TrueCar.com Picks New President, COO; Offers Used Sales Forecast

While also sharing its latest market forecast that now includes projected used-vehicle sales, TrueCar.com Wednesday revealed its new president and chief operating officer.

Stepping into the role is Stephen Hansen, who will be expected to lead the company’s strategic planning, product and technology development, marketing and management to accelerate its growth. Hansen will report directly to TrueCar.com’s founder and chief executive officer Scott Painter.

Hansen comes on board soon after TrueCar.com received significant capitalization.

Thanks to a year of triple-digit growth, TrueCar.com announced back in July that it had secured $35.5 million in new financing; including a $21.5 million credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank. Site executives explained the funds are meant to provide the company with additional expansion opportunities and acquisition capital.

TrueCar is asking Hansen to work closely with its executive team to help build and fortify an organization that can adapt, perform and excel in an accelerated environment in preparation for its next phase of growth. 

“Steve is the perfect choice to take TrueCar to the next level. He brings an unparalleled wealth of knowledge, experience, thought leadership and talent to our team,” Painter noted.

“Now that we have achieved profitability and are continuing to thrive, we need strong operational and strategic leadership to take this hyper-growth company through its next phase of growth,” Painter continued. “Steve has the expertise and proven track record of success to architect a winning infrastructure for sustainable, long-term success.”

Prior to joining TrueCar, Hansen served as COO for GeoCities where he led the company through a successful initial public offering and ultimately orchestrated its sale to Yahoo for $5 billion. While at GeoCities, Hansen also held the positions of chief financial officer and chief administrative officer. 

Hansen’s other professional background includes tenure as COO and chairman at Avamar Technologies, which was sold to EMC in 2006. And most recently, Hansen served as CEO and chairman of WePlay, an initiative developed through partnerships with CAA, the MLB Advanced Media and famous athletes such as Derek Jeter, Jennie Finch, LeBron James and Peyton Manning. Hansen remains chairman of the board for WePlay.

Hansen’s 20 years of experience also includes time as senior vice president of Universal Studios and as a partner in the entertainment, media and technology group with KPMG.

Hansen shared his enthusiasm about joining TrueCar.com.

“There aren’t many opportunities in one’s career to work for a company that is completely revolutionizing an industry,” Hansen declared.

“Given TrueCar’s trajectory and profitability, strategic acquisitions and an initial public offering are potentially on the horizon, and I look forward to driving those efforts with an aggressive and outstanding team of innovators and entrepreneurs,” he went on to say.

October Forecast

TrueCar.com predicted Wednesday that October used-vehicle sales would total 2,128,613, an amount down 31 percent from September but up 8.1 percent from October of last year.

The data include activity from franchise dealerships, independent stores and private party sales.

Meanwhile, site analysts computed the estimated ratio of new- to used-vehicle sales to be 1:2.3 for October.

To arrive at that ratio, TrueCar.com believes October new light-vehicle sales, including fleets, in the U.S. should be 927,676 units. The site determined that total is nearly 11 percent higher than the same month last year. However, it’s off 3 percent from September.

The TrueCar.com October forecast translates into a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 12 million. It’s slightly higher than September’s SAAR, which was 11.7 million.

Looking strictly at retail sales, the site thinks its October projection would put this sales segment at a mark 5.1 percent lower than September. But, it’s also nearly 12.2 percent higher than October 2009.

TrueCar.com also mentioned fleet and rental sales are expected to make up 19 percent of total industry sales in October.

Turning over to incentives, site analysts projected the industry average incentive spending per unit will be approximately $2,818 in October. That amount is 2.8 percent higher than the previous month and 6.2 percent higher than a year ago.

The site also noted Honda has reached its highest incentive level thus far in 2010. The OEM is averaging $2,312 in incentive spending per unit sold in October.

“Honda’s boost in incentives enabled them to be the only manufacturer to improve on sales from last month,” stated Kristen Andersson, automotive analyst for TrueCar.com.  

Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insight at TrueCar.com, offered his overall assessment of where new-vehicle sales are heading.

“We continue to see a growth in SAAR, for the overall industry and retail sales, indicating that a recovery is underway,” Toprak explained

“If the trajectory continues in the same path, we could have a strong finish to the year,” Toprak added.

Moving on, the following are forecast charts provided by TrueCar.com: