Dealers are recording huge increases in online sales through a combination of their own websites and stock locator sites, according to AutoLocate.

But it warns that dealers need to understand internet terminology to prevent being hoodwinked by web service providers.

Steve Ricketts, AutoLocate internet sales expert, said: "It is all too easy for some unscrupulous dotcom salesperson to impress a dealer by suggesting a million hits on their site leads to big profit opportunities. The reality is that success on the web relies on real human traffic to your site."

A frequent measure of web usage open to abuse is site 'hits'. This refers to access made by visitors to different parts of a single web page. If, for example, a visitor accesses a web page where there are 10 pictures and five links, this translates into 15 hits.

"In a business like ours one could truthfully claim millions of extra hits every week simply by redesigning our website and those of our dealer clients," said Mr Ricketts. He suggests 'user sessions' is a more accurate measure of site traffic as one session means someone browsing one or more pages.