and these days, customers often know more than the salesmen, especially if they’ve done their homework online, where it’s easy to look up all the available products, compare specifications and check pricing.

Or so it would seem. But if you’ve gone though this process, you may find some wide discrepancies, especially when it comes to price. The numbers can vary widely from site to site, even on the supposed sticker and invoice figures.

That’s something that Internet automotive pioneer Scott Painter hopes to change with a new service he’s launching called TrueCar.com.

“Today, 90 percent of consumers go online before they go car shopping,” Painter said.
 
The challenge, he adds, is to give them accurate numbers that not only reveal what the factory is charging its dealers, but what customers are actually paying. Getting accurate numbers would help a lot, he adds, because “this is an industry that has become the poster child for deceit.”

Having access to inside industry data will help TrueCar come up with more accurate numbers. That ranges from factory information to the actual “paperwork” filed by dealers. Currently, the service claims to be tracking about a quarter of all vehicle sales, and that figure, Painter claims, is steadily increasing.

When the site formally launches in the coming weeks, you’ll be able to see that, for example, a mid-range Honda Civic GX sedan lists for $25,260 but actually costs the dealer $23,086 – which is, notably, about $800 less than the “invoice price” many dealers like to advertize. TrueCar also shows that the typical customer is paying $26,235 for the high-demand sedan, but that some are getting it for as little as $25,150. Those are potent weapons to take to the showroom.

The TrueCar.com site will let you sign up for an alert when it launches. It also will be syndicating its services to other auto Web sites across the Internet.

Paul A. Eisenstein is an award-winning journalist who has spent more than 30 years covering the global auto industry. His work appears in a wide range of publications worldwide, and he is a frequent broadcast commentator on subjects automotive.


AT A GLANCE

- The auto-buying process is traditionally filled with stress and confusion.

- The Internet has helped buyers become much more knowledgeable, but not everything you find online is accurate.

- The new TrueCar.com service hopes to become the last word when it comes to detailed new car pricing.