LAS VEGAS -

About two years ago, Carfax launched Used Car Listings, the vehicle history report provider’s foray into showcasing dealership inventory directly to consumers. The company explained how the successes of that endeavor propelled Carfax into position to launch a vehicle value tool this spring.

During a conversation with Auto Remarketing at the NADA Convention & Expo, Carfax communications director Larry Gamache emphasized that no matter the product, what the company is most proud of is helping “our dealer customers build confidence with consumers.”

What helped to cultivate that path for store managers and their customers is leveraging vehicle history data in as many ways as possible, according to Gamache, who recapped the journey Carfax has navigated since the Used Car Listings went live.

“From the beginning, we got incredibly positive feedback that the listings product is incredibly transparent,” Gamache said. “There’s no ads or gimmicks. We want to facilitate the relationship between the consumer and the dealer. We’re not interested in selling ads to your competition or having a different manufacturer conquest your vehicle or your dealership. That fair marketplace has been incredibly appealing to our dealer customers.

“We launched it two years ago and we have learned more in the past two years than we did in the past 30 years of vehicle history business,” he continued. “The listing space has been incredible for us. It’s helped our company grow, and I think it’s going to be a really big benefit for dealers to have another marketplace in which they can compete and compete fairly.”

“One of the things we learned is just how much consumers were looking for an alternative and that there was room to innovate in the listing space. So many used-car listing sites were sort of grounded in that classified sort of experience from where they grew. Carfax came at it with a completely fresh perspective. It allowed us to do things unconventionally,” Gamache went on to say.

“But one of the biggest things we’ve learned is just how much consumers thought about us when it came to vehicle history reports and gaining the understanding that vehicle history at large could be used in all of these new and innovative ways. That’s been the really big lesson that we’ve had to wrap our head around,” he added.

Carfax wrapped its collective head around another project for what Gamache acknowledged has been the past “few” years. The goal has been to create another vehicle pricing model that can take advantage of what made the company’s vehicle inventory listings so popular. As a result, Carfax found a way to incorporate vehicle listings into the usual criteria contained within our resources often used by dealers or consumers.

But Gamache explained what distinguishes the Carfax product, which came out while the industry gathered in Las Vegas for NADA’s annual event.

“It really boils down to one principle idea,” he said. “If you put two vehicles side by side that are very similar with similar mileage, make model and trim, if I told you one of them had been in an accident and one had not, you wouldn’t pay the same price for both of those vehicles. The overwhelming majority of people would say that the vehicle that had been involved in an accident would be worth less.

“The fact is, we’re the first and only pricing model that actually takes vehicle history into account and give you a vehicle specific price on every vehicle in the United States,” he continued.

“It’s really designed to give consumers and dealers a more accurate price on every vehicle,” Gamache went on to say. “It takes into account things like whether a vehicle had been involved in an accident. It takes into account where the vehicle has been previously titled. It matters; vehicles that were driven in Massachusetts for their entire history are going to have a different value than those that were driven in Nevada or Arizona.

“It also matters if a vehicle was involved in an accident last month versus 10 years ago. All of that data is built into the new Carfax Value and consumers and dealers have access for the first time to a price that actually takes into account a vehicle’s history.”

The Carfax value tool can generate data based on what can be incorporated into a trade-in negotiation or a retail transaction as well as what dealers can expect when in the lanes at the auction; or as Gamache noted, “where the price is relevant.”

Gamache prefers not to think Carfax is explicitly trying to compete against other vehicle value providers.

“Our mission has been to provide crucial information to help dealers and consumers make decisions about cars with more confidence,” he said.  “There is evidence when you talk to people that they want to shop for cars and they want to know if the car has had one owner or multiple owners. They want to know if it’s been involved in an accident. That led us to make this vehicle history information available through Carfax Used Vehicle Listings. I think the same thing happens as you move into through the used-car space. People want to have a price that’s takes into account vehicle history.

“We have known forever that vehicles involved in accidents or one-owner vehicles,” he added. “Now there is pricing tool that helps you unlock that value from a third party. It’s really more about our ongoing mission to make buyers and sellers more confident.”

While Carfax is incorporating this pricing tool into its portfolio of offerings, Gamache reiterated that the company remains committed to keeping its core intact, which includes providing vehicle history report information to its network of industry partners as well as automakers.

“The most exciting thing for us is this commitment to transparency and sharing information to making sure those buyers and sellers have access to information so they can make informed decisions is now really a trend in the automotive space. We couldn’t be happier,” he said.

Senior Editor Joe Overby contributed to this report.