GMBuyPower Competes for Online Car Shoppers

Millions of people have been doing it already. Using sites like Microsoft's CarPoint.com or autobytel.com to research and even buy new or used cars. In fact, Chris Denove at J.D. Power and Associates tells usÂ…

"We're seeing a fast growing trend where more and more car buyers have decided to forgo taking the weekend shopping at different dealerships, but sitting at home or their office instead and doing their shopping online for cars."

Don't look now, but General Motors is joining the game with a new site called gmbuypower.com. And with nearly three quarters of the GM dealers in the country taking part, GMBuypower's Ann Blakney says the site has some big advantagesÂ… allowing shoppers to browse through the inventories of individual dealers right on the web

"No other service allows the consumer to access the exact vehicle, no other service has the ability to search inventory, or allows the ability to electronically communicate to our dealers directly."

You can save money by comparing prices from dealers in your area and you can save a lot of time. But at one Manhattan showroom, this car salesman told usÂ…customers are better off with himÂ….

"They're not going to get a good experience over a machine. They're not going to have their needs. The machine doesn't know what they need, what they want."

And computers don't know how to say, wait here while I talk to the manager.