CarsDirect.com Wins Fifth Consecutive Award for Best Car Buying Web Site; CarsDirect.com Continues to Dominate Gomez Internet Car Buying Scorecard

    LOS ANGELES--Feb. 6, 2001--CarsDirect.com, the leading direct online automotive provider, today announced it has been awarded top honors for the fifth consecutive quarter from Gomez Inc., the Internet quality measurement firm.
    The company was awarded the number one overall ranking for new car buying sites on the Internet for Winter 2000. Additionally, CarsDirect.com just announced it has agreed to acquire the site that ranked second on the Gomez Scorecard(TM), Greenlight.com.
    The combination of these two market leaders will ensure the continuation of superior customer service and guaranteed low prices, all under one market leading brand, CarsDirect.com.
    CarsDirect.com received recognition from Gomez for delivering a Web site that is easy to use in all phases of the buying process, from research through financing. The company received high marks in the Customer Confidence and On-Site Resources categories due to timely and accurate customer service, depth of content and intuitive products and tools that are conveniently located on the site.
    "It is an honor to have the leader in Internet quality measurement recognize both CarsDirect.com and Greenlight.com for our dedication to excellence," said Bob Brisco, chief executive officer, CarsDirect.com. "As the largest multi-brand online car buying service, we strive to be the industry benchmark for customer satisfaction, technological innovation and low prices. This recognition from Gomez reaffirms our commitment."
    Available for review at www.gomez.com, the Winter 2000 Internet Car Buying Scorecard evaluates the customer's online experience according to the following categories: ease of use, customer confidence, on-site resources and relationship services. The Scorecard can also be viewed by overall score and by customer profiles: Short-Term Intenders and Long-Term Intenders.
    Each site was evaluated against more than 150 criteria that define the online car buying experience. Gomez experts determine whether a site meets specific criteria via various data collection methods, including: direct examination of the site; performance monitoring of secure and non-secure pages; customer service interaction over the telephone and through the Internet; and supplemental questionnaires completed by the individual companies.

    About CarsDirect.com

    Los Angeles-based CarsDirect.com is the leading multi-brand online car buying service, providing new automobiles and related products and services, such as loan and lease financing and in-demand aftermarket products including extended warranties.
    As the pioneer of the direct online car buying model, CarsDirect.com offers upfront pricing to consumers who can research, price, order, purchase, insure and finance a vehicle online via an intuitive Web site that offers product information for nearly every make, model and style of new automobile available in the United States today. Shoppers can also simultaneously compare the specifications of competing vehicles.
    CarsDirect.com has received top awards and honors from Forbes Magazine, PC Computing, PC World, Time Digital, Yahoo! Internet Life and e-commerce authority Gomez. The company is funded by idealab!, idealab Capital Partners, UnitedAuto Group/Penske Automotive Group, Primedia Ventures, Foundation Capital, MSD Capital LP, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Hambrecht & Quist, E*O Investors LLC, Oracle Corp., Liberty Digital, TMCT Ventures L.P., Hikari Tsushin and Soros Private Equity Partners LLC.