First they were beset by monstrous out-of-town used-car superstores, offering a huge range and "no haggle" pricing.
Analysts say it overpaid for acquisitions, found itself undercut on prices because of a misguided "no haggle" pricing policy and was forced to shutter 23 used-car superstores.
No-haggle prices at car dealerships?
Some sites, like CarOrder.com, which shut down in February 2001, and Greenlight.com, which merged with CarsDirect.com that same month, arranged high-volume deals with dealerships to offer no-haggle prices to consumers.
For decades they had labored in relative obscurity, buying what engineers and office managers told them to, and handling the scut work of haggling prices, processing orders and following them up.
Ford was operating a Web site called Fordpreowned.com, on which it listed used cars for sale at no-haggle prices in several cities around the country.
Vroom allows people to buy and sell pre-owned cars from the web, with no-haggle prices, free delivery and a seven-day trial period.
Like other Scion vehicles, the FR-S is offered with no-haggle pricing.
"No-haggle" pricing caters to those who are tired of being taken advantage of.
Saturn's 440 U.S. and Canadian dealers, with laid-back salesmen and no-haggle pricing, often match luxury brands' scores in independent customer satisfaction surveys.
The ads celebrated G.M.'s decision to sell a domestically produced car intended to compete against imports like Honda and Toyota with policies that included no-haggle pricing and free doughnuts at dealer showrooms.
