Cars.com Predicts How Quickly Vehicles Will Sell With Launch of AI Powered “Hot Car”

Have you ever shopped for a new car and a deal seems too good to be true? Sometimes waiting for a better deal isn’t the right move to finding your dream car.  Cars.com™ (NYSE:CARS) announced today the launch of “Hot Car” as part of its suite of digital pricing tools that will help car buyers determine when and how to act on a purchase–and assist in accelerating sales. The new technology leverages a proprietary machine learning algorithm from Cars.com to identify which vehicles are most likely to sell quickly, based on car make and model, geographic demand, time on lot, pricing and consumer shopping behaviors. Initial testing resulted in double digit increases in conversion and was particularly strong on mobile.

“The technology is just one example of the ways we are investing in artificial intelligence to solve complex problems and build products that are more accurate and predictive in nature in order to improve the car shopping and selling experience,” said Tony Zolla, chief product officer at Cars.com. “By tapping into 20 years of Cars.com data and insights, Hot Car leverages a custom machine learning algorithm that considers more than 50 factors that contribute to how quickly a vehicle will sell.”

By analyzing vehicle supply, demand and pricing data in a specific market, Cars.com now offers consumers the insight needed to make informed decisions on the quality of a vehicle. This innovation creates a sense of urgency for consumers, which also benefits local retailers by increasing views, lead conversion and inventory turn rate.

A Hot Car badge will be featured on used vehicle listings that have a 70 percent chance of being sold within seven days from the day it was added or modified on Cars.com. New vehicles will earn a Hot Car badge when they have a 70 percent chance of being sold within 20 days from the day it was added or modified on the site.

“Hot Car creates value for both consumers and dealers. It gives consumers a competitive edge so they don’t miss out on a great car, and provides data-driven insights for dealers on which cars will move quickly so they can turn inventory faster,” said Zolla.

The new badge joins the “Great Deal,” “Good Deal,” “Fair Price,” and “Well-Equipped” price contextualization tools launched in October 2017.