CHICAGO — Aug. 9, 2006 — In a testament to the quality of prospects sent to dealers through its new car lead generation product, NewLeadsPlus, Cars.com announced today that more than 60 percent of its lead senders purchase a vehicle.¹ The findings stem from an analysis by Experian Automotive of approximately 300,000 new car leads Cars.com generated between February 2005 and January 2006.

“Although the new car lead business has been around a long time, Cars.com takes a new approach to drive quality prospects to our customers. Our leads originate from a high-quality source and go directly to our dealers without being resold,” said Mitch Golub, president of Cars.com. “By generating our own leads, utilizing search engine marketing and scrubbing the leads for accuracy, we provide dealers with true vehicle intenders. Our recent leads analysis study proves that our approach works.”

With nearly nine out of 10 new car buyers using search engines to research vehicles they’re considering, NewLeadsPlus allows dealers to reach car buyers they might otherwise miss. The product captures active shoppers who submit their information when shopping through top search engines, including Google and Yahoo!. Cars.com verifies these leads and sends them directly to the dealership within 7 minutes of submission, in many cases while the shopper is still online.

“This rapid turnaround provides dealers the best opportunity to engage car buyers as soon as they submit the lead,” Golub said. “Dealers who follow-up quickly and stay with the buyer throughout the shopping process are the most likely to win the sale.”

More than 2,000 dealer franchises now use NewLeadsPlus, which Cars.com launched following its acquisition of California-based NewCars.com.