All motorists are aware that purchasing an automobile is an expensive and infrequent event, and that it needs to be approached with the utmost caution.
You must be positive that your automobile is the right choice for you and that it is mechanically sound.
In order to fully trust in a new vehicle's long-term reliability, you have to have faith in the people that sold it to you.
This can become an issue if you are specifically interested in purchasing pre-owned vehicles from used car dealers.
Reputation Before selecting a used car dealer, it is a good idea to do some preliminary research on their reputation.
After all, you are looking for someone who is honest and puts customer service and satisfaction before all else.
You need to do business with a company that is known for solving problems quickly and politely.
You also are looking for someone to offer you a good value for your hard-earned money.
But how can you be sure that anything you read is accurate? There are many Internet sites and trade magazines that are abuzz with glowing reviews of new and used car dealers, and many of these companies have websites that are wall-papered in positive client reviews.
But is there any way to ensure that these testimonials are authentic? Can't they be the work of a clever public relations manager? There are more genuine ways to gauge the popular opinion of used car dealers.
Stand-Alone Car Sites There are numerous car websites that have review boards where you see how a pre-owned vehicle seller has been received by the public.
Most of the larger automotive portals such as Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds, and Car and Driver also have dedicated spaces for user-generated dealer reviews on their sites.
Many of these reviews are brutally honest, and since the site has no reason to pull them, both good and bad reviews remain posted.
New and pre-owned sellers are rated in different areas including quality of repair, overall facilities, customer service, and the buying process.
There are now even dedicated websites that only post reviews of auto sellers and no other content.
The only drawback to these sites is that they are based on page views and are probably not diligently moderated.
Therefore, vicious content spawned by personal vendettas and other nonsense may be mixed in with legitimate reviews.
General Review Sites and Social Media Sites like the Better Business Bureau and Google require that reviewers submit their real names in order to post a review, adding authenticity.
Social media is also a great indicator of a local business's reputation.
If you do a random hashtag search on Twitter or look through the comments on the company's Facebook page, you will get an idea of how they are seen in the community.
Generally, any site where a person is laying claim to the review is more likely to contain honest reviews than sites like Yelp or Merchant Circle.
Again, some people use these anonymous forums to childishly complain about things that most people would not take offense to.
In the end, it all depends on who you can personally trust.
However, with a healthy dose of common sense, and the wisdom that comes with spending time on the Internet, you should be able to distinguish fake reviews from real ones easily.