Edmunds.com is a provider of automotive information via Web sites, books, and other media. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California and maintains an office outside of Detroit, Michigan. Edmunds.com is privately-held, with the Steinlauf family holding a majority stake.
The Edmunds.com Web site includes prices for new and used vehicles, a database of national and regional incentives and rebates, vehicle test drive reviews by road test editors, and tips and advice on all aspects of car purchases and ownership. In addition, the company circulates free e-mail newsletters to voluntary subscribers.
Edmunds.com provides data through its "True Market Value" pricing tools, which launched in 2000. The Edmunds.com True Market Value New Vehicle Calculator provides the estimated average price consumers are currently paying when buying new vehicles. The Edmunds.com True Market Value Used Vehicle Appraiser estimates the actual transaction prices for used vehicles bought and sold by dealers and private parties.
In 2005, Edmunds.com launched Inside Line, a free online magazine for automotive enthusiasts. Inside Line delivers automotive content in the form of videos, photos, blogs, news articles, discussion boards and road tests. In 2006, Edmunds.com launched Carspace.com, a social networking site dedicated to car enthusiasts and aimed at competition to established sites such as MySpace, Friendster.com and Cardomain.
Edmunds was founded in 1966 as a publisher of printed booklets consolidating automotive specifications to help car shoppers make buying decisions. Peter Steinlauf had owned and operated a billboard company which he sold in the mid-'80s, later purchasing Edmunds.
By the '90s, under the leadership of president Michael Samet, Edmunds published its data to CD-ROM while also publishing books such as Edmunds New Cars & Trucks Buyer's Guide, Edmunds Used Cars & Trucks Buyer's Guide and Edmunds Strategies for Smart Car Buyers. Samet hired Haim Hirsch in 1994 to help post on a gopher site known as the Electronic Newsstand.[1] Hirsch would eventually become the company's Internet Services Director. Samet would also hire writer Christian Wardlaw in 1994, who would eventually become the company's editor-in-chief and greatly raise the site's credibility for an automotive audience.[2]
In 1995, Samet hired content czar Lev Stark,[3] and in 1996 hired VP of Business Development Daniel May, who would round out the management team which would lead the transition to the 1997 launch of the Edmunds.com website. This team helped Edmunds garner its first Webby Award in the same year.[4]
Growing quickly, Edmunds then brought in True North Consulting to help transition Edmunds to a fully scalable Oracle-based solution, and eventually hired consultant David Moss outright, naming him CIO in 1998.[5][6] Edmunds no longer prints publications.
Peter Steinlauf's son Avi Steinlauf also joined Edmunds in the summer of 1998 as the Director of Business Development—turning down a job offer from Intel. Avi Steinlauf had worked with Coopers & Lybrand's Knowledge Strategies Group, a New York accounting and consulting firm, had earned an MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree from Yeshiva College. As of November 2007, he is president of the California company,[6] which had more than 300 employees.[7]
Avi Steinlauf has served as Chief Operating Officer of Edmunds since August 2004, and will retain that title as he assumes the role of President. He and has also headed the company's marketing and revenue management areas.
As of 2004, Peter Steinlauf, held the title of CEO and chairman of the board. Peter's two younger sisters are not involved with the company. A separate board where his mother sits was created a few years ago after Edmunds decided to bring in outside investors, while keeping the company private. As of 2004, the Steinlauf family still owned a majority of the company.[6]
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