TrueCar CEO Mike Darrow discusses new initiatives to help dealers recover from the pandemic

The pandemic has undoubtedly changed the retail automotive industry, but analysts say despite the setback, things are still looking up. On today’s show, we welcome back TrueCar’s President and CEO, Mike Darrow, to forecast sales through the rest of the year and to talk about the future of the auto industry in 2021.

Despite new car inventory being a little short right, Darrow says that the numbers being tracked at TrueCar indicate continual industry growth. In fact, the retail SAAR is on pace for around 14 million. Much better than what was expected in the Spring.

“There is a natural demand out there for our industry,” says Darrow. “You get these sudden contractions, but it always starts to expand again. We’re seeing that happen. We think Q4 will be a good quarter.”

TrueCar recently made a big announcement around its retail solutions offering for network dealers with complimentary VIN-specific digital payments and trade-in tools. Allowing consumers to make real payments on real inventory creates transparency and ease. The integration also supplies guaranteed cash-values for traded vehicles. 

TrueCar also launched TrueCar Military in May. In February, TrueCar’s long-term partner USAA decided to step out of the car-buying process. Due to that relationship, TrueCar began to step back and look at the military community at large. About 40 million people across the U.S. are part of the military community, so TrueCar decided to launch a program for military members to receive special incentives on select brands, vehicle repair, and deductible reimbursements, and a network of other military-friendly resources.