22.1 Million Consumers Visited Carfax in 2001

    FAIRFAX, Va.--Jan. 2, 2002--CARFAX, pioneer of the vehicle history report, projects another record-breaking year for the company's consumer website, Carfax.com.
    Carfax.com, introduced to the consumer market in 1996, has experienced consistent growth since it's inception with a dramatic increase in traffic following a national advertising campaign launched in April 2000. Preliminary year-end totals for 2001 show a record-breaking 22.1 million visitors to www.carfax.com, and internal research suggests the numbers will continue to climb in 2002.
    "We are extremely pleased with those numbers, and the stories we received from our customers support them," says CARFAX president Dick Raines. Customers like Stephanie Casale, who used CARFAX to investigate a car she found online.
    "It was a 2000 Honda Civic SI--exactly what I was looking for--at a great price," starts her email to CARFAX. When she ran the vehicle identification number (VIN) through CARFAX, she learned the vehicle had been salvaged in another state. "It turns out that the entire car was welded together right down the middle," relates Casale. "Two cars that were write-offs--and the VIN belonged to the back half."
    The advertising campaign that helped bring CARFAX into the public eye proved extremely popular with consumers. "We kept getting requests for copies of the commercials," says Scott Fredericks, Marketing Vice President for CARFAX. "Finally, we decided to just make them available online for our visitors." Web-surfers can find the television ads at ads.Carfax.com.

    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 over 1.4 billion vehicle history records from hundreds of different sources in the CARFAX nationwide database at 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