Transaction Prices Remain Flat While Incentives Decline According to TrueCar.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- TrueCar.com, the authority on new car pricing, trends and forecasts, estimated today that the average transaction price for light vehicles in the United States was $29,334 in March 2011, down $4 (flat) from March 2010 and up $267 (0.9 percent) from February 2011.

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"The actual and perceived supply chain problems enabled automakers to lower incentive spending in March with the trend expected to continue into April," said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry Trends and Insights for TrueCar.com. "The Japanese automakers will see a dramatic reduction in incentive spending in the coming months with an increase in transaction price."

Transaction Pricing Forecast

Manufacturer	March 2011 Transaction Price	February 2011 Transaction Price	March 2010 Transaction Price	Percent Change March 2011 to March 2010	Percent Change March 2011 to February 2011
Chrysler	$28,587	$28,233	$27,935	2.3%	1.3%
Ford	$31,862	$31,677	$31,321	1.7%	0.6%
GM	$34,052	$32,866	$33,958	0.3%	3.6%
Honda	$24,788	$24,857	$24,744	0.2%	-0.3%
Hyundai/Kia	$19,076	$18,932	$18,930	0.8%	0.8%
Nissan	$27,245	$27,074	$27,156	0.3%	0.6%
Toyota	$25,408	$25,234</span>	$25,623	-0.8%	0.7%
Industry	$29,334	$29,067	$29,338	0.0%	0.9%

In addition, TrueCar.com estimated that the average incentive for light-vehicles was $2,432 in March 2011, down $366 (13.1 percent) from March 2010 and down $145 (5.6 percent) from February 2011.

"Hyundai continues to have remarkable improvement, leading the way with the lowest percentage of incentives to average transaction price," continued Toprak.  "Overall this month, due to improving consumer demand and lower supply, automakers were less reliant on incentives to move metal – a trend we expect to continue in the coming weeks."

Incentive Spending Forecast

TrueCar.com estimated that the ratio of incentives to average transaction price for light-vehicles was 8.3 percent in March 2011, down from 9.5 percent in March 2010 and down from 8.9 percent in February 2011.

Ratio of Incentives to Average Transaction Price

For additional data on incentives and transaction price, please visit the TrueCar Truth Blog.

About TrueCar, Inc.

TrueCar, Inc. is an automotive solutions provider focused on changing how cars are sold by providing a significantly better customer experience while helping qualified dealer partners to gain incremental market share and reduce costs.  TrueCar.com is a transparent, visual publisher of new car transaction data.  TrueCar.com price reports help both dealers and consumers to agree on the parameters of a fair deal by providing an accurate, comprehensive and simple understanding of what others actually paid for the identically equipped new car over the last 30 days both locally and nationally.  TrueCar, Inc. works with a national network of nearly 5,000 Certified Dealers that provide up-front, no-haggle, competitive pricing to assist some of the nation's largest and most well respected membership and service organizations to meet the auto buying needs of their members and customers.  These partnerships include American Express, AAA, USAA and more than 60 others.  Collectively these audiences represent over 1M in-market customers each month.  TrueCar, Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA and has offices in San Francisco.  The company was founded in 2005 and has been profitable since 2009.  With nearly 200 percent year-over-year growth TrueCar has driven over 250,000 sales and is developing a suite of transaction oriented products and services centered on transparency and radical clarity as a result of comprehensively analyzing market data and information.

You can follow TrueCar on Twitter and become a fan of TrueCar on Facebook. 

About TrueCar Data

TrueCar obtains data directly from numerous sources including automotive dealers, technology companies, data aggregators, and analytics companies within the automotive space.   We also acquire vehicle configuration data, customer and dealer incentives data, financing and loan data, vehicle registration and insurance data, and much, much more.  TrueCar is insatiable about data with our goal to find 100% of all purchase transactions, even if that means finding the same transaction multiple times from multiple sources within the car-buying ecosystem.  Our data is among the most timely and comprehensive in the industry, as we are able to process most car sales within a week of the actual sales date, and have a substantial fraction on the site within 48 hours of the actual sale.  TrueCar believes the greater our informational accuracy, the greater benefit we provide to both dealers and consumers.

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein is for noncommercial use on "as-is, as available" basis and may be used for informational purposes only.  TrueCar makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information contained in this press release and the results of the use of such information, including but not limited to implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.  The information contained in this press release may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.  Neither TrueCar nor any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or respective partners, officers, or directors, employees or agents shall be held liable for any damages, whether direct, incidental, indirect, special or consequential, including without limitation lost revenues or lost profits, arising from or in connection with your use or reliance on the information presented in this press release.

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Jesse Toprak

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SOURCE TrueCar.com