WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. (June 2, 2015) — J.D. Power and Associates plans to acquire the National Automobile Dealers Association’s (NADA) Used Car Guide business, a source of used-vehicle values.
The transaction is expected to close early in the third quarter. Financial details were not disclosed.
Established by NADA in 1933, the NADA Used Car Guide lists U.S. retail, loan, trade-in and auction used-vehicle values for more than 100,000 subscribers, including retailers, financial institutions, insurers and software providers. The company will remain based in the McLean, Va.
The agreement will combine the NADA guide with J.D. Power’s Power Information Network (PIN), a real-time automotive information and decision-support tool based on the collection of daily new- and used-vehicle retail transactions. J.D. Power is a business unit of McGraw Hill Financial.
“J.D. Power has built its strong brand through analytics, data and its growing benchmark business. Benchmarks are a key to the McGraw Hill Financial business model and the NADA Used Car Guide adds a unique set of valuations, which are used as benchmarks by customers, to the well-respected J.D. Power portfolio,” said Douglas Peterson, president and CEO of McGraw Hill Financial.
“We see clear opportunities for both revenue and cost synergies as J.D. Power couples NADA Used Car Guide with the real-time automotive capabilities of the Power Information Network (PIN) to bring value to a broad set of customers. This is another example of McGraw Hill Financial utilizing an attractive tuck-in acquisition to expand the capabilities of the company’s iconic businesses,” he said.
“This deal is a perfect fit for dealers and NADA Used Car Guide customers. Under terms of the deal, NADA members will continue to receive a subscription to the guide as a membership benefit,” said Peter Welch, president of NADA.
The NADA Used Car Guide name will be used by J.D. Power for a period of time before transitioning to the J.D. Power brand, the company said.
The Used Car Guide’s roots track to 1922, five years after dealers formed NADA, when the association began studying used-car values at the U.S. government’s request.
In 1933, the U.S. government determined that existing used-car guides were biased and asked NADA to publish the NADA Official Used Car Guide (NADA Guide) as part of the National Industrial Recovery Act, according to NADA’s website.
During World War II, with production of new cars halted, interest in used cars skyrocketed, as did interest in the Used Car Guide. In 1946, NADA Guide subscriptions jumped to 50,000 from 28,000.
In the postwar era, the distinctive orange NADA Guide became a staple at car dealerships and lenders.
Growing demand for data sparked competitors. Today, Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds.com, Autotrader.com, Black Book and ALG, among others, track used-vehicle values.
To meet that competition, NADA’s guide has branched out, adding analytics and online and mobile-optimized tools.
Mike Stanton, COO of NADA Used Car Guide, told Automotive News, a sister publication of Tire Business, that today the association’s print product has become a “small part of our business” as customers have migrated toward electronic products.
The J.D. Power deal does not signify any change in long-term strategy, he said, adding that, if anything, “over time, we’ll have more horsepower to put behind the products to make them better.”