(July 27): In my recent search for a new car, I turned to the Internet.

I have to admit that at first I really didn't think of the Internet as a productive way to shop for cars, but after spending a day going from dealership to dealership in the Portland/Westbrook/Saco area with no luck, I decided it was time to try it out.

What I found was quite a wealth of information. When I first started out, I was looking at used cars, preferably a 1998 or '99. After finding a few cars out on the lots, I wanted to know how the price matched up to the value of the car.

Everyone turns to the NADA (Blue Book) to find the value of a used car. At http://www.nada.com, the publishers of the NADA guide allow you to look up the value of the car you're looking at and a search is even customizable with the options on the car. They only give you five "lookups" a day, but it is much more convenient to use the Internet to find the value of a car.

With the range of what I thought was a fair value for the car I was looking at, I first turned to the newspaper to look at "the deals." What I found was an unorganized grouping of a few select cars the dealerships wanted to showcase. Getting very frustrated with that, I noticed that just about every dealership included a Web address somewhere in their ad. I started surfing around and generally found a wealth of information.

More than 95 percent of the dealership sites I visited had almost their entire inventory online with detailed specifications of individual vehicles. Most of the sites also allowed me to search for specific cars, which is a great feature and knocks down wasted browsing time. Instead of driving around to who knows how many more dealerships, I was able to narrow down the ones I'd visit, because I knew if they had what I was looking for.

One Sunday afternoon, armed with my Palm Pilot, I went to those dealerships I found on the Net and looked at the cars -- without the pressure of a salesperson. (Isn't that "no selling on Sundays" law great?) That narrowed the search down even more.

That Monday, I went back to a few dealerships and took a few cars for a test drive.

I really didn't find something that was really in my price range, so I turned to another resource available on the Internet for consumers looking for a car to buy.

http://www.autobytel.com is a site designed to take the pressure of car buying off the buyer and put it on the seller.

You simply tell the site what kind of car you are looking for, the options you want, information about your trade-in (if any), and how soon you are looking to purchase. One limitation at this site is that you can only enter one request in a 24-hour period.

In my case, I was looking at two different kinds of cars, so I was only able to put in a request for the one of the cars. Once you fill out the information they need, you get a request number and confirmation e-mail.

Autobytel searches for your specifications and notifies one of its accredited dealers to contact you the way you specified. I believe Autobytel requires that their accredited dealers have specific people who are trained to handle these Internet requests. Autobytel guarantees a no-hassle, no price haggle shopping experience.

A representative from a dealership contacted me the next morning, but never got back to me after that -- except a phone call a few days later -- and I had already purchased a car by then.

Ryan Connon is systems administrator at k2Bh.com. Columnists' opinions are their own. The Community Internet Station welcomes submissions.

I wouldn't go by just that experience though, since many of my friends have had really good luck with Autobytel.com. They do take a lot of the hassle out of car buying. When it's time to get another car, I will definitely give them another try. There are also a lot of other options that they offer I never got a chance to try.

I ended up getting a brand new car (a 2000 Chevrolet Malibu LS) because it turned out to be cheaper in the long run. Even though I really wasn't searching for new cars on the Net, the information that I was able to get made my car searching experience much easier and more pleasant.

When I went into a dealership, I was armed with lots of good information, read and reread on my own time, which enabled me to really run my experience and not let the salesperson run it.

Being able to access the information 24 hours a day, seven days a week made the process easier on my hectic schedule and let me really sit down and think about things before being hovered over by a dealership's sales people. Thanks to Autobytel and the NADA Guide site for the invaluable information that they provide, all free of charge.

Next time you are looking to "upgrade" your car, give the resources the Internet provides a chance to help you in your car buying experience -- it is the worth the time to get on your computer and go to a few web sites. You would be amazed at the information available for consumers there.