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Americans to buy a car often use online price-comparison sites to find the best deal. Most such sites charge dealers a small fee

admin2022-07-29  53
问题     Americans to buy a car often use online price-comparison sites to find the best deal. Most such sites charge dealers a small fee for passing on sales leads from shoppers who have submitted their details. TrueCar 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.
    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 represents the wholesale price the dealer paid. In fact dealers receive various rebates from carmakers, and make money from such things as loans and service contracts, so a modest profit is still possible.
    But such heavy discounting alarms carmakers. Honda’s American arm recently told dealers it would cut off their marketing allowances if they did not stop offering sub-invoice prices on TrueCar and other sites. Honda insists 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 tantalizingly cheap cars they do not have, to reel in suckers, a practice many states ban.
    TrueCar insists that the contracts it makes dealers sign commit them to deliver the cars they promise at the price quoted. David Wilson, who owns 16 dealerships in California, says he has reason to share
    Honda’s skepticism: he plays back to the Economist a voicemail from a rival dealer who has 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.
    However, several states’ regulators are looking into whether the website breaches their laws. Some states specifically ban "bird-dogging"—taking commission for introducing a sale. Some also ban using the word "invoice" in car ads, regarding it as potentially misleading. Colorado’s regulator has warned dealers there that they will be held responsible for any rule-breaking in their TrueCar quotes. TrueCar says it will shortly make changes to its website to satisfy the regulators’ concerns.
    In September, 2015 TrueCar raised $245m for expansion. On January 1st, 2016 it began an exclusive tied-up with Yahoo! to provide car-buying services. It also provides such services for consumer groups such as the American Automobile Association. It could look forward to a large slice of the $6 billion a year American car dealers spend on advertising—if it can convince both regulators and dealers that it is operating within the law.
Which of the following could account for Wilson’s complaint about TrueCar?
选项 A、It charges commissions for introducing car sales.
B、It uses unavailable cheap cars as bait to attract customers.
C、Dealers cannot guarantee the promised prices on the website.
D、The prices set by the website mislead shoppers.
答案B
解析 本题关键词是人名Wilson，问题是为什么威尔逊对TrueCar网站不满。可以定位到原文的第四、五段。根据第四段第二句中威尔逊对TrueCar网的控诉可知，TrueCar网站上以十分诱人的价格推荐一款新的雷克萨斯车型，但随后又告知该车型没有现货，因此他赞同本田公司对TrueCar网站采取“诱导转向法”的怀疑，正是这种营销方式导致了威尔逊的不满，因此选项B与原文一致，为正确选项。第五段第二句指出，一些州严禁“对缝”(即从介绍的交易中收取佣金)，该段第三句交代，有些州同样禁止在广告中使用“发票”等字眼，因为该广告对消费者有误导性，但这只是法律的内容，文中并没有指出威尔逊因为这些原因对TrueCar网不满，因此选项A和选项D均为无中生有。根据第一段，TrueCar网确保经销商以承诺的价格售车(it makes its dealers guarantee to honour their quotes, no excuses)，因此选项C正反混淆。第四段：TrueCar网否认公司存在“诱导转向”的问题。第五段：各州监管部门已开始行动，禁止“对缝”行为。
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