Priceline.com, AutoNation team up to offer online car-buying service.

In a sign that consolidation is coming to the online car-buying industry, Priceline.com Inc. and AutoNation Inc. are teaming up to offer Priceline_s "name your own price" Internet car-buying service. Under the marketing agreement, consumers_ bids for cars that come through Priceline.com will be offered to AutoNation dealers first. If no AutoNation dealer can meet the customer_s bid, it will go to other dealers. The service, which would be in addition to AutoNation_s existing Internet car-buying service, is being offered initially in Florida_s Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg markets. The companies plan to expand the venture as soon as Priceline.com adds more cities to its Internet car-buying service. Until now, Priceline has only offered the service - in which consumers name a price for their car and a dealer accepts it - in the New York metropolitan area. But the Stamford, Conn., company recently announced it was going national with its car-buying service and hired auto analyst Maryann Keller as president of its auto unit. The companies_ venture illustrates how competitive online car-buying has become as more shoppers head to the Internet. Consulting firm J.D. Power & Associates estimates 40% of new-vehicle buyers use the Internet in some way to shop for a car this year, up from 25% in 1998. Indeed, competition might be propelling AutoNation and Priceline into a tricky marriage, said a critic of the agreement. Dozens of car-shopping sites are fighting to capture those shoppers.