Is the internet always the best place to look for a bargain? A massive amount of time can be wasted hunting for a good buy.

As the internet has become more accessible, lots more people are going after the same bargains and many e-commerce web sites are not being updated as often as they should be.

This week's saga started when I said goodbye to my trusty old fishing van and started looking for an inexpensive second-hand 4x4 replacement.

My internet search revealed a mass of 4x4 car adverts but there were very few vendors in Sussex apart from those on www.click-cars.co.uk and www.fish4.co.uk, both of which offer a wide range of cars. Unfortunately, all the vehicles I was interested in had already been sold.

This is becoming a common story. With thousands of people cruising the web every day looking to snap up a bargain motor, the chances of finding your dream machine are few and far between.

The situation is made almost impossible by dealers failing to update their web sites as vehicles are sold and the punter wastes a lot of time chasing rainbows.

It appears to be a direct echo of the property web sites I looked at a few weeks ago when I found very little actually on sale.

According to most of the online motor dealers I emailed and spoke to this week, there is nothing much that can or will be done. One or two were very surprised at the situation, a few were mildly apologetic and promised to make a bigger effort to keep their web sites up to date but others were dismissive and said they only bothered updating their web sites when they got bored or had a quiet day.

I was told, clearly and often, that if I wanted to know what they had in stock I should buy The Argus and look in the Motoring section.

The fact is the majority of e-commerce web sites are full of out-of-date information. The time it takes to update a web site is wasted in the eyes of many vendors who should probably know better.

This dilatory attitude is leading to a situation where the public will simply not trust the internet enough to spend valuable time looking to purchase online and it will be the vendors that suffer.

Before we dismiss all motor trader web site owners as idle layabouts and condemn their sites out of hand, I should point out that there are some that offer an excellent service.

The sites appear to be updated regularly and offer a good range of available cars.

I would be happy to hear from local motor traders who do take a pride in their web sites and would be pleased to mention them in future issues of Evolution.

If we get enough response, it could be worth a special feature. Over to you, motor traders.