sxnahm@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Nahm) (04/23/84)
<-.-./.-/.-.>
I've been thinking about buying a Volvo, and to be fully informed about the
model, I decided to use Consumer Reports' Auto Price Service. The April
issue of Consumer Reports describes the service (page 180).
You send in $9 for one model, $17 for two or $24 for three models, and they
send you a computer print-out which lists retail price and dealer cost for
the car, plus the same for each available option. All standard equipment is
listed.
I sent in $17 to get reports of the Volvo DL wagon, and the Saab 900 2-door
hatchback. The check was mailed April 5 and I received the reports on April
20. The Volvo print-out has a date of April 12 on it, and the Saab listing
is dated April 17.
There are a few special comment fields in the print-out. CU recommended
additional equipment "needed for functional reasons" is listed (none for
either car), equipment which is desirable for convenience and comfort (again
none), and the issue of last review in Consumer Reports (none for the Volvo,
July 81 for the Saab).
Next is base price and a listing of all standard eqipment. The list of
standard equipment was informative, but you could easily get the same from
the sticker at a dealership. The dealer cost and list price entries are
probably the most useful items on the print-out, but you might be able to
get the same info from the confusing chart on page 194 of the April Issue
(1984 Cars: List price vs. dealer cost).
I was hoping that *all* options would be listed, such as available colors,
gauges which can be added, and other options. Instead, only AC (Volvo
only), Automatic Transmission, and Metallic Paint (Volvo only) are listed.
I suppose that these are the only factory options; anything else would be
dealer installed.
To be fair, they do warn you that imports have less optional equipment than
domestic cars, and that because of this their Price Service print-out might
not be as useful. I would agree with this.
My recommendation: only use this service when you have finally decided on a
car to buy. Even if the print-out provides no additional useful info, the
15-day wait for the print-out will provide a cooling off period during which
you can decide if that car is really the one you want.
--
Steve Nahm
sxnahm@bbn-unix.arpa (ARPA)
{decvax,ima,linus,wjh12}!bbncca!sxnahm (Usenet)