6 More Sites For The Best Used Car Info

Used Car shoppers have it rough. So much information, so many sites and so much confusion.

Wading through endless pages of biased research sites only helps the site owner and the advertisers; it needs to be simple.

I’ve selected six sites the average online automotive shopper has probably never heard of and/or visited. Three sites are true consumer sites and the other three are dealer related. Why did I choose three dealer sites?  These are excellent places for the educated consumer to see how dealers are making an honest effort to become more customer focused and how they are dealing with the ever changing landscape within the automotive industry.

Recommended Consumer Portals

1. Auction Direct USA Research Site - I’d be off my rocker if I didn’t include our new research tool. We recently teamed up with the awesome guys at vLane to create our own unique automotive research community. Research used vehicles, (even new) submit your own user review about any vehicle made under the sun and even connect with your friends on Facebook. You can also ask specific car questions, comparison shop vehicles side-by-side and create reader polls for greater interaction and resources.
2. EasyAutoSales.com – EAS is a site I often tout simply because their philosophy mirrors ours; they aim to shake things up and provide a different solution for online automotive consumers.  They bill themselves as a community driven automotive resource for buying and selling new and used cars. Plenty of vehicles, lots of research tools and their new forum section is top notch.
3. CarsDirect.com – Founded in 1998,  Cars Direct is one of the quiet giants within the automotive listing/research sites.  Everything you need to research, price, purchase, insure and finance a vehicle can be found within this automotive portal.

Full disclosure: Auction Direct USA’s vehicle inventory is listed on all three of these site. We try our best to list them everywhere:)

Recommended Dealer Blogs

1. DealerRefresh.com - This is one of the earliest sites dedicated to automotive professionals. Created by Jeff Kershner, this has always been a top destination for industry pros looking to improve their knowledge about industry resources, sharing best practices and debating cutting edge topics popular to the industry in general.
2. DrivingSales.com – Jared Hamilton has done a fantastic job of creating an exhaustive automotive professional community that is gaining huge momentum within this segment. This is a great learning hub for people within the industry. Their tag line: Connecting auto industry pros with the people and information they need to maximize their success.
3. vAuto.com – vAuto is another unique “professional” site that was launched last year by respected industry veteran Dale Pollak.  He created the site for people within the retail segment to learn…directly from his own successful experiences.

While these three blogs are not geared towards consumers, I feel its important for consumers to know dealer sites, such as these, do exist. A good number of retail professionals are making a strong push towards improving customer experiences, understanding their needs and providing shoppers the resources needed to improve their sales processes.

What are your favorite online research sites?

And more importantly, what type of information is important to you – the buyer?