TrueCar had plans to launch a national marketing campaign for its TrueCar Trade product in early 2019.

That all changed.

After receiving positive feedback in the test markets for the campaign (Seattle, Phoenix and Chicago), TrueCar decided to launch the national campaign in November.

Last month, Auto Remarketing caught up with TrueCar chief executive Chip Perry ahead of that launch to get an update on TrueCar Trade — a tool the company considers vital to its to-be-launched “end-to-end, shopping-to-showroom consumer experience,” according to notes on TrueCar’s earnings call provided by the company.

“We’re very excited to be able to begin a national promotional effort (for TrueCar Trade) after having spent a year building a strong network of dealers that jumped in early even ahead of the national promotion campaign,” Perry said by phone.

“So, for the last year or so we’ve been signing up dealers to our new Trade product, and we now have about 600 dealers involved, and that is going rapidly,” he said. “We now believe we have a large enough network to turn on national promotion, because we want to enable anyone in America who uses TrueCar to come down to our homepage, see a path to sell their car, get an upfront value and sell their car with a guaranteed offer and drive that traffic of consumers who want to sell their car to our certified dealer clients.”

According to metrics the company provided from its third-quarter earnings call, TrueCar Trade had been available in 45 markets, including several expansions in the third quarter like Detroit, Miami, San Antonio, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., the company said.

And now, anyone in the U.S. can utilize it through TrueCar’s website.

“TrueCar Trade is available nationally today through our homepage, everywhere in America,” Perry said. “We turned it on recently … after having rolled it out regionally over the course of the year.”

As for the national campaign, it begins this year with TV, radio and digital marketing, Perry said.

“And then next year, we’re working with our affinity partners to turn on this product within their car-buying portals,” he said.

“We have a large portfolio of affinity partners, including USAA and Sam’s Club, Chase Bank, U.S. News and World Report, Consumer Reports — over 300 partners. And next year, we’ll be working with them to include this feature, meaning (consumers can) get an instant offer on your trade-in vehicle or a car you want to sell as part of their car-buying process.”

Plans for a pilot of TrueCar Trade were first announced by the company in 2017.