Comments on: TC50: TrueCar May Keep Car Dealers More Honest

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:45:31 +0000

While I think this info is useful, I still can’t really find out where they get their data from. Who is actually collecting/reporting this data? If it’s the dealers, could they skew the numbers?

By: Techeroid » TrueCar Shifts Into Gear, Lets You Check If Your Neighbors Got That Mercedes At A Better Price

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:10:28 +0000

[...] is quite impressive and a high enough percentage for comparisons to be made, although we noted in our coverage from the TC50 event that the company was going to try and hold off from launching publicly when they actually reached [...]

By: TrueCar Shifts Into Gear, Lets You Check If Your Neighbors Got That Mercedes At A Better Price

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:59:56 +0000

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:21:51 +0000

Yet another fa bolus website http://www.nort...torgroup.com.au where you can get the latest news and views about new and old cars.

By: Used Car Dealers Ottawa

Used Car Dealers Ottawa — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:21:26 +0000

I guess you really have to treat these car pricing sites’ results as a guideline.

Neil

By: Gregg

Gregg — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:22:44 +0000

Jared,

the funny thing is the Overstock Car Buying service you linked to is run by Zag (the company that spun off TrueCar). Zag is simply licensing their product to Overstock.

By: Auto,Business,Uncategorized | Leaders & Success — Recycle Email

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:57:25 +0000

[...] Comment on TC50: TrueCar May Keep Car Dealers More Honest by Jared R By Jared R You get the dealer’s lowest prices. Why not get the actual dealers price? I don’t know what historical prices are going to get you. I used this. not the best dealer experience, but the price was super low (I got a new Camry). … Comments for TechCrunch – http://www.techcrunch.com [...]

By: Jared R

Jared R — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:49:01 +0000

The real interesting site is http://cars.overstock.com these guys really have it right. You get the dealer’s lowest prices. Why not get the actual dealers price? I don’t know what historical prices are going to get you. I used this. not the best dealer experience, but the price was super low (I got a new Camry). And after looking at Truecar, it was a Great price. Phew.

By: sean

sean — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:24:10 +0000

check out http://www.disc...tnewcars.com.au it gives the consumer the disounts they want and actually negotiates for the conusumer by way of competition

By: Melissa S

Melissa S — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:14:04 +0000

I like this idea – expose actual data and let the consumer decide. It’s not cluttered with a bunch of ad crap. Why do people believe KBB or Edmunds are good data sources? Everybody knows Kelley is always inflated for the dealer. You ALWAYS beat the kelley prices. I like the idea of real data – it just remains to be seen if this is for real… it seems too good to be true. A lot like Zillow when it came out.

By: Stefan T

Stefan T — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:38:19 +0000

Ummm… I don’t think it is scraped data. It actually shows the number of transactions of buyers. Take a look at the actual data. The data is interesting. They will have one heck of a time trying to get over consumers perceptions that KBB is not a good depiction of pricing, but this is exactly what consumers want. The problem is it shows people what idiots they are for overpaying. It will have many people love and hate it. The truth can be a b*itch!

By: Auto,Business,Finance,Personal,Uncategorized | Car finance with Mr Money — Recycle Email

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:01:46 +0000

[...] TC50: TrueCar May Keep Car Dealers More Honest … they buy – information that sellers don’t necessarily want them to have. In TrueCar’s case, that information is simple yet elusive: just how much you should pay for a new car. TrueCar aggregates data from a variety of (mostly … TechCrunch – http://www.techcrunch.com [...]

By: Find out how much others are paying for a new car » Enscriber

Find out how much others are paying for a new car » Enscriber — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:28:41 +0000

[...] TRUECAR [via TechCrunch] [...]

By: sam

sam — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:07:53 +0000

steven – good point about car dealers. they may never accept a printout from a site, but the nice thing is that a customer can go to another dealer (at least for new cars). if the dealer wants the business, they’ll have to be competitive on price. educated consumers have the power here. for used cars, it can be a different story, which i think makes it even more valuable to get some real car selling prices… mileage, condition, etc… can really affect a car’s value. more importantly, this is where car dealers make their money – the used car lot.

By: Gregg

Gregg — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:47:36 +0000

RealCarTips.com also provides actual prices from real car buyers. In addition to the price, it ranks each buyer compared to other buyers of the same make and model, so you can see whether they got a good deal or not. Buyers also submit comments and tips on what they did to get a good deal.

http://www.realcartips.com

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:45:24 +0000

As others have noted, data like this has been available elsewhere for quite some time, but I do believe that there is a core group of consumers looking to buy a new vehicle that will “do their homework” and be as prepared as possible to negotiate and get the best price they can. TrueCar will be added to the bookmark list that already includes Edmunds, KBB, CarsDirect.com and brand-specific enthusiast sites.

But, in the end, what is the true value or differentiation to this data for the other 80% (my estimate) of the people that go into a dealership and get wowed into a buying a vehicle by a talented salesman and F&I guy. No dealership I am aware of will accept a printout from any site and honor a third party price estimate found on the Internet.

By: Calan

Calan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:51:55 +0000

@Steven – Good point.

Also, it would seem like a concept that could backfire. Once the word spreads about which dealerships will offer good rates on a specific car, other dealers would all have to match it, meaning they’ll set more rigid guidelines for offering deals and you won’t get the value going forward.

Dealers could use the platform as a guide and could use it to push deals up, rather than down.

By: andy

andy — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:25:52 +0000

Kelley Blue Book has been doing this well in the US since 1918, and they cover used and new cars, and private/dealer sales. Remember that the mass-produced car was invented here. Nice try though.

By: steven

steven — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:30:07 +0000

Knowing the price of what people have paid for a car is short-sighted.

Most car buyers are financed. So the key is knowing your interest rate for your credit rating. Dealers make more money on financing and insurance.

So great, you know the price of the vehicle others paid, but how much are you paying in F&I?

By: sam

sam — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:24:13 +0000

i use another car site that has actual selling prices for cars, not the re-purposed dealer estimates on truecar.

http://www.pric...om/price/BMW/X5

i am looking to buy a X5 and was happy to see that pricehub has real data – the data comes from other consumers.

By: Pavan K

Pavan K — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:29:46 +0000

Sounds great, but traders in the UK pay for the Glass’s (spelling?) guide, and would swear by it. Would be brilliant to see these guys disrupt that market.

By: Kevin K.

Kevin K. — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:58:47 +0000

(linkback) Thrive or Fail? TrueCar- Tells you how much people have paid for the car you want [VOTE] – http://www.thri...rfail.com/c6016

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:01:49 +0000

well, it’s an aggregator – so what do you expect?

By: Andrew Ofstad

Andrew Ofstad — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:42:22 +0000

What a total crock of shit. I feel like they just scraped edmunds or some other legitimate provider of real content. This proves how worthless and totally irrelevant the TechCrunch 50 is.

By: Mike S.

Mike S. — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:13:41 +0000

i just used their site and it seems like the data is exactly the same as KBB and Edmunds.com. they claim to have actual sales data, but all of their stuff is a bunch of estimates, just like KBB. they make a big promise, but ultimately, they are just re-displaying info that is already out there. i can’t believe they got $2.5M to regurgitate existing information. much of that existing info favors car dealers too.