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

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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.
It is indicated in Paragraph 3 that________.

选项 A、Honda reckoned that TrueCar affected their car’s brand image
B、car dealers largely depend on carmakers’ marketing allowance
C、TrueCar is an illegal website that deals in car business
D、car dealers cannot provide buyers with the cars they want

答案A

解析 本题题干无关键词,属于段落定位题,定位第三段。根据第三段第一句,TrueCar网站上大幅度的折扣引起了汽车生产厂商的警觉,接着第二至四句以本田公司为例说明了这一现象。其中,第二、三句指出,本田公司警告经销商停止向TrueCar网之类的网站提供低于发票价的价格,并坚称公司是不会花钱将其产品宣传成“便宜货”或者是“低档货”的(it will not pay them to market its products as "cheap" or "low-end" cars)。由此可推知,TrueCar网站上大幅度的折扣使本田汽车的价格太过低廉,而本田公司认为这一做法使其产品变为低档货,损害了其品牌形象,因此选项A与原文一致,是正确选项。根据第三段第二句,如果经销商仍继续向。TrueCar之类的网站提供低于发票价的价格,本田公司将不再为其提供营销补贴,此处只是汽车厂商对经销商提出的警告,并没有说明经销商在很大程度上依赖于汽车厂商的补贴,所以选项B无中生有。最后一句指出,本田公司暗示一些经销商在TrueCar之类的网站上采取“诱导转向法”,而这在很多州是明令禁止的。这只能说明在TrueCar之类的网站上有不合法的营销行为,并不能说明TrueCar网是非法网站,故选项C主观推导。同时本田公司暗示一些经销商利用他们没有的超便宜车型吸引容易上当的顾客,并不是说经销商不能提供消费者需要的车型,所以选项D曲解文意。第三段:本田公司警告经销商,禁止“诱导转向”销售汽车。
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