Cars.com today launched their Smart Target Price and 5-Year Ownership Costs, two new site features designed to prepare car shoppers for a new vehicle purchase. Smart Target Price goes beyond invoice or Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) to offer shoppers a realistic estimate of what they will pay for a new car based on current market factors. Total Cost of Ownership helps buyers to evaluate 5-year ownership costs by taking into account factors such as depreciation, fuel, insurance, opportunity cost, financing, maintenance, taxes and state fees, and repairs.
“Cars.com has expanded our new car shopping tools to arm visitors with more information to make smart buying decisions,” said Bill Swislow, Cars.com senior vice president of product. “Our new pricing tools provide shoppers with critical information to guide their final buying decisions and to help them negotiate a fair purchase price.”
Cars.com’s Smart Target Price is intended to help shoppers set a more realistic point for price negotiation than MSRP or invoice price alone. The Smart Target Price is calculated using a proprietary formula that takes into account a variety of market factors, including the vehicle’s invoice price, manufacturer’s suggested retail price, marketplace demand, availability and destination charge.
“There is typically a large difference between the invoice pricing and the manufacturer’s suggested price on new cars, which often leaves consumers wondering what a fair price would be for the car they are looking to buy,” said Bill Swislow. “The Cars.com’s Smart Target Price is a guide that will give shoppers more confidence in their buying decision.”
Smart Target Price and 5-Year Ownership Costs are powered by data from Vincentric, a leading automotive data compilation and analysis firm, headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
About Cars.com
Cars.com is the most comprehensive destination for those looking to buy or sell a new or used car. The site lists more than 2 million vehicles from 13,000 dealer customers, classified advertisers and private parties to offer the more than 8 million unique visitors who log on to the site each month the best selection of new and used cars online, as well as the content, tools and advice to support their shopping experience. Cars.com combines powerful inventory search tools and new-car configuration with pricing information, photo galleries, buying guides, side-by-side comparison tools, original editorial content and reviews to help millions of car shoppers connect with sellers each month.
Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC, (http://classifiedventures.com/), which is owned by leading media companies, including Belo (NYSE:BLC) , Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) , The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) , Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB) and The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO) .