Cars.com Reports Record Growth in Dealer Training Initiatives

Program Reached More Than 5,000 Dealers in 2006

CHICAGO, Jan. 5 -- Cars.com announced today that its training program reached a record 5,000-plus dealers through more than 200 in-market training events held in 2006. The free sessions help dealerships effectively merchandise their inventory online and implement proven dealership processes to capture and convert internet shoppers to sales.

"More dealers recognize the correlation between the effectiveness of their online ads, their process for managing online traffic and their sales results. They are turning to Cars.com in record numbers to learn best practices for generating and closing online traffic," said Mitch Golub, president of Cars.com. "Our dealer workshops share proven techniques from the best dealerships around the country to show dealers how to strengthen their core sales and internet marketing processes. Each event focuses on the information dealers can immediately put into practice to gain an online advantage."

Ralph Ebersole leads Cars.com's training team, which is comprised of four industry veterans that collectively have more than 100 years of expertise in automotive sales and service and advertising sales. The group presents several training events each week to franchise and independent dealers at all levels of experience and responsibility at their stores.

Jole McMurdie, general manager of the Oregon-based Ron Tonkin Dealerships, said Cars.com has provided training at her stores three times in the past 15 months. She said the general managers and sales managers attending the classes were impressed with the quality of the training sessions and the trainers' credentials.

"They speak their language," McMurdie said. "It's really important that, at that level, we have buy-in on the power of the internet. Unless they understand, it's difficult to have the success we want."

Cars.com's comprehensive dealer training program includes more than 300 in-market and web-based training workshops and weekly training calls. Additional resources are available through the MyDealerCenter customer portal and the free monthly DealerADvantage e-newsletter and DealerADvantage LIVE webinar, as well as Cars.com's more than 500 sales professionals and national technical support staff. Cars.com presents training seminars without charge to interested dealerships, regardless of whether they are Cars.com customers.

Information on upcoming programs is available by clicking on the "Training" link at http://dealers.cars.com/ . Dealers can subscribe to the DealerADvantage e-newsletter and register for upcoming DealerADvantage LIVE training sessions at http://dealeradvantage.cars.com/ .

About Cars.com

Partnered with more than 200 leading metro newspapers, television stations and their websites, Cars.com is the most comprehensive destination for those looking to buy or sell a new or used car. The site lists more than 2 million vehicles from 13,000 dealer customers, classified advertisers and private parties to offer consumers the best selection of new and used cars online, as well as the content, tools and advice to support their shopping experience. Recently selected by Forbes.com as a Best of the Web site for car shopping, Cars.com combines powerful inventory search tools and new-car configuration with pricing information, photo galleries, buying guides, side-by-side comparison tools, original editorial content and reviews to help millions of car shoppers connect with sellers each month.

Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC, ( http://classifiedventures.com/ ), which is owned by leading media companies, including Belo , Gannett Co., Inc. , The McClatchy Company , Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company .