I am sure that others have shopped around for an Auto Loan before as well, but the experience that I had recently was a complete pain when I was trying to deal with the local lenders.
By going online and getting a loan from the online auto loan lenders I was able to comparison shop a lot quicker, plus see exactly who could offer me a great interest rate without having to drive around town and without having to complete numerous applications. This made it much easier and quicker for me to get a great deal and a really sweet ride.