“How much?” In almost every retail environment, this wouldn’t be a difficult question to answer. But at the car dealership, the process of getting a concrete final price can take hours. The folks at Edmunds.com now have a tool that promises to make retrieving car prices as quick and easy as shopping at Amazon.
Autos
Drive for Free? Deals on Electric Cars Keep on Coming
For many consumers, electric-vehicle ownership has been a nonstarter for purely financial reasons. The math indicated that the money one saved in gas from an EV was usually outweighed by the car’s high initial price. But the math …
‘Loser’ No More: Tesla Repays $465 Million U.S. Loan
Tesla Motors has done right by U.S. taxpayers.
The fast-growing electric car company has repaid the entire $465 million loan it received from the U.S. Department of Energy, in a vindication for company co-founder Elon Musk, …
Memorial Day Gas Prices: After Wild Ride, About Where We Were Last Year
The national average for a gallon of regular is almost exactly the same as it was for Memorial Day 2012. And yet, for the past two years, the periods leading up to Memorial Day couldn’t be more different.
Car Sharing: Future Looks Bright, Even With Some Cloudy Legal Issues
There’s just no stopping the sharing. Despite recent legal challenges to certain “peer to peer” car-sharing services, the range of sharing options keeps on expanding, making it easier and easier for consumers to skip taxis, traditional car rentals — and car ownership in general.
Peak Traffic Ticket Season Is Here: Police Pushed to Give More Seat Belt Violation Citations
For the two weeks around Memorial Day, there’s more reason than normal to buckle up: Police around the country are stepping up enforcement of seat belt laws and plan on giving out double the usual number of tickets.
Tesla Beats the Odds — And the Haters — But Now Comes the Hard Part
The electric car company Tesla has always been an easy target. There’s the CEO, messianic Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk, who sometimes actually seems to be convinced that he’s the real-life Tony Stark. There’s the sheer chutzpah of a startup company from outside the auto industry trying to successfully build and market a new car …
MPG Rising: When Regulations Drive Up Prices—And Consumers Don’t Mind
If there’s one thing Americans would seem to hate more than regulations, it’s regulations that directly result in them spending more money out of pocket. So why are so many consumers fans of new government-mandated automobile …
Nissan Leads the Way in Auto Price Wars
The 2014 Nissan Versa starts at a sticker price of $12,780, giving it the title of cheapest new car in the U.S. for three straight years. The automaker boasts the lowest-price electric car in the U.S. as well, after dropping the base price of a Nissan Leaf by $6,400 earlier this year. Look for plummeting MSRPs on seven other Nissan …
The Splurge Surge: Luxury Spending on the Rise
Wealthy Americans don’t really think that good times are here again for the economy. But they’re going on shopping sprees anyway, with increasing sales seen for luxury hotel stays, high-end automobiles, and more.
2013 Gas Prices: Even Less Predictable Than Usual
What can drivers expect going forward in terms of gas prices? Probably more of the same—meaning more unpredictability, not necessarily more price drops.
A Bentley Boom? Rising Sales for Luxury Automakers Like Bentley, Jaguar, Porsche
So much for scaling back. The world’s rich and elite — or those who just want to appear so — have been cracking open their wallets in a big way lately, and luxury automakers are the beneficiaries.