"Non-Profit" Consumer Reports Forms Joint Sales And Marketing Agreement With CarFax

Here is the complete press release ...make up your own mind to determine if this crosses the non-profit line.

WASHINGTON and YONKERS, N.Y., April 30 -- Used-car shoppers can reap benefits from the new alliance between ConsumerReports.org -- consumers' trusted source of unbiased ratings, reliability data, and auto price information -- and CARFAX. CARFAX's Vehicle History Reports reveal important background information and unearth hidden problems in a vehicle's past that may affect its safety and resale value.

ConsumerReports.org and CARFAX today announced a content distribution agreement that will afford all CARFAX visitors the opportunity to access a wide variety of free Consumer Reports used-car buying advice and information. Additionally, visitors to CARFAX can order subscriptions to http://www.ConsumerReports.org, whose ratings are based on extensive expert testing of a model's performance; its reliability data is based on repair experience reports from thousands of CR subscribers surveyed each year.

Visitors to CARFAX may also order CARFAX Vehicle History Reports, which can reveal whether a specific vehicle has been totaled in an accident and salvaged, or whether it has been subject to flood damage, odometer rollbacks, lemon histories, junked titles, state emissions inspection results, lien activity and/or vehicle use as a taxi, rental car, or lease.

"This arrangement enables CARFAX to provide its visitors with a full picture; trusted, unbiased automotive information that can help consumers make better decisions, as well as detailed vehicle histories," said CARFAX Vice President, Scott Fredericks. "We're pleased to be able to present visitors to CARFAX with an exhaustive, one-stop source for locating car-buying information on the Web."

Consumer Reports will be prominently featured on the CARFAX.com Web site. For example, some of the free articles available offer information on rebuilt wrecks on the road, how to select a teen's first car, best and worst used cars, truck options, and determining the right price, among other topics. Users who click on the Consumer Reports link will be taken to a co-branded Web page developed by both Consumer Reports and CARFAX.

"This alliance with CARFAX enables Consumer Reports to reach perhaps the largest used-car purchasing audience on the Web, and to better assist consumers in making their purchasing decision," said John Sateja, Vice President, Multimedia Publishing at Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of ConsumerReports.org and Consumer Reports magazine. "The complementary information provided by Consumer Reports.org and CARFAX gives potential used-car purchasers a complete picture on which to base their buying decision."

Consumer Reports is one of the most trusted sources for information and advice on consumer products and services. Its editors have decades of experience in driving, testing, and reporting on cars. Their work is based on the testing and expertise of the Consumer Reports Auto Test Division, which has evaluated autos on the test track and on public roads for more than 50 years; and on the analysis of reliability data by Consumer Reports Survey Research Division, which gathers auto repair information from hundreds of thousands of Consumer Reports subscribers each year.

Under the terms of the agreement, ConsumerReports.org and CARFAX will share revenue from all ConsumerReports.org subscriptions and Used Car Price Service reports sold through the new relationship.

For additional information on used car buying advice, Consumer Reports offers a selection of publications available for purchase at http://www.ConsumerReports.org/auto

About Consumer Reports

ConsumerReports.org is the fastest-growing Web site of its kind, with more than 850,000 paid subscribers. All site visitors have free access to helpful advice, safety alerts, recalls, e-Ratings of online commerce sites, and much more. Site subscribers receive unbiased product ratings and service recommendations, access to the latest issue of Consumer Reports and four years of past reports, exclusive reliability reports, message boards and more. Consumer Reports printed magazine and other information products are also available through the ConsumerReports.org Web site. ConsumerReports.org does not accept advertising, and has no ties to the manufacturers whose products and services it tests and rates.

There are two types of subscriptions to ConsumerReports.org: an annual subscription for $24 (current subscribers to the magazine can join for $19 per year), or a monthly subscription for $3.95.

About CARFAX

Founded in 1984, CARFAX pioneered the concept of the vehicle history report -- the instant background check on any used car. CARFAX Vehicle History Reports can confirm a clean title history or identify serious problems with any used car, including salvage history, odometer fraud, flood damage and more. CARFAX helps millions of consumers and thousands of car dealers avoid buying used cars with costly hidden problems. Using the 17-character Vehicle ID Number (VIN), used car buyers can access nearly 2-billion unique vehicle history records from hundreds of different sources in the CARFAX nationwide database at http://www.carfax.com. Every CARFAX Report that confirms a clean title history is backed by the $5,000 Clean Title History Guarantee. CARFAX, Inc., based in Fairfax, Virginia, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the R.L. Polk & Co.

Consumer Reports® is published by Consumers Union, an independent, nonprofit testing and information-gathering organization, serving only the consumer. We are a comprehensive source of unbiased advice about products and services, personal finance, health, nutrition, and other consumer concerns. Since 1936, our mission has been to test products, inform the public, and protect consumers.