But what if putting some distance between you and your front door was the difference between saving hundreds of dollars on your next car, and not saving?

That's the impetus behind Consumer Reports' new survey, collected from more than 1,700 interviews with members of households owning at least one car. That is, the Internet makes a more wide-ranging and easily comparable search for auto deals possible, but you still have to pick the thing up. So how far would people go to get the best deal?

The answers were surprising in their scope, as well as their disparity. For example, the percentage of respondents willing to drive more than 100 miles to get a car was far more, at close to 15 percent, than those not even willing to get to half that mark (less than 5 percent). And while those willing to drive 50 to 55 miles represented by far the highest percentage of respondents, those willing to drive 125 to 149 miles for a deal were almost nonexistent, while those willing to break the 200-mile barrier for a good deal almost hit one-tenth the number of respondents.

As for me, I'd obviously be willing to drive a lot farther the better the deal got. I could easily drive 75 miles for several hundred bucks, and if I could save a few thousand, I could match the 3 1/2- to 4-hour Massachusetts to New York City route (one that I've driven dozens of times anyway), which runs a bit over 200 miles, easy.