CarsDirect.com Reports Record Traffic to Web Site; Greenlight.com Acquisition and Amazon.com Alliance Help Bring 1.4 Million Unique Users to Site During February 2001

    LOS ANGELES--April 5, 2001--CarsDirect.com, the leading direct online automotive provider, today announced that the company experienced record levels of traffic in February, reaching 1.4 million unique users and reinforcing its role as the leading multi-brand online car-buying service. The record traffic is due in part to a new, exclusive partnership with Amazon.com and the recent acquisition of Greenlight.com, the fast-growing online car-buying service.
    The CarsDirect.com site also experienced the highest one-day traffic level in its history on Feb. 2, the day it became the new, exclusive preferred partner of Amazon.com, enabling the company to reach Amazon.com's 29 million experienced online shoppers. Traffic statistics are based on internal monitoring systems and supported by research data from netScore(TM), a joint product of Diameter Research and comScore Networks.
    "Thanks to CarsDirect.com's world-class technology team, the technology transition with Greenlight and integration with Amazon.com went very quickly, enabling us to experience brisk growth in traffic in February," said Bob Brisco, CEO, CarsDirect.com. "More customers than ever are coming to CarsDirect.com to experience our quick and easy car-buying experience and award-winning customer service."
    The traffic statistics are particularly impressive and build on last year's notable growth. In early 2000, CarsDirect.com recorded 400,000 users per month. By year end, traffic had peaked at approximately 1 million monthly users. The rapid increase to 1.4 million users represents the next step in the company's continuing expansion.

    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.
    In February 2001, CarsDirect.com acquired Greenlight.com, bringing four of the nation's largest automotive retailers -- UnitedAuto Group/Penske Automotive, Asbury Automotive, Hendrick Automotive Group and Sonic Automotive -- under one online brand and increasing the number of priority dealers in CarsDirect.com's network to 3,000. CarsDirect.com also became the exclusive preferred partner for Amazon.com, enhancing the online car-buying experience for Amazon's 29 million customers.
    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.