New Tool Helps Figure Pre Owned Cars’ Worth
[from NY Times article by Jennifer Saranow Schultz]
If you’re in the market for a preowned car or want to sell your preowned car, you may want to check out a new free tool from TrueCar Inc. called ClearBook.com.
TrueCar is similar to a site called WorthMonkey; both help consumers figure out how to price preowned items. It combs millions of preowned car listings on the Web and analyzes that data to provide consumers with an indication of how much a particular preowned vehicle (down to the year, make, model, mileage and condition) is worth.
Scott Painter, founder and chief executive of TrueCar, said that what set ClearBook.com apart from competitive tools from sites like KelleyBlueBook.com and Edmunds.com was that the data presented did not involve any editorial guidance and was completely objective market data.
According to Mr. Painter, future versions of the tool will also incorporate actual transaction prices and wholesale prices of the vehicle to provide a broader price context for the user. TrueCar hopes the new tool will help it create a robust database of pricing information that will ultimately help it release a trade-in service for consumers down the road.