CarGurus Launches Finance in Advance*, A New Digital Retailing Feature

Consumers Can Now Compare Financing Rates and Visit the Dealership More Prepared to Purchase a Vehicle

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CarGurus, Inc. (Nasdaq: CARG), a leading online automotive marketplace, today announced a new feature that enables shoppers to pre-qualify** for financing as they search on CarGurus for their next car. Pre-qualification offers are provided through the multiple participating lenders that work with CarGurus’ listing dealers, allowing consumers to go to the dealership with real rates*** in hand for the specific car in which they are interested. The service is the latest in CarGurus’ growing suite of digital retail products engineered to help consumers and dealers by bringing ease and transparency to the car shopping process.

“Financing is a critical, yet often forgotten about, part of purchasing a car. As the pioneers of trust and transparency in automotive retail, we believe that providing shoppers with information about financing rates will help guide better purchase decisions,” said Josh Berg, Vice President of Consumer Products at CarGurus. “Shoppers that use CarGurus’ pre-qualification tool will know the real costs of their desired vehicle and can go to the dealer ready to complete their financing. That results in saved time for both consumers and dealers.”

According to the CarGurus 2020 Buyer Journey report, 61% of consumers that buy at a dealership finance their purchase, and over half (53%) do so through the dealership where they buy.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/43833ffc-6ead-47d1 ...

Caption: Examples of how rates are presented to shoppers using Finance in Advance* and what shoppers can use to present their rates to dealers****

How Finance in Advance* Works
Finance in Advance* is an easy-to-use feature for eligible shoppers to obtain pre-qualification* for vehicle financing. Car shoppers simply go to https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/finance to pre-qualify for free and with no impact***** to their credit score. Participating lenders include Capital One, Westlake Financial and Global Lending Services, which in combination provide almost 90% coverage of all dealership listings on the CarGurus site.

The majority of shoppers are notified in a matter of minutes when they are pre-qualified* and their personalized, pre-qualified offers are automatically applied to their car search on CarGurus. This enables shoppers to filter their search results to vehicles where they are eligible for financing and ultimately compare real financing rates*** across those eligible vehicles.