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Biggest New Car Discounts - April TrueTrends Report


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SEE ALSO: 4 Steps To Becoming a Smarter Car Buyer

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 16, 2010; As the economy continues its recovery, deals are cropping up for consumers this spring and TrueCar's April TrueTrends Report helps consumers get the most car for their money in this buyers market. TrueCar.com, the leader in new car pricing data, forecasts the best deals available for the next 30 days, as automakers and dealers continue to offer deep discounts on many models to move inventory.

  
  The April 2010 TrueTrends Report includes the following highlights:

  --  The biggest discounts of the month on 2010 models by body type are
      forecasted as follows:

               Top 2010 Models by Body Type
   Body Type         2010 Models        % Below MSRP
  Sedan        Chevrolet Cobalt                    20%
  Sport
   Utility     Jeep Grand Cherokee                 19%
  Coupe        Ford Focus                          17%
  Pickup       Ford Ranger                         17%
  Convertible  Ford Mustang                        11%
  Van          Toyota Sienna                       11%
  Wagon        Hyundai Elantra Touring             10%

  --  2010 Models with the largest total incentives in order include:  BMW
      M6, Infiniti M45, Nissan Titan, Volvo XC70, and the Chevrolet
      Silverado 1500.
  --  Luxury manufacturers have really picked up steam in their efforts to
      move products, offering some of the best discounts and showing the top
      5 largest average price drop, month over month.
  --  US automakers continue to offer the highest discounts, holding four of
      the top five spots (Hyundai, at 11%, is the only non-American make on
      the list).  Ford (14%), Chevy, Chrysler and Mercury (all 11%) top the
      list, with the Chevy Cobalt (20%) topping the model list.
  --  The end of April is anticipated to be a really good time to buy a car,
      with several days offering a projected average discount over 6.5%. 
      TrueCar.com's projections show Monday, April 26th as the best day to
      buy a car and May 2nd as the worst day.

"The relative economic recovery we have seen so far this year has already started improving consumer demand for cars," said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry, Trends and Insights for TrueCar.com. "As demand increases - with the consumers who have postponed their car purchase for the last couple of years due to economic uncertainty - we expect prices to start stabilizing, most likely in the second half of the year. This means that the discounts we see a few months from now will probably not be as generous as those we have today. Bottom line: if you are in the market, buy now."

TrueCar Price Flex Score, Greatest Discounts and Days in Inventory

TrueCar uses several methods to identify the best new car deals of the month. Not only does TrueCar track vehicles with the greatest discounts, but the TrueCar Price Flex Score measures how elastic the transaction price is for a particular model. A high Flex Score means a possibility of a great swing (high or low) in the price, from MSRP, while a low Flex Score means the price is far less negotiable and that the transaction price range is much narrower. Consumers have the best chance of obtaining a discount with the most flexible scores.

           TrueCar Projections for April
             Most Flexible 2010 Models
   Body Type             Model           Score
   ---------             -----           -----
  Sedan        Hyundai Elantra             100
  Sport
   Utility     Mazda Tribute               100
  Wagon        Hyundai Elantra Touring      99
  Coupe        Honda Accord Coupe           98
  Pickup       Toyota Tacoma                93
  Convertible  Volvo C70                    91
  Van          Mazda MAZDA5                 88

The TrueTrends Report also tracks the Average Days in Inventory by make/model and body type. The longer a vehicle is in inventory, the more likely a dealer is willing to offer a discount. TrueTrends provides this Average Days in Inventory information to consumers, adding yet another layer of data beyond just the average prices so they can get the best deals possible.

          2010 Vehicles:  Longest Days in Inventory
     Rank         Make Model            Days in Inv
     ----         ----------            -----------
      1      Hyundai Sonata                          131
      2      Ford Mustang                             98
      3      BMW 535i                                 97
      4      Ford Transit Connect                     90
      5      Kia Forte                                88

SEE ALSO: 4 Steps To Becoming a Smarter Car Buyer

The April TrueTrends Report can be read in its entirety on the Truth Blog at TrueCar.com.

About TrueCar

TrueCar shows 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 car dealers, respected dealer management system (DMS) providers, and well-known data aggregators 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.