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AutoNation Ends TrueCar Deal | DrivingSales News

AutoNation Drops TrueCar Over Customer Data Dispute

July 9, 2015 0 Comments

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TrueCar is no longer affiliated with AutoNation’s army of dealerships. Previously, 226 of AutoNation’s 240 stores worked with TrueCar. The nations largest dealer group has pulled out of their business relationship with TrueCar, Automotive News reports. From the early indications, the severed relationship was due in part to a failure to agree to contract terms. In a report from AN, Mike Jackson, the CEO of AutoNation said TrueCar has gone from a business partner to a competitor.

In an AN interview, Mike Jackson said, “TrueCar has made some onerous demands in its new contract negotiations with us that are unprecedented in my 45 years in business and are unconscionable and unacceptable. We cannot agree to them.” Jackson further stated, “Let’s face it: TrueCar is a competitor. TrueCar has made it quite clear they’re not stopping at new-car sales transactions. They’re going to inject themselves into the arrangement of financing, they’re going to have a service product, (and) they’re going to have a trade-in product. So they’re going for the entire spectrum of the auto retail business.” On the other side of the lost partnership, the CEO of TrueCar, Scott Painter agreed. Speaking to AN Painter said, “Our partnership with AutoNation just turned into, in a very real sense, a choice for the consumer. It really makes them our competition.”

Automotive News also reported another reason for the dispute is that TrueCar reportedly wanted transactional data that AutoNation wasn’t ready to offer them. The data reportedly wasn’t limited to TrueCar vehicle transactions. Speaking to AN, Jackson simply said, “It’s none of their business.” TrueCar reportedly wouldn’t sign a new deal with TrueCar unless AutoNation provided transactional data. TrueCar wanted the customer database handed over, TrueCar has resisted in the past but now they are willing to terminate the TrueCar relationship over it. Mike Jackson told the Wall Street Journal, “TrueCar generates about 3 percent of the 550,000 cars we sell annually, but they want all our customer information on every car we sell and we just can’t agree to that. It is none of their business who our customers are.”

TrueCar CEO Scott Painter disagreed with Jackson’s assessment of the situation. Speaking to the WSJ Paint said in a statement, “TrueCar requires all its certified dealers to share a limited amount of vehicle purchase data. This guarantees up-to-the-moment accuracy in pricing information for individual regions and to ensure we are paid by dealers for consumers sent to them… AutoNation decided not to comply with our marketplace rules. Ultimately, this was not an arrangement we could accept.” We will keep you updated on this breaking story as further details become available.

About the Author:

The DrivingSales News team is dedicated to breaking the relevant and the tough stories affecting car dealers. Have questions for DrivingSales News? Reach the team at news@drivingsales.com.

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