Before the internet became such an integral part of people's lives, car shopping was heavily stacked in favor of the dealer, not the buyer. After all, if you wanted to know what cars he had to sell, you had to go to his lot, and the minute you stepped onto his dealership, every effort was going to be made to get you to buy as quickly as possible, and spend more than you should in the bargain.

But now, having so much information available to the car buying public has made the internet a revolutionary force for change in this area, and now the odds are definitely in favor of the smart, savvy consumer who uses the internet to buy what they really need and want, and save money while they do.

Many car dealers have been relatively slow to embrace internet marketing as part of their sales process, because what they have been doing for many years was so successful, and made them a lot of money. But market conditions have pretty forced them into changing the way they do things.

For instance, not long ago, you would find many dealers holding out against listing their complete vehicle inventory online as they felt that this gave too much advantage to the consumer to be able to shop without physically visiting the car dealer itself. Dealers like to get as many people on their lot as possible who haven't done much research and therefore are at the mercy of the sales staff who are trained to be able to manipulate them into making purchases that are not the best financial decision for the buyer, but make lots of money for the dealer instead.

Today though, a car buyer can quickly and easily become well-informed on what vehicle will fit their needs most, how much they should expect to pay in a fair deal, and can search and locate that vehicle in minutes as well. And all of it can be done from the comfort of their own home with no high pressure sales people around to spoil the process.

What this means for an internet savvy car buyer is that they can have a much more pleasant car buying experience, and expect to get a fair deal at the same time, thanks to the automotive internet marketing technology that gives them the distinct advantage.

Jim Johnson writes on consumer related matters. Find out more about hdtv tuners and hdtv reviews at our HDTV website.