Cars.com Moves the Pricing Conversation From “What” to “Why”

As dealers know, there’s more to a vehicle’s price than a number on a sticker or on a VDP.

To move the pricing conversation from what to why, Cars.com has rolled out badging across our Search Results Pages (SRPs) and Vehicle Details Pages (VDPs). Our goal is to help savvy consumers understand the true value of a vehicle. By unpacking what goes into a vehicle’s price, we aim to create transparency between dealers and consumers – and ultimately drive more connections.

The “Why” of Price

The why behind a vehicle’s price includes variables such as increasingly complicated optional features and demand by market. It’s not enough to know what a vehicle’s price is. A savvy consumer will want to understand why is it priced the way it is – Is the vehicle fully loaded? Does it have low mileage? Is it in a competitive market?

The Cars.com badging feature goes beyond a straight price rating. Our badges aggregate features and options with current market conditions to produce the price rating down to geographic location. To start, there are four categories of badges:

Great Deal which means the vehicle is priced significantly below market average
Good Deal which identifies cars priced at or slightly below market average
Fair Price for vehicles priced slightly above market average
Well-Equipped highlighting vehicles that include additional features that are affecting the price

Here is an example of how the badging looks on a VDP:

A Win for Consumers and Dealers

When tested earlier this year in select markets, dealers told us that vehicle badging helped them gain consumer trust through a credible third party such as Cars.com. Our goal is to create a more common ground between consumers and dealers through price transparency, resulting in a win-win for both:

Win for Dealers: Badging provides dealers a greater opportunity to demonstrate their value, be more transparent, and close more deals quickly and efficiently.

Win for Consumers: With badging, shoppers will be able to determine if they are paying a fair price and choose a dealership based on the price in context of the product and dealership.

What’s Next

Our work on providing better pricing tools has just begun. Going forward, we will continue to provide more context beyond the sticker price and give in-market car shoppers more of the why to create connections that fuel growth for our customers.

Contact your Cars.com sales representative for more information – and make sure you download Cars.com Guide to The 4Ps of Automotive Marketing for more on how you can win with today’s modern car shoppers.