‘I’ll take a duvet, a digital camera, and a 2006 Buick Lucerne’

A website I think of for photography and home furnishings has jumped into the new and used car business. Overstock.com, an online "closeout" retailer offering discount, brand-name merchandise for sale over the Internet, is selling cars. It shows you how desperate companies are to get a piece of the used car market. Annually, more than 40 million used cars are sold, which is why it’s such an appealing place to be.

The system is powered by Zag, which coincidentally released a report the day before the site went live saying “The auto market is approaching a significant crossroads where dealers may soon have to accept upfront pricing.” And, now it’s part of an upfront pricing site.

The Overstock.com used car page is a little clunky. The first window only lets you put in the make you’re looking for and nothing else. You can winnow down your choices when you get to the second window. It’s an unnecessary step that good sites eliminate. As best as I could tell in my search on Buick Enclaves, it’s not possible to further narrow your choices by year. Only one of 17 models listed had mileage info.

Time will tell how Overstock.com fares in the car business. To succeed it’s going to have to overcome its bulky system.