Cars.com Extends End-to-End Capabilities by Adding Access to Finance, Used Vehicle Valuations

With two acquisitions made during the last quarter, Cars.com aims to ease two pain points that plague both car dealers and consumers: the time-consuming finance process and the challenges of valuing and selling a used car.

By adding two new digital solutions, CreditIQ and Accu-Trade, to the Cars.com platform, the company aims to create a frictionless, omnichannel experience for car shoppers and sellers.

“As we advance our platform strategy and strengthen our end-to-end transactional capabilities, we are making new solutions available to our customers,” Cars.com CEO Alex Vetter said Thursday (Feb. 24) during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

The company earned $7.7 million on sales of $623.7 million in 2021, despite a loss $6 million in the fourth-quarter loss related to one-time items associated with its CreditIQ acquisition.

Speeding Up the Finance Process

CreditIQ, an automotive digital financing technology acquired by Cars.com last quarter, enables instant online loan screening and approvals.

It’s being piloted with about 100 dealers on the company’s Cars.com marketplace and on Dealer Inspire dealer websites before being scaled to a wider audience, and has been well received, Vetter said.

“This digitalization solution also addresses one of consumers’ most pressing pain points during their car-buying journey — time spent in the dealership making decisions around their financing options,” Vetter said.

Delivering a Guaranteed Valuation of Used Cars

Another pain point will be addressed with the acquisition of the Accu-Trade, which was announced Feb. 8 and is expected to close later this quarter. This technology makes it easier for dealers to buy used cars from consumers and from other dealers.

Accu-Trade provides appraisal and valuation data specific to the vehicle identification number (VIN). When added to Cars.com, it will enable dealers to source inventory from the in-market shoppers who are looking to sell or trade their used car before making a purchase. That’s especially important during this time of ongoing inventory shortages.

“We’ve gotten tremendous initial response on the Accu-Trade Cars.com acquisition because dealers are desperate to buy more cars directly from the general public, and we have a steady stream of those sellers to provide,” Vetter said.

Providing Access to Consumers, Dealers, Wholesale Buyers

Consumers too will benefit from real-time transparency about a vehicle’s guaranteed value and gain instant connection to the best buyer, Vetter said. The values are not only real time and accurate but also guaranteed. Vetter explained that if dealers don’t want to buy a vehicle at the price determined by Accu-Trade, a wholesale partner that has agreed to buy cars at Accu-Trade’s price will.

“Part of the guarantee is just saying that if you’re unsuccessful in selling in the open market, just know that Cars.com will help you get out of this car immediately at this price point,” Vetter said.

Shortly after the transaction closes, CARS.com will integrate the Accu-Trade technology across its platform and invest in building it out. For one thing, CARS.com will add new sell-it-yourself capabilities that will allow private party car sellers the option to sell to another consumer. Vetter said more than 11 million private party car sales are made in the U.S. each year.

“As we deploy our technology solutions via financing or trading, we can unlock a much bigger opportunity across a larger consumer and dealer network, while leveraging insights and creating efficiencies across our platform,” Vetter said.