AutoTrader.com Exceeds Expectations; Driving More Than One Million Used-Car Buyers to Its Partners for a Second Consecutive Month

Business Wire, Jan 11, 2000

Business Editors/Automotive Writers

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 11, 2000

Online Auto Giant Continues to Fuel Growing Use of Internet

in $370 Billion Used-Car Industry

Rick Rogers' Los Angeles-based used-car business is booming; he attributes the success to AutoTrader.com, the world's largest used car marketplace. That's because business is up for AutoTrader.com as well. In December, for the second month in a row, AutoTrader.com drove over 1.1 million qualified leads (potential used-car buyers) to its participating automotive dealers, private sellers, advertisers and e-commerce partners. From June 1999 to December 1999, AutoTrader.com has seen its unique monthly visitors double to 3.1 million and seen its page views quadruple to more than 47 million per month.

"More people are turning to AutoTrader.com not only because we offer the most online automotive listings, but also because we've built the only truly open, competitive marketplace on the Internet for used-car sales," said Chip Perry, AutoTrader.com president and CEO. "We've won the war to become the largest provider of auto classifieds listings in America, and now we're showing how valuable our marketplace is for our customers."

AutoTrader.com has attained critical mass and recognition as the used car market leader by serving the needs of three key audiences: automotive shoppers, dealers and advertisers. It has empowered consumers to shop more effectively, enabled dealers to sell more cars more efficiently and helped advertisers target and reach prospects with greater precision. AutoTrader.com's free listings for buyers and sellers and its open dealer network policy, which does not require incremental spending for dealers, have enabled the company to easily surpass its competitors.

"AutoTrader.com is allowing us to show our inventory to thousands of qualified buyers and informed consumers in the most efficient and economical way possible," said Rick Rogers, director of E-Commerce at Beverly Hills Ltd. Mercedes-Benz. "Through our partnership with AutoTrader.com, we have seen a burst of foot traffic and sales in our highly profitable used car category."

AutoTrader.com offers 1.5 million listings from more than 46,000 U.S. auto dealers and more than a quarter million private sellers. Competitive websites list far fewer cars from a limited number of dealers at mostly fixed prices. More vehicles and more sellers to choose from and negotiated pricing mean consumers are empowered to get the best price possible, which in turn attracts more potential customers for AutoTrader.com's dealers and private party sellers.

AutoTrader.com's investors include Cox Enterprises Inc., Landmark Communications, Inc., the Dealer Services Group of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE:AUD), and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Cox is a major media company with interests in newspapers, TV & radio broadcasting, Internet and cable TV systems. Cox also owns Manheim Auctions, providing AutoTrader.com access to a majority of U.S. used-car dealers. Cox and Landmark are co-owners of the Trader Publishing Company, whose Auto Trader(R) and AutoMart(R) magazines make up the largest printed listing of private-sale used-cars in the country.

Landmark is a multi-media company with national and international interests in newspapers, broadcasting, cable programming, interactive media and specialty interests. ADP's Dealer Services Group is a leading provider of integrated computing solutions to auto dealers. ADP Dealer Services has the ability to obtain used car inventory data from up to 80 percent of the country's franchised car dealers.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is the preeminent venture capital firm in the high technology and Internet industries. AutoTrader.com's position as the world's largest used car marketplace is made possible by the exclusive relationships it has with Manheim Auctions, Trader Publishing Company, and ADP for the online distribution of used car listings. Through their relationships with dealers and private sellers, these three companies together have access to well over 50% of the more than 40 million used cars sold in America each year. Additionally, Yahoo! Internet Life magazine named AutoTrader.com the "Best Used-Car Hub" and "Gold Star Site" in November 1999.

About AutoTrader.com

AutoTrader.com (www.autotrader.com), the world's largest used car marketplace, fundamentally improves the way people buy and sell cars by providing a comprehensive source of credible information and a selection of more than 1.5 million used vehicles for sale. AutoTrader.com is the exclusive online distributor of the automotive listings contained in the Auto Trader(R) and AutoMart(R) print magazines published by Trader Publishing Company. These magazines are distributed in more than 136,000 retail outlets with an estimated weekly circulation of 2.5 million copies. AutoTrader.com's investors include Cox Enterprises, Inc., Manheim Auctions, Inc., Landmark Communications, Inc., the Dealer Services Group of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE: AUD), and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.