Services Offer Car Buyers Some High-Tech Help : Autos: By computer, phone and fax, consumers can get price information with the touch of a button.

You did your homework, pored over Consumer Reports and Car & Driver, yet you still managed to pay $800 too much for that Ford Taurus or Olds Cutlass.

Kevin King can sympathize. Until a few years ago, he might have been the sales guy who took you to the cleaners.

A former car sales and leasing agent, King now runs 1-900-Autofax Inc., which sells computer software listing the prices dealers pay for cars and various options. The program gives buyers an idea of how much they can negotiate off the sticker price.

King’s computer pricing program is among the latest additions to what is becoming a cluttered market of products and services to advise car buyers.

For years, publications such as Consumer Reports and Car & Driver have published price guides, data on reliability and repairs and advice for consumers. The magazines, among others, also offer 900 numbers consumers can dial to get information for a few dollars a minute.

But with new computer and telephone technology, dozens of fax, on-line and other high-tech services have sprung up, offering pricing information at the touch of a button.

Computer users can get car information through on-line services such as Autovantage or Compuserve’s New Car-Truck Showroom.

Price guides sent by fax are the hottest new service. For fees ranging from $7 to more than $20, businesses such as Pace Publications, Amoco and even the Auto Club fax consumers up-to-date price guides on any model car.

King, who started Cheektowaga, N.Y-based Autofax with a 900 number offering car prices, said his computer program gives consumers more flexibility because they can compare prices and options on more than 200 models. The software sells for $29.95.

In an ideal market, a consumer would walk into a showroom, spread his price guide on a salesperson’s desk, then drive off with a car for as little as $100 above the dealer’s wholesale cost.

It’s rarely that easy.

Using sleazy sales tricks, King said, he could take one of his price printouts and discredit every number on it, thoroughly confusing a buyer in a matter of minutes.

“It depends on how talented the salesman is,” he said.

If a salesperson tells a customer that the price guide is wrong, the buyer should demand to see the factory invoice, King said. The invoice should bear the manufacturer’s logo--Chevrolet, Ford, whatever the make of the car. If the invoice is on plain paper or doesn’t have the auto maker’s logo, it could have been dummied up by the dealer with phony prices, he said.

“If that happens, the customer should say: ‘You don’t want to show me the factory invoice? No problem. I’ll pack my stuff up and go to the next dealer,’ ” King said.

Dealers say that many price guides are wrong, containing out-of-date information. They also say there are hidden costs and fees for many cars, expenses that aren’t reflected in the guides.

“About half the time, pricing guides are helpful because the customer already knows what he wants to purchase and has a rough idea of what it’ll cost,” said Butch Bonk, a sales manager at Muck Ford in the Buffalo suburb of Getzville. “The other half, many of the pricing guides aren’t up-to-date.”

Ted Orme, spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Assn., said price guides can also give consumers false hopes of striking a good deal.

Michael Green, publisher of Pace Publications, said that in many cases, consumers should be able to buy a car for $100 to $300 over the invoice price.

“You want the guy to make a profit, but you don’t want him to get rich off of you,” Green said.

But according to Orme, dealers couldn’t cover their expenses if they sold all their cars on such slim profits.

“To send a customer in with that kind of expectation is wrong,” he said. “A dealer who sells at that price across the board will be broke in a hurry. . . . We do get a little weary of these so-called experts giving out this kind of advice.”

Most car buyers also have an inflated idea of how much money dealers make on a sale, he said.

A recent study by Dohring Co., a market research firm, found that consumers believe that dealers make an average of $2,720 on a $15,000 car. Orme put the figure at about $1,000 on a $15,000 vehicle.

Here’s the bottom-line deal: Figure out what you want, arm yourself with a reliable price guide and cut the dealer some slack so he can make a fair profit. The odds are you’ll drive away happy.

“You feel more confident going in if you’ve already checked the prices,” said Pace Publications editor Kelly Stone. “You may not have the upper hand on the dealer, but it levels the playing field so you don’t go in blind.”