New-car buyers gather product information from newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and the Internet. But two studies show most consumers keep a dealership visit part of their decision making.

"Use of the Internet in the process has increased dramatically, but the dealership is still [a] key source relied on by consumers," Maury Giles, a senior researcher for Wirthlin Worldwide, a research and consulting firm, told the Automotive Press Association.

Consumers say the dealership experience is the same or better than it was five years ago. Car-buyers using the Internet said they found information on price, options and colors and

comparisons of makes and models the most useful.

Manufacturer and general information sites were visited more often than those of brokers

or dealers, according to the survey.

The Wirthlin telephone survey was conducted with 2,000 adults late last year. It, and a summertime 2000 survey by the Gallup

Organization of 1,003 car buyers, were commissioned by Automotive Retailing Today, a McLean, Va., coalition of dealer organizations and manufacturers.