SANTA MONICA, Calif. –

Edmunds.com announced this week the launch of its new feature for its car-shopping mobile application. Lot Buddy, a location-aware feature for the company’s existing mobile app, allows car buyers to unlock “Price Promise,” no-haggle offers from anywhere, even on the lot. According to Edmunds, this car-shopping tool is the first to offer locked-in pricing without requiring buyer information.

Seth Berkowitz, president of Edmunds.com, believes the feature fills a void in the automotive purchasing market.

“Mobile is increasingly the tool of choice for car shoppers,” Berkowitz said. “At present, mobile makes up 36 percent of all Edmunds.com traffic. We are paying close attention to shoppers and we’ve found that the task done most often on the dealer lot is looking up pricing and using calculators in order to answer the question, ‘Is this a good deal?’ We are offering the easiest path to an answer.”

According to Edmunds, its site saw a 39 percent increase in mobile usage between 2013 to this year. Based on its own study, Edmunds says that 100 percent of shoppers with access to a smart phone say they use a mobile device at some point in the purchase process while 63 percent say that mobile tools to assist at the dealership are lacking.

The Edmunds.com app itself shows users actual new and used cars for sale near the shopper while also granting access to consumer and expert reviews. Other features include price comparisons, video and photo galleries, as well as financing and leasing calculators.