Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Jeannine Fallon
PR Director
www.Edmunds.com
Office: 503-796-0090
jfallon@edmunds.com
Edmunds.com's Strategies for Smart Car Buyers Selected for Washington
Post Personal Finance Reporter Michelle Singletary's Color of Money Book Club
Online Book Club Discussion Scheduled for Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at 2PM
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - May 14, 2004 - Michelle Singletary, syndicated personal
finance columnist for the Washington Post, has named Edmunds.com's Strategies
for Smart Car Buyers the May selection for her Color of Money Book Club. Lead
author and Edmunds.com Consumer Advice Editor Phil Reed will join Singletary in
the Color of Money Book Club online discussion Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at 2PM
Eastern.
According to Singletary, "Aside from the usual good car-buying advice -- how to
begin your car-buying search, how much should you pay, selling your old car, leasing
and insuring your car -- this book has a bonus section called 'Confessions of
a Car Salesman,' which was written by Reed, who went undercover to sell cars.
The stories Reed recounts should be mandatory reading before anybody walks onto
a dealer's lot."
For the project, Reed was sent to work undercover at two different dealerships
to give readers an insider's perspective on the training, attitudes and behind-the-scenes
maneuvers that dealers use to gain the upper hand. Initial feedback suggests the
contents surprise, amuse and educate readers even if they're not in the market
to buy a car.
"After you read the confessions section of the book, go back and start at the
beginning," suggests Singletary. "I particularly like the short but important
sections on 'The 20 Percent Rule' and 'How Much Can You Afford?' The editors suggest
that your car payment should be no more than 20 percent of your take-home pay.
If you have two cars, the total monthly payment for both should still be 20 percent
of your pay."
Such advice from Edmunds.com, the Internet's premier resource for automotive information,
has empowered automotive consumers for decades. Edmunds.com published its first
book, a used vehicle buyers' guide, in the 1960s as a consumer-oriented alternative
to the dealer-centric Kelley Blue Book. Riding on a wave of consumer word-of-mouth,
in 1995 Edmunds.com launched its Web site -- which uniquely holds the title "the
most useful Web site" according to every J. D. Power and Associates' New Autoshopper.com
StudySM. Edmunds.com's new and used vehicle buyers'
guides continue to be published annually.
"You can get a lot of the information in this book on the Internet for free, but
I recommend it because it's like a workbook. It has checklists and a sample script
you can use when negotiating for a car," advises Singletary, who has written the
Color of Money column since 1997 and discusses personal finance on WHUR-FM and
on National Public Radio's "Day to Day" program.
Those interested in joining the Color of Money Book Club can find more information
at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/legacy/bookclubpage.htm.
Members are eligible to win free books; Edmunds.com donated a box of books that
have already been distributed to randomly selected members.
About Edmunds.com, Inc.
Edmunds.com is the premier online resource
for automotive information. Its comprehensive set of data, tools and services,
including Edmunds.com True Market Value® pricing, is generated
by Edmunds Data Services and is licensed to third parties. For example, the company
supplies over 800,000 pages of content for the auto sections of AOL and NYTimes.com, provides weekly data to Automotive News and delivers monthly data reports to Wall Street analysts. Edmunds.com
was named "best car research" site by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers
as the "most useful Web site" according to every J.D. Power and Associates New
Autoshopper.com StudySM and was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping
Web Sites as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company is headquartered
in Santa Monica, Calif. and maintains a satellite office outside Detroit.
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