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TrueCar Forecasts September 2009 Auto Sales: Domestic Market Share at Historic Low

Luxury Brands Thrive; Sales Are Back to Pre-Cash for Clunkers' Levels

TrueCar (www.truecar.com), the authority on new car pricing, reported today that September 2009 light vehicle sales in U.S. will be 899,374 units, down 7% from September 2008 and down 29% from the Cash-for-Clunkers fueled August 2009. September forecast translates into a SAAR level of 11.1 million units. Domestic manufacturer's market share will be a record low 40.2%.

"We have a good news and bad news scenario in September," said Jesse Toprak, Vice President of Industry Trends at TrueCar. "As expected, new vehicle sales are down dramatically from August, but the declines will not be as bad as it looked at the beginning of the month. Fundamental macroeconomic forces that fuel car sales have shown relative improvement within the last several weeks, although we are still a long way from a full recovery."

"Volatility in consumer demand, production and pricing will continue to create a wild ride in the next several months until we reach a new equilibrium in the marketplace," said Scott Painter, CEO of TrueCar. "It's more critical than ever for automakers, dealers as well as the consumers to have access to the most current, accurate, and transparent market intelligence -- which defines our core mission at TrueCar."

TrueCar offers a comprehensive forecast that also goes deeper into the numbers, looking at unit sales and market share by manufacturer, but also shows market share by origin and sales down to the brand level.

Forecasts for the top six major manufacturers for September:

                     Unit Sales Forecast

                 September 2009     Change vs.        Change vs.
Manufacturer       Forecast        August 2009        Sept 2008
------------     --------------    -----------        ---------
  Chrysler            63,655           -31%              -41%
    Ford             128,056           -26%               12%
     GM              169,860           -31%              -40%
   Honda             109,591           -32%               13%
   Nissan             75,741           -28%               27%
   Toyota            161,963           -28%               12%

                    Market Share Forecast

Manufacturer   September 2009 Forecast   August 2009   September 2008
------------   -----------------------   -----------   --------------
  Chrysler                7.1%                7.4%          11.1%
    Ford                 14.2%               13.8%          11.9%
     GM                  18.9%               19.5%          29.2%
   Honda                 12.2%               12.8%          10.0%
   Nissan                 8.4%                8.4%           6.2%
   Toyota                18.0%               17.9%          15.0%

Market share forecasts for the origin of the manufacturer for September:

Manufacturer   September 2009 Forecast   August 2009   September 2008
------------   -----------------------   -----------   --------------
   Europe                 9.1%                6.9%           7.8%
   Japan                 43.9%               44.4%          35.6%
 South Korea              6.8%                8.0%           4.4%
    USA                  40.2%               40.7%          52.2%

TrueCar also projects sales down to the brand level:

               September 2009     Market Share    Change vs.    Change vs.
Brand             Forecast          Forecast     August 2009    Sept 2008
-----          --------------     ------------   -----------    ---------
Acura               9,486              1.1%          -1%            -5%
Audi                8,846              1.0%          10%            17%
BMW                18,231              2.0%          -5%            24%
Buick               8,370              0.9%          -3%           -41%
Cadillac            8,793              1.0%          27%           -29%
Chevrolet         114,126             12.7%         -32%           -34%
Chrysler           11,126              1.2%         -40%           -52%
Dodge              34,526              3.8%         -34%           -45%
Ford              114,204             12.7%         -28%            14%
GMC                21,465              2.4%          -5%           -44%
Honda             100,105             11.1%         -34%            16%
HUMMER                752              0.1%          -3%           -67%
Hyundai            36,128              4.0%         -40%            46%
Infiniti            7,849              0.9%           2%             1%
Jaguar                993              0.1%          14%           -10%
Jeep               18,003              2.0%         -18%           -16%
Kia                24,738              2.8%         -38%            42%
Land Rover          2,618              0.3%          15%             0%
Lexus              23,942              2.7%           5%            49%
Lincoln             7,424              0.8%          26%            -2%
Mazda              17,248              1.9%         -35%             7%
Mercedes-Benz      18,892              2.1%          10%             1%
Mercury             6,428              0.7%         -32%            -1%
MINI                3,849              0.4%         -25%             2%
Mitsubishi          4,595              0.5%         -33%           -38%
Nissan             67,892              7.5%         -30%            31%
Pontiac            11,892              1.3%         -60%           -49%
Porsche             1,892              0.2%          24%            30%
Saab                  435              0.0%         -10%           -75%
Saturn              4,462              0.5%         -47%           -76%
Scion               5,592              0.6%         -48%           -31%
smart               1,192              0.1%         -27%           -33%
Subaru             22,865              2.5%         -20%            58%
Suzuki              3,009              0.3%         -48%           -26%
Toyota            132,429             14.7%         -31%            10%
Volkswagen         20,690              2.3%         -17%            21%
Volvo               4,286              0.5%         -26%             6%
Industry Total    899,374                           -29%            -7%

TrueCar bases its forecast on actual transaction data that cover about 30% of all sales in the U.S. The transaction data based forecast is refined by other current and historical factors that impact vehicle sales including: sales, inventory, incentives, fuel prices, and macro economic data (major stock market indexes, consumer confidence, new home starts, and CPI). TrueCar does not adjust for selling days in year-over-year percentage change calculations.

About TrueCar

TrueCar (www.truecar.com) is the authority in new car pricing. TrueCar aggregates data from multiple sources to show car buyers and dealers how much people actually paid for a particular car in their geographic area. TrueCar is offered online, free of charge -- so anyone can know at any time what is considered a good or great price. Consumers no longer need to walk into the dealership only partially informed and fully suspicious: with TrueCar they can walk in knowing the price of a fair deal. Dealers also benefit by gaining real-time, unbiased information about marketplace pricing, helping them price their cars to increase volume of sales and gain market share from other dealers. Led by a highly experienced team from the automotive and technology industries, TrueCar is based in Santa Monica, California.