Design Your Dream Car: The Cobalt Group Helps Car Buyers Build and Find the Exact Car They Want Right on a Dealer's Web Site
18 September 2000
Design Your Dream Car: The Cobalt Group Helps Car Buyers Build and Find the Exact Car They Want Right on a Dealer's Web Site
SEATTLE--Sept. 18, 2000--The Cobalt Group today announced the launch of a product designed to give consumers the ability to build and select their dream car right on a dealer's Web site.
Cobalt's Make & Match, integrating vehicle configuration technology and data from Chrome Data with Cobalt's new proprietary inventory matching software, will help auto dealers market their new vehicle inventory and secure more qualified leads from their Internet sites.
"Cobalt's Make & Match enables online car shoppers to submit purchase requests for the exact vehicle they desire," said John Holt, president and CEO of The Cobalt Group. "Not only will this provide Cobalt dealers with highly qualified and specific leads, but it will save them considerable time by delivering better informed customers to their dealerships."
Cobalt's Make & Match allows consumers to configure a car, compare multiple vehicles and research pricing information. Once a buyer identifies a preferred car, the buyer selects the make, model, style of vehicle, price and color. To conclude the process, the buyer searches the dealer's inventory for the closest matches and/or submits a purchase request using an email form from the dealer's Web site. Make & Match will integrate with the dealer's new car inventory which dealers can list on their Cobalt site.
The vehicle configuration technology and pricing information in Cobalt's Make & Match is provided by Chrome Data, the automotive industry's most accurate business-to-business provider of data and configuration technology for selling cars online. Chrome Carbook(TM) offers research functions including make and model search, type search, payment search, and vehicle comparison.
Cobalt's Make & Match is immediately available for Cobalt dealers to implement with their Web sites. Dealers will pay a monthly fee to integrate the product with their Cobalt-created Web site.
"Cobalt's Make & Match is a valuable tool and I anticipate a lot of interest from our customers," said Timothy McCarthy, Internet sales manager for Toyota of Whittier in Whittier, Calif., who participated in the beta testing for the product.
ABOUT THE COBALT GROUP
The Cobalt Group(TM) , headquartered in Seattle, is a leading provider of Internet-based products and services for the automotive industry. 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.
With approximately 6,000 dealer Web site clients, over 10,000 dealers using its parts locating system, and relationships with 14 automotive manufacturers and more than 50 of the 100 largest dealer groups in the United States, Cobalt is one of the leading technology companies serving the automotive industry.
Cobalt operates MotorPlace.com(TM) (www.MotorPlace.com), a business-to-business vertical portal for the automotive industry; DealerNet(R) (www.dealernet.com), one of the best-known automotive destination sites on the Web; and PartsVoice(R) (www.partsvoice.com), a leading OEM auto parts locating and data management service. The Cobalt Group also owns IntegraLink Corporation, the auto industry's premier provider of advanced data collection and reporting services. Cobalt offers Web site services that are endorsed by the National Automobile Dealers Association.
The Cobalt Group has offices in Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; Detroit, MI; Columbus, OH; and Austin, TX.
For more information, please visit The Cobalt Group at www.cobaltgroup.com or call 800/909-8244.