Tuesday, February 26, 2013
TrueCar Dealer Sales Pass 700,000 Vehicles
In a sign of how large of an effect Santa Monica-based TrueCar has had on the automotive industry, the company said Tuesday afternoon that its dealer partners have just surpassed 700,000 new and used vehicles sold using its sites. TrueCar--which offers up automotive pricing information and automotive configuration and quoting software--said the sales came from more than 5,500 dealer partners. TrueCar's website allows consumers to get pricing on specific configuration options for new cars, using real market data to provide accurate information on what vehicles have been selling for. The firm's back end software is used to power the no-hassle, automobile purchasing programs from American Express, Yahoo Autos, AAA, USAA and Consumer Reports, among others.
According to TrueCar, its 700,000th vehicle sold was a new 2013 Mazda CX-5 purchase in Elgin, Illinois, using GEICO Car Buying Service, powered by TrueCar. TrueCar's data from those purchasing programs fuel the data it uses on its consumer facing website. TrueCar had announced it 500,000th vehicle in March of 2012.
TrueCar has gained the attention of the auto industry for having a huge influence on the pricing of local auto dealers, due to its transparency of local sales; the firm has run up against those dealers in the past, including running into attempts to regulate the firm from dealers unhappy with the loss of margin that pricing has provided. However, the firm launched into an active dealer outreach last year to address those issues.