New Feature Uses Industry-Leading Configuration Technology; Makes it Easy for Online Consumers to Personalize Vehicle Choices
PORTLAND, OR - Chrome Systems Inc., a subsidiary of DealerTrack Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRAK), and an industry leader in collecting, enhancing, and distributing best-in-class automotive data, today announced that MyRide.com, the new online resource for consumers to research anything automotive from Internet pioneer Autobytel Inc., is using Chrome's vehicle configuration tools to enable online consumers to personalize their vehicle choices. Using the MyRide.com Build-Your-Own tool, consumers are able to graphically determine the relative cost and compatibility of different options and packages, making the online research experience even more manageable.
MyRide.com's Build-Your-Own tool, powered by Chrome's Carbook Showroom, provides easy, step-by-step screens to guide consumers through choosing vehicle options and creating personalized vehicles. To help consumers find the used vehicle that meets their needs, MyRide.com implemented Chrome's Automotive Description Service (ADS) to quickly and accurately decode the VINs of used vehicles on the site.
"Based on our long history in the automotive industry, we know consumers find high value in tools that streamline the buying and research process, while also creating a personalized experience," says Eric Cotter, product manager for Autobytel Inc. "The MyRide.com Build-Your-Own tool serves both of these purposes as it helps us fulfill our mission of providing consumers with the best possible car shopping experience.
Chrome's reputation for providing clean vehicle data and consumer-friendly technology as well as the cost-efficiencies inherent in their ability to provide rapid implementation were key factors leading Autobytel to choose Chrome.
"We're very pleased that our configuration solutions are a part of Autobytel's new MyRide.com website," says Peter Batten, Chrome Systems general manager. "At Chrome, we have made our tools both easy to use and easy to implement. The fact that Autobytel was able to design and implement very sophisticated configuration tools for MyRide.com in just five days represents a great win for Autobytel and for the Chrome team."
About Chrome (www.chrome.com)
Chrome provides vehicle content, software, technology and services to deliver complete enterprise solutions to all segments of the automotive retail industry. Chrome pioneered the technology behind electronic vehicle configuration with the introduction of PC Carbook®, and since 1986 has collected, analyzed and enhanced "raw" automotive data from all manufacturers. Chrome Systems Inc. is a subsidiary of DealerTrack Data Services, Inc., a DealerTrack Holdings, Inc. company (Nasdaq: TRAK).
About Autobytel Inc.
Since launching the first car-buying website in 1995, Autobytel Inc.'s mission has been to empower automotive consumers with the tools and information they need to make smart, well-informed vehicle purchasing and ownership decisions. The company has helped millions of car shoppers and generated billions of dollars in car sales for dealers. Today, the company's innovative, consumer-driven flagship site, MyRide.com, expands the company's mission across the automotive purchase and ownership life cycle. As the first vertical search experience for the automotive marketplace, MyRide.com is designed to help Internet-savvy consumers FIND, SEE, BUY and LEARN anything automotive and BELONG to a diverse community of people who have similar automotive interests.
By providing a convenient and comprehensive automotive consumer experience across the purchase and ownership lifecycle, Autobytel provides new value and touch-points for automotive marketers. Through MyRide.com and Autobytel's marketing network, the company connects dealerships with a steady, diverse stream of motivated, serious shoppers, while providing both dealers and manufacturers with precision-targeted brand and product marketing opportunities. The company's advanced web-based advertising and marketing programs also help dealers and manufacturers build relationships with customers, as well as help them to efficiently manage and convert online business.
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements
Statements in this press release regarding the benefits of Chrome's Carbook Showroom and Automotive Description Service (ADS) and all other statements in this release other than the recitation of historical facts are forward-looking statements (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements of DealerTrack to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Factors that might cause such a difference include: including selling additional products and services to existing and new customers; Chrome's success in expanding its customer base and product and service offerings; and other risks listed in the DealerTrack's reports filed with the SEC, including its 2007 Form 10-K. These filings can be found on DealerTrack's website at www.dealertrack.com and the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements included herein speak only as of the date hereof and DealerTrack disclaims any obligation to revise or update such statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events or circumstances.
