DaimlerChrysler announced a new sales tool called the Electronic Sales System (ESS). The ESS allows salespeople at desktop computers to take customer specifications and combine them with factory information to create detailed price and fact sheets. From the DaimlerChrylser press release:

Car buyers who visit select Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep or Plymouth dealerships this spring can receive up-to the-minute pricing and product information for the car of their dreams with the help of a new selling tool developed by DaimlerChrysler Corporation.

Called Electronic Sales System, or ESS, the computer tool allows salespeople at desktop computers to take customer specifications and combine them with factory information to create detailed price and fact sheets.

``ESS eliminates the 'back room' in dealerships,'' said John MacDonald, Senior Vice President of Sales and Service for DaimlerChrysler Corporation, ``transforming the price negotiation process from one that has in the past been clouded in mystery to a straightforward, face-to-face transaction designed to inspire confidence in both the car buyer and the seller. It's also the latest in a series of comprehensive technological tools with which we plan to arm our dealers -- all designed to make car buying that much more enjoyable for consumers.''

ESS is being piloted in a half-dozen dealerships during the first half of the year; a national roll-out date has yet to be determined.

View the entire press release.