Discussions on car related material are everywhere on the internet. Marketers working for car manufacturers should never have a problem finding someone critiquing their product. There are whole forums dedicated to different kinds of cars. Many of these forum members even meet up in real life once in a while.
The value marketers can receive from these discussion boards, if used correctly, is greater then any other source. The downside to many of these discussions is that there may be a strong bias. For example, in many Japanese car related forums, there is strong dislike towards American made cars. The opposite is also true on American car forums.
Below is an example from a local car forum where a user is contributing to a thread where the discussion is about buying either a Mazda 3 or a Ford Focus
Marketers can get a great deal of information from posts like these. From the above post, marketers at Mazda will know if they are properly competing with the Ford Focus. It will also tell Ford marketers on what they can do to match the level of popularity of the Mazda 3. This kind of information can come from primary research but could take months before finding any valuable insight.