TrueCar, Inc. Names Jim O’Brien as EVP and GM of ClearBook

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 9, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- TrueCar, Inc., announced today at the Certified Pre-Owned Conference (CPO) that auto industry veteran, Jim O'Brien, has been named Executive Vice President and General Manager of ClearBook, the innovative used car pricing guide, available online at no-cost. O'Brien will work directly with TrueCar, Inc.'s Founder and CEO, Scott Painter, to bring transparency to used car pricing guides and to make ClearBook the leading used car valuation tool for U.S. consumers. O'Brien will oversee all aspects of operations, including business development, dealer relationships, product development, technology, analytics and marketing.

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"I've spent the majority of my career in the used car industry. ClearBook is a fresh and innovative alternative to the widely used, but subjective and non-transparent consumer pricing guides," said O'Brien. "I'm excited about bringing transparency to the used vehicle pricing challenge that all consumers face at some time or another."

O'Brien brings more than 15 years of expertise in executive management, strategic leadership, information technology and operations in the used vehicle retail and wholesale markets. Prior to joining TrueCar, O'Brien served as Vice President of Dealer Sales and Auction Operations at OPENLANE, and was Co-Founder and President of LaneLogic. Previously, he was National Director of Used Vehicle Strategy at Sonic Automotive, Inc., and Director of Used Vehicles at AutoNation, Inc.—two of America's largest publicly held auto retailers. Additionally, O'Brien held positions at The Cobalt Group, iMotors.com, A.T. Kearney and Toyota Motor Sales, USA.

TrueCar.com customers, and its more than 50 Zag partner sites, will use ClearBook to evaluate a given car's asking price in a given market, and in turn, to evaluate the fairness of a dealer's trade-in offer.

"TrueCar.com and Zag have proven the value of fair upfront pricing on new cars to both the consumer and dealer. This same approach applied in the used car and trade-in market offers a win-win to all," added O'Brien. "Over time, ClearBook's used car know-how, and its transparent analytics supports a cash offer for your trade service, which we will deliver to our customers over the Internet," concluded O'Brien.  

O'Brien is representing ClearBook and TrueCar, Inc. at today's Certified Pre-Owned Conference panel on Certified Pre-Owned Pricing Trends and Forecasting, and will be a featured speaker on used car prices alongside representatives from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), BlackBook and Kelley Blue Book (KBB).

"Buying a used car can be just as overwhelming, time consuming and frustrating as buying a new car, maybe even more so with so much subjectivity around the asking price and condition of the vehicle," said Painter.

ClearBook will eliminate the subjectivity around used car pricing, by first aggregating and presenting actual used car listing data to give an accurate measurement of the market, and next, by measuring the statistical difference between the car's asking price and the actual selling price. Accurate data on used car asking and selling prices will create realistic expectations of buyers and sellers, leading to faster turns and ultimately a better car buying and selling experience. The visual presentation of the data will be similar to TrueCar's new car pricing distribution curve.

"ClearBook is another step in TrueCar, Inc.'s mission to make car buying easier and more transparent for consumers," added Painter. "Jim's used car expertise and extensive management background will help ClearBook become an impactful business right out-of-the-gate. We're very excited to have him on the team."

About TrueCar

TrueCar is the authority in new car prices.  We show car buyers and car dealers how much people actually paid for a particular car in a specific local area.  With TrueCar pricing, both new car buyers and new car dealers can know at any time what is considered a good or great price on a new car. Consumers no longer need to walk into a dealership partially informed and fully suspicious – using TrueCar they walk in knowing the price of a fair deal. Dealers benefit by TrueCar's real-time, unbiased information about marketplace pricing, helping them price cars for increased sales, and ultimately gaining market share over other dealers.  Our innovative new car pricing service is offered free of charge on our website at www.truecar.com, on our mobile site at mobile.truecar.com, and via syndication of our tools and pricing data to leading automotive research sites throughout the web.

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 percent 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.  TrueCar believes the greater our informational accuracy, the greater benefit we provide to both dealers and consumers.

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Scott Painter

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SOURCE TrueCar, Inc.