TrueCar.com Releases March Grades for Manufacturers and Brands

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- TrueCar.com, the authority in new car pricing, trends and forecasting released its Performance Scorecards for automotive manufacturers and brands.  The full report is available in TrueCar.com's monthly TrueTrends Report.  The Performance Scorecards grade each manufacturer and brand on eight different measurements including pricing, sales, incentives, customer loyalty, market share and days in inventory data.

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Overall, the top manufacturers on the Scorecards in March were Porsche, Hyundai, Nissan, and BMW.  Near the bottom of the list were Honda, Toyota and Daimler.  The brands that received the highest grades are Scion, smart and Porsche and the brands with the lowest grades were Honda, Chrysler and Toyota.

The biggest gainers among manufacturers, from February 2011 to March 2011 were:

• BMW moving from a C+ to an A-
• Nissan moving from a B+ to an A
• Saab moving from a D to a C-

The biggest decliners among manufacturers, from February 2011 to March 2011 were:

• Toyota moving from a C+ to a D+
• GM moving from an A to a C+
• Honda moving from a C to a D

"Porsche and Hyundai were able to increase their sales while lowering discounts and improving how fast they turn their inventory; a best case scenario for any automaker," said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry Trends and Insights at TrueCar.com.  "The success of the 5 Series and X3 also helped ramp up sales for BMW and resulted in the manufacturer posting the biggest climb in rankings this month."

Below are the top three highest and lowest manufacturer and brand rankings by TrueCar.com:

The TrueTrends Report is available to be viewed in its entirety at TrueCar.com.

About TrueCar, Inc.

TrueCar, Inc. is an automotive solutions provider focused on changing how cars are sold by providing a significantly better customer experience while helping qualified dealer partners to gain incremental market share and reduce costs. TrueCar.com is a transparent, visual publisher of new car transaction data. TrueCar.com price reports help both dealers and consumers to agree on the parameters of a fair deal by providing an accurate, comprehensive and simple understanding of what others actually paid for the identically equipped new car over the last 30 days both locally and nationally. TrueCar, Inc. works with a national network of nearly 5,000 Certified Dealers that provide up-front, no-haggle, competitive pricing to assist some of the nation's largest and most well respected membership and service organizations.  These partnerships include American Express, AAA, USAA and more than 60 others. Collectively these audiences represent over 1M in-market customers each month. TrueCar, Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA and has offices in San Francisco. The company was founded in 2005 and has been profitable since 2009. With nearly 200 percent year-over-year growth TrueCar has driven over 250,000 sales and is developing a suite of transaction oriented products and services centered on transparency and radical clarity as a result of comprehensively analyzing market data and information. You can follow TrueCar on Twitter and become a fan of TrueCar on Facebook.

About TrueCar Data

TrueCar obtains data directly from numerous sources including automotive dealers, technology companies, data aggregators, and analytics companies within the automotive space.   We also acquire vehicle configuration data, customer and dealer incentives data, financing and loan data, vehicle registration and insurance data, and much, much more.  TrueCar is insatiable about data with our goal to find 100 percent of all purchase transactions, even if that means finding the same transaction multiple times from multiple sources within the car-buying ecosystem.  Our data is among the most timely and comprehensive in the industry.  TrueCar believes the greater our informational accuracy, the greater benefit we provide to both dealers and consumers.

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein is for noncommercial use on "as-is, as available" basis and may be used for informational purposes only.  TrueCar makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information contained in this press release and the results of the use of such information, including but not limited to implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.  The information contained in this press release may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.  Neither TrueCar nor any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or respective partners, officers, or directors, employees or agents shall be held liable for any damages, whether direct, incidental, indirect, special or consequential, including without limitation lost revenues or lost profits, arising from or in connection with your use or reliance on the information presented in this press release.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.

Jesse Toprak

https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=94534

SOURCE TrueCar.com