I expected to be able to find product information, get pricing from various dealers, and even arrange for financing from the convenience of my home computer. I did buy a new car, and in fact got a better deal than I expected. You can do it, too. I was willing to consider other makes and models, but I liked the curvy look of the New Beetle.
Some people go to the dealer first off.
I'm most interested in, so that I can speak intelligently with the sales person. Besides, I was hoping to perhaps avoid having to deal over and over with a salesperson. No matter how hard you try, it seems to take a long time to disengage from the dealership. It's much faster and convenient to do it all online. This provided quite a lot of information about the car, but not as much as I was hoping for.