A false start.

It's time to shop for a new car. For the next few weeks I'm chronicling my search, reviewing the process, the products, the marketing, the sales experience and the transaction.

[A note: After yesterday's post, I had at least 5 people lobby me to look at Saab. Because of my affinity for the brand, it's back on the list.]

Day 3: The web: Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac

Now that I have my list of brands, it's time to do a little prework to narrow the list a little further and inform myself before I head to the dealer so I can get the right car and the best deal. I figured that I'd start my search with the brands' web sites to get a sense of packages, options, and what the sticker price would be a car configured the way I want.

After looking at the websites of these four contenders, one thing is becoming crystal clear. This decision will not be made by a comparison of features. Every brand offers performance packages, leather clad interiors, sunroofs, advanced electronics and more. Nobody has something the other guy doesn't. Thus, the goal of any website should be to get me in the dealership and behind the wheel. What's going to do that? It starts by making the process easy. 

Surprisingly, not all of these brands accomplish that.

• The Acura, Audi and BMW all put "starting at" prices right up front. Helpful, but not the whole story. 
• BMW annoyed me right off the bat by playing a commercial for the 3-series and making it really hard to find the button that controls the sound.
• The Cadillac website is gorgeous but very difficult to use. All the flash panels mean pages load slowly. I want this process to be efficient and they're not helping. 
• Like the cars, all web sites have the same features: model overviews, configurators, pricing generators, dealer locators...

I configured the TSX, A4, 3-series and CTS the way I wanted, got a relative sense of pricing and equipment. But I still don't really have a feel for the cars. Actually, I'm finding this part of the process frustrating and need to find information that will help me make my decision.

This is not helping to cut the list down from my 13 brands. Tomorrow, on top of the manufacturers sites, I'm going to look for independent information and critiques to help narrow this list from 13 to six or so.