In the last year alone, five auto-related Web operations went under and two others were bought by rivals. Shutting down this year were

CarOrder.com, iMotors.com, OpenAuto.com, DreamLot.com, DriveOff.com and CarClub.com.

But the survivors say this shakeout among car-sale sites puts them in the fast lane.

By 2006, sales of cars on the Web in the U.S. will amount to nearly 10 percent of new-car sales, up from 0.2 percent last year, according to Jupiter Media Metrix Inc., a New York-based Web research firm.

Consumers save an average of 2 percent off the price of a new car by buying online, according to a year-old study by the University of California at Berkeley and Yale University. Wrong, says Art Spinella of CNW Marketing/Research Inc., a Bandon, Ore.-based researcher. Consumers pay three percent to four percent more for a car bought online vs. at a

dealership, Spinella says. "The cheapest prices come from local dealers. When you threaten to walk out, you'll beat any online prices," he said.

Even Bob Brisco, CEO of CarsDirect.com, agrees. But Brisco says price isn't the sole reason for online car shopping.

About $375 billion worth of new cars will be sold in the U.S. this year, according to CNW. "The Net will account for barely one percent of that," Spinella said.