New Cars.com Design Drives Better Advertising Performance

But First Snide's Remarks: GOOD TRY Cars.Com! But ya gotta keep on trying boys... they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and maybe in another ten years of watching and mimicking how The Auto Channel does things, you may catch up...but I don't think so.
Hey TACH'ers just imagine what the creative and technical genius's at The Auto Channel could invent with the tens of million of dollars wasted by the newspapers that own Cars.com. Let me know what you think. msnide@theautochannel.com

CHICAGO, Jan. 16, 2007 -- Cars.com today announced new design enhancements to its vehicle listings to improve shoppers' interaction with the listings and, in turn, drive even stronger results to advertisers. Now, shoppers searching for used vehicles are immediately presented with more robust listing information than before, including photographs and more information about the vehicle's seller. This allows shoppers to quickly evaluate vehicles directly from the listings page before going deeper into the site for more details about a specific vehicle.

"Through optimization of our listings environment, we are delivering more value to our advertisers than ever," said Mitch Golub, president of Cars.com. "By delivering an enhanced consumer experience, we drive more traffic to our advertisers and also produce more qualified buyers. Early performance measures of the new design show shoppers are more engaged, spending more time with the listings, viewing more detailed vehicle information and more frequently contacting sellers."

In keeping with Cars.com's consumer-centric philosophy, the new listings design allows shoppers to maintain control of the listings experience. In addition to searching listings based on factors such as price, mileage and model year, the new design allows shoppers to sort on criteria such as the number of photographs per vehicle. Shoppers also can choose to view listings in a condensed, scan-friendly spreadsheet without photos, an option many buyers appreciate but one that isn't available on other sites.

"By letting our visitors choose the criteria most important to them within the search process and providing multiple platforms by which to view and sort our listings, we increase the likelihood they'll find the right car and take the next step toward scheduling a test drive and making a purchase," Golub said. "As much as possible, we want to provide them with the tools and resources necessary to make an informed buying decision. Over the next several months, we'll announce additional Cars.com enhancements that more quickly and easily help car buyers find the right car for them."

The new listings design follows improvements launched last May to the vehicle-level listings view, known as the "More Details" pages. These enhancements consolidated all the information a shopper needs to support the buying process directly within the vehicle listing, including Kelley Blue Book values, payment calculators, vehicle reviews and reliability reports.

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 .