How Do You Kick The Tires?

He’s no computer zealot. To John Fitzpatrick, a PC is like a book, a library, a record. Another information tool.

But he’s become one of the pioneers on the information superhighway. He bought a car there.

Lynnwood, Wash., Nissan-Volvo dealer Martin Rood believes Fitzpatrick and the 70 other people who have bought new vehicles after shopping his lot on the Internet are the car consumers of the future.

“Right now we’re selling maybe 2 or 3 percent of our cars this way,” Rood said. “I think that number will go to 20 or 25 percent in the next two or three years.

“We’re working 42 people right now.”

From a suburban Seattle base, Rood has created “DealerNet, The Virtual Showroom,” on the World Wide Web, a place on the Internet where words, pictures, sounds and video can fill a computer user’s screen at the click of a mouse button.

His Dealer Internet Services Corp. has signed up 49 car dealers in Washington, Oregon and California.