These days, nobody blinks at the thought of ordering a book from Amazon or buying music from iTunes. But what about buying a car online? Is this a smart move? What are the advantages of buying a vehicle online as opposed to getting it straight from a dealership?

The most obvious benefit of buying a car online is that you don't have to deal with any sales pressure tactics. Car salespeople are trained to get as much money out of their customers as possible, and they are also trained to pressure you into buying a car before you leave the dealership. You can avoid most of this haggling when you do your car shopping online.

Another benefit is that cars sold online tend to be much cheaper. In fact, care salesmen usually can't beat the price tags that are available online. Better yet, you can often get the car delivered straight to your driveway.

You'll need to do your homework first, of course. Not only should you read online reviews of the car you're interested in, you should also take a test drive to make sure you really love it. Test driving is not something you can do online, unfortunately.

Before heading over to the nearest car dealership to test drive your dream car, print out two quotes from websites that sell the car you want. Take the quotes with you. After test driving the car, see if the dealership can match or beat the price. If they can't, you'll still have gotten to test drive the car, and you can now order the car online. There are different places where you can buy your car online, but CarsDirect.com, MyRide.com, and Edmunds.com are all good options.