True_car used to be a great deal, as they were an independent service with access to actual dealer invoice pricing. They gave real info on MSRP, dealer cost and hold back infomation and passed it onto you the consumer in an understandable way. It was very popular and dealerships had to pay Truecar to get on their referral list and dealership profits were being cut fairly significantly as a large portion of customers were using the service.

Of course the car dealerships didn't like all this good info being put out there for everyone to see, so they banded together and sued TrueCar. Something along the lines of "operating as a dealer without a license" or some similar BS back in circa 2015 IIRC. bottom line is the dealerships lawyers won and TrueCar was effectively gutted and part of the settlement was the dealerships now own TrueCar. So now it has essentially become an advertising venue for the dealerships.

That's too bad, I remember using Truecar back in 2013 and that made for a pretty good deal for me with all the info they provided. I made the mistake of using them again last year in 2017 and the info was maybe a 1/5th of what I got in 2013 and of no bargaining use and I got barraged with calls and emails from dealers. Not a good experience at all. I negotiated a much better deal by over a $1200 better than what Trucar said I should expect to pay.