Ready to Fall in Love? Meet Your Match With Cars.com's Shopping Tools
Jury duty. Cleaning toilets. Getting your driver’s license renewed. Having a lengthy phone conversation with your mother-in-law (not my MIL; she’s lovely). What do these four loathsome tasks have in common? They’re all preferred to shopping for a car.
Related: More Car Buying News
I get it. Car shopping should be a fun experience where you find a car that you fall in love with, but for many it’s a stressful process. After all, a car is often the second largest purchase the average person will make, and the process is overwhelming. No pressure at all.
To change that experience, Cars.com has created our Matchmaker tool for those who don’t know what car they want and need help narrowing their choices. Simply answer some questions about your lifestyle and get recommendations on the cars that could be your perfect match. Of course, there’s a lot more to it. Cars.com has a secret sauce that includes comprehensive vehicle data and sentiment analysis to help you find a compatible car.
For those who do have some idea of which make or model they’re shopping for, our traditional car search is still available. But we’ve improved the traditional shopping experience, too. Once you’ve researched the cars you’re interested in and zeroed in on your top choice, use Cars.com’s inventory to find the perfect match for your budget. Using artificial intelligence, Cars.com uses new indicator badges to note hot cars that are moving quickly off of dealer lots. It also labels cars as a fair price, a good deal and a great deal to help shoppers navigate which car they should pursue.
Related: Read This if Reliability Ranks High on Your Car-Shopping Checklist
OK, you’ve found the car you want and it’s in Cars.com’s inventory, now what? Well, it’s time to make another match — but this one is with a salesperson. Cars.com’s Salesperson Connect feature allows you to read profiles and reviews of the salespeople that you could be working with — before you ever step on a dealer’s lot. Let’s say you’re interested in electric vehicles; using our Salesperson Connect tool will allow you to find the EV expert at the dealership by researching the salespeople’s profiles and reviews. Or maybe you’re a woman who prefers to work with a female salesperson — the tool helps match shoppers to whomever they feel most comfortable working with.
Before you head off to the dealership lot to test-drive your dream car and close the deal, download the Cars.com’s app. Not only can you browse Cars.com’s inventory and save your favorites, but it has a trade-in calculator to help determine the value of your trade-in, monthly payment calculators for the new ride and even an affordability calculator.
In the app, there’s also a feature called On the Lot that helps you find and compare nearby vehicles and their pricing while you’re at the dealership. It’ll help you find special offers, too.
From the beginning of your car search to its sweet conclusion when you drive off the lot in your new car, Cars.com has all the tools to help you fall in love with car buying.
Cars.com’s Editorial department is your source for automotive news and reviews. In line with Cars.com’s long-standing ethics policy, editors and reviewers don’t accept gifts or free trips from automakers. The Editorial department is independent of Cars.com’s advertising, sales and sponsored content departments.
