vAuto and Carfax Expand Partnership

NEW ORLEANS January 26, 2009: Auto industry information technology leaders vAuto and Carfax have announced plans to expand their existing partnership.

Company officials said the new effort will greatly enhance a used-car dealer’s ability to access vehicle-history information. Carfax subscribing dealers who use vAuto will now have access to Carfax 1-Owner information to help them competitively value and market these much sought after vehicles.

“Used-car shoppers more than ever are demanding value in this current market,” said Larry Gamache, communications director for Carfax. “Our partnership with vAuto allows used-car dealers to aggressively price their inventory at acquisition and turn higher profit vehicles in a considerably shorter time.”

The joint program was announced at the annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention and Exposition at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center (Jan. 24-27).

Carfax information will be made available to subscribing dealers through vAuto’s inventory-management programs. The enhanced features will be automatically updated through this agreement to ease dealer usability.

“With this expanded relationship, vAuto once again advances its state-of-the-art approach to how vehicles are priced for fast turn and high gross,” said Keith Jezek, vAuto’s president and CEO. “It is not enough to just compare vehicles based on their physical characteristics such as year, make, model, trim and specific equipment level. Dealers that have vehicles which have clean titles and/or are Carfax 1-Owner vehicles must be able to price these against other vehicles with comparable attributes.”

“A previous study released in December between vAuto and Carfax showed dealers consistently price Carfax 1-Owner cars an average of $1,000 more than cars without the Carfax 1-Owner designation,” noted Jezek. “Used car buyers clearly prefer vehicles that have had only one previous owner.”