经济学人286:TrueCar来势汹汹

 　　AMERICANS looking for a new car nowadays often use online price-comparison sites such as AutoTrader, Edmunds and eBay to find the best deal. Most such sites charge dealers 2 a small fee for passing on sales leads from shoppers who have submitted their details. TrueCar, a relative newcomer, does things differently. It charges dealers $300, but only when its introduction of a customer results in a sale, and it makes its dealers guarantee to honour their quotes, no excuses.

　　如今的美国人若要买辆新车，通常会上一些比价网站来淘最好的价格，诸如AutoTrader, Edmunds和eBay等。这些网站多数将注册的经销商提供的销售线索展示在网页上，从中赚取小额报酬。而TureCar，作为行业相对年轻的成员，却有着不同的经营方法。它只在推荐的客户完成买卖后收取经销商300美元费用，前提是经销商无条件保证履行其价格承诺。
　　TrueCar taps into data from state vehicle-registration offices, car-loan providers and other sources to compile what it says are the most accurate figures available for what motorists pay for the same car locally. This can be several hundred dollars less than the sticker price, and is often below “invoice”—the price that, according to the paperwork sent by the carmaker, represents the wholesale 3 price the dealer 1 paid. In fact dealers receive various rebates 4 from carmakers, and make money from such things as loans and service contracts, so a modest profit is still possible.
　　TureCar从车辆登记所、车贷机构和其他渠道得到的数据中总结出其所谓的最精准的当地最低车价，这个价格通常便宜几百美元，甚至经常低于“发票价”，即汽车厂商给予汽车经销商的纸面批发价。实际上经销商从厂商获取各种回扣，并通过像车贷及售后等服务赚取利润，所以最低利润还是有的。
　　But such heavy discounting alarms carmakers. Honda’s American arm recently told dealers it would cut off their marketing 5 allowances—which can be worth hundreds of dollars for each car sold—if they did not stop offering sub-invoice prices on TrueCar and other sites. Honda insists dealers can sell at whatever price they wish, but it will not pay them to market its products as “cheap” or “low-end” cars. It also suggests that some dealers use such sites to “bait-and-switch”, offering tantalisingly cheap cars they do not have, to reel in suckers, a practice many states ban.
　　但如此大幅度的折扣引起了厂商的警觉。本田的美国车厂近日告知其经销商，如果不停止向诸如TrueCar等比价网站提供“低票价”，车厂将削减其营销费用，每车大约几百美元。本田表示经销商可以自己定价销售，但厂商不会为了将其产品宣传成“便宜货”或是“低档货”而支付费用。本田更暗示说一些经销商利用网站进行诈骗，利用一些根本没有的超便宜车型吊顾客上钩再掉包销售，这在许多州都是被严令禁止的。
　　TrueCar insists that the contracts it makes dealers sign commit them to deliver the cars they promise at the price quoted. David Wilson, who recently told the 16 dealerships he owns in California to stop using TrueCar, says he has reason to share Honda’s scepticism: he plays back to The Economist 6 a voicemail from a rival dealer who had quoted him an attractive price via TrueCar on a new Lexus, calling to say that they did not have it in stock but could try to find one for him. TrueCar says there had been no hiding of the fact that the model concerned might no longer be available, and thus no question of “bait-and-switch”; that this was a one-off case and that TrueCar has had few complaints so far. But it is awkward that a critic had so little trouble catching 7 a dealer quoting for a car it did not have.
　　TrueCar坚称其要求经销商签订协议来保证经销商按照约定的价格卖车。大卫。威尔森最近要求其在加利福尼亚州的16家经销商停止使用TrueCar，原因是他有理由相信本田对网站的质疑。他向《经济学人》杂志播放了一段音频，内容是对手经销商在TrueCar网站上给一款新雷克萨斯车型报了一个非常诱人的价格，但打电话过去后对方说没有该车库存并表示会尽力找一辆给他。TrueCar表示就此事而言，如果经销商没有隐瞒网上展示的车型没有存货，也就不构成“掉包诱售”的罪名。上述的事情只是个案，TrueCar表示至今收到投诉寥寥。而且那么容易就能抓到经销商“诈骗”有些不太正常。