NADA Selects Chrome Data To Provide New Vehicle Data
26 April 2000
NADA Selects Chrome Data Corporation To Provide New Vehicle Data to World's Largest Dealer Internet Portal
PORTLAND, Ore.--April 26, 2000--Chrome's Web Carbook(tm) Enables Dealer Association to Provide
Consumers with Accurate New Car Data at NADA's National Dealer
Internet Portal
Chrome Data Corporation, the only independent business-to-business provider of automotive data and software for selling cars online, today announced that the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) will implement Chrome's Web-based specification and pricing tool, Web Carbook, to provide invoice prices to NADA's new national dealer Internet portal.
Web Carbook will provide visitors to NADA's new site the most accurate and reliable vehicle data available on the Internet today, including year, make, model, style, trim, standard and optional equipment and invoice and MSRP pricing.
NADA's national dealer Internet portal will enable dealers to actively serve online car buyers by providing a direct link between the consumer and a network of more than 19,000 dealers. The dealer Internet portal will give consumers direct access to more than half a million new and used cars -- the world's largest online inventory of vehicles.
"NADA's national dealer Internet portal represents a milestone in automotive e-commerce, and we're extremely proud to be chosen as the data provider," said Jim Adkisson, president of Chrome Data. "NADA's selection of Web Carbook is further evidence that Chrome is the independent industry standard for accurate vehicle pricing and specification data."
"Dealers have relied on car data provided by Chrome through its desktop program, PC Carbook, for years now," said Frank McCarthy, president of NADA. "So it was a clear choice for NADA to select Web Carbook to provide consumers with the most comprehensive and the most accurate data."
In a recent independent study, CNW Marketing/Research compared the pricing data of the major online automotive data sources by configuring 86 different vehicles at eight different Web sites, including Chrome client Vehix.com (see CHROME DATA NAMED MOST ACCURATE DATA PROVIDER FOR AUTOMOTIVE E-COMMERCE, March 27, 2000). Chrome's Web Carbook ranked first in data accuracy with an average price discrepancy of only one-third of one percent of the average new car price -- less than the study's margin of error. The next closest competitor was almost twice Chrome's discrepancy; five of the eight data providers gave consumers pricing information more than five times Chrome's discrepancy; and the lowest ranking competitor was off by more than a factor of ten, or nearly $1,000.
About NADA's National Dealer Internet Portal
NADA's national dealer Internet portal is being developed by NADA and The Cobalt Group(tm) (NASDAQ: CBLT) to support dealers' efforts to actively serve Internet customers. The National Automobile Dealers Association represents more than 19,500 franchised new-car and -truck dealers holding nearly 40,000 separate franchises, domestic and import. NADA provides its members counsel on legal and regulatory matters, represents dealers on Capitol Hill, develops data on the auto industry and operates training programs to improve dealership business operations. The Cobalt Group, based in Seattle, is a leading provider of Internet-based products and services for the automotive industry. Through Internet-based application development and hosting, data management, and online referral services, Cobalt helps dealers, dealer groups and automobile manufacturers harness the power of the Internet to realize new efficiencies, win new prospects and better serve their customers.
About Chrome Data