Chrome Offers Canadian Auto Retailers Two Vehicle Data Solution Suites

PORTLAND, Ore.--May 4, 2005--Chrome Systems Corporation, provider of data, configuration technology and commerce solutions for the automotive industry, now offers two complete suites of data products and services for the Canadian market. These two suites, which Chrome calls their Build-a-Car and Describe-a-Car solutions, serve up vehicle information in either Canadian English or Canadian French.

"We are very pleased to offer Canadian businesses access to our best-in-class vehicle data, in both French and English displays, and to package the data in a way that is most meaningful and useful to them," said Dave Mingle, president of Chrome Systems.

The Build-a-Car suite consists of Chrome's popular vehicle research tools, PC Carbook(R) and Chrome Carbook(R). PC Carbook(R) is used by multiple sales departments inside a dealership, including new car, used car, fleet and Internet sales. Chrome Carbook(R), a consumer-facing, Web-based tool for configuring, researching, pricing and requesting vehicles, is currently accessible from more than 2,000 web sites in North America.

The Describe-a-Car suite gives businesses their choice of three Chrome solutions for solving the problem of accurately and completely describing a vehicle with only a small set of information: Chrome Engine, VIN Search 2.0 and Automotive Description Service. Chrome's vehicle descriptions serve many purposes, from populating loan origination systems to providing new and used vehicle data for window stickers.

Chrome Engine enables auto sellers, marketers and lending institutions to standardize and enhance large pools of vehicle data from multiple lots, dealerships or locations, in an automated batch process. The result is a set of fully described vehicles, based on limited initial input such as a VIN.

VIN Search 2.0 is a comprehensive data product that generates equipment and option details on individual vehicles or small groups of vehicles based on the input of Canadian VINs. VIN Search 2.0 can provide this VIN-to-description process on virtually any vehicle manufactured from the year 2000 to the current model year.

Chrome's Automotive Description Service gives clients as-needed access to complete and accurate vehicle descriptions, based on either a VIN or the user's input of a year, make and model. Clients create their own interfaces to this Web-based transaction service, enabling them to request and receive specific vehicle data from Chrome.

Canadian versions of Chrome's Build-a-Car and Describe-a-Car solutions, as well as any of their constituent parts, are available for immediate ordering.

About Chrome

With more than 13,500 clients, including half of all automotive dealers in the U.S. and Canada, Chrome provides vehicle content, software, technology and services to deliver complete enterprise solutions to all segments of the retail automotive industry. These segments include manufacturers, fleet companies, dealers, Internet sites, and financial institutions. Chrome pioneered the technology behind electronic vehicle configuration with the introduction of PC Carbook(R), and since 1986 has collected, analyzed and enhanced "raw" automotive data from all manufacturers.