Finance Friday: TrueCar Shows You What Cars are Really Selling For

May 8, 2009 in Finances with 2 Comments

Via LifeHacker.com: TrueCar Shows You What Cars are Really Selling For

Any car shopper will tell you it’s nearly impossible to get a bead on fair prices from lip service alone. TrueCar aggregates sales data for a clear picture of what cars are really selling for.

If you’d like to get a feel for whether or not you’re getting a good deal on a car you’ve been looking at, TrueCar has the dirt. TrueCar collects and analyzes data from 25% of the automotive sales in the US—a sizable portion, and more than enough to paint an accurate picture.

You plug in your ZIP code and search for the make and model you’re thinking about purchasing. TrueCar returns information about the car, including dealer cost, factory invoice, average price paid in your area, and the sticker price. Based on those numbers and archival sales, the site charts out a bell curve, showing you where the sweet spot for wheeling and dealing is.

TrueCar also provides sales history for the previous six months which is handy to check and see if the sale price is falling. TrueCar is a free service. If you know of another service for checking the sales price of cars, share it in the comment belows.

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About Chris: Thirty-something, knowledge seeking, information devouring, Christian technophile living in Northern KY seeking to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with my God.


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2 Responses to “Finance Friday: TrueCar Shows You What Cars are Really Selling For”

  1. Paul C. May 12, 2009 at 10:23 #

    I stumbled across this link:
    http://www.carsala.com
    Its a neat new way to search for a lightly used car. I haven’t gone much farther than playing with the search, but its interesting when compared to autotrader and yahoo cars.

  2. Jez May 14, 2009 at 20:15 #

    I’m starting to think life itself can be explained in a bell curve ;-)