TTAC and TrueDelta: Ready for Takeoff

Welcome to the next step in the The Truth About Cars’ evolution: TrueDelta spec and pricing data. (If you don’t see a button marked “Get Nissan SE-R Spec V Pricing” above the SE-R review, click on “Classic” in the header, and then click on “Improved” in the top right corner of the header.) From now on, visitors can use TrueDelta data to check vehicle specifications, get new car prices and make an “apples to apples” price comparison to other models. It’s part of TTAC’s ongoing commitment to provide the web’s most trustworthy automotive content.

As many of you know, Michael Karesh is the man behind TrueDelta. Today’s integration is the culmination of a longstanding relationship between Michael and TTAC. From our first contact (comments and writing), we knew that Michael shared our ethics-driven goals and attention to detail. When we decided to offer more content for the 57 percent of TTAC’s daily visitors who are “in market” car buyers, we immediately thought of TrueDelta.

Michael and the programming team have done a terrific job coordinating TrueDelta’s software with TTAC's back end. We’re still playing around with a few widget placements and stress-testing the system, but TTAC can now give Edmunds, kbb and their ilk a decent run for their money when it comes to accurate, timely and user-friendly new car pricing data.

Even as we smooth out any remaining rough edges, we’re looking to expand our services to these new car buyers, making it even easier for them to buy the right car at the right price. Meanwhile, rest assured that we will NOT be neglecting our “base:” the pistonheads who come here daily to engage in a discussion and dissection of all things automotive.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be adding a news blog. It won’t be as comprehensive as Autoblog or as funky as Jalopnik. We’ll scan the net for significant developments in automotive design, engineering, manufacturing and retail; and split the difference. We’ll help pistonheads surf the automotive gestalt without getting all knarly about it. Or something like that.

At the same time, I’ll soon be creating more podcasts. You may notice I haven’t uploaded an audio file in ages. That’s because anytime I create a TTAC podcast it automatically appears on the home page, and then the back end spits out a New Content Notification. When the programmers disenable (a.k.a. kill) that process, we’ll have a walled audio garden. Visitors who want notification of new podcasts can sign-up via TTAC or iTunes. Everyone else can carry on as normal.

And then there’s the TTAC forum, or lack thereof.

When Mr. Montgomery’s recent editorial challenged TTAC readers to debate global warming in a dignified way, you rose to the challenge magnificently. Anyone who visits this site regularly knows that our commentators are the automotive webspace’s best and brightest. While I enjoy feeding our prose to the wolves on a daily basis, it’s high time you had a larger territory to piss mark.

That said, of one thing you can be sure: we will implement our existing posting policy on all forum contributions. In other words, the intellectual playground will be vastly larger, but the anti-bullying rules will remain. TTAC does not now, nor will it ever, tolerate personal attacks on the site, its authors or fellow commentators. Persistent offenders will be permanently banned.

If you have any questions, comments or criticisms of TTAC’s TrueDelta partnership or the plans described above or anything else site-related, please leave them below. My team and I read every comment left on TTAC, and respect the intelligence, wit and wisdom of our readers. We never forget that this website couldn’t exist without your energy, enthusiasm and patronage.

OK folks, it’s been a long strange day. I want to finish it by taking this opportunity– given as it is by me to me well past the logical point of conclusion– to thank all the people who put in the hard work to make TTAC and TrueDelta happen. From our Managing Editor Frank Williams, to our new data guy Michael Karesh and his supportive wife, to our programmers, biz dev dude, writers and commentators, ALL of you have given your all for what is, let’s face it, a labor of love. Thank you.

For my part, I pledge to continue doing everything I can to put TTAC on a firm financial footing without violating our core values. I am determined that the site will remain a labor of love even after it becomes a thriving commercial enterprise. I don’t see these goals as mutually incompatible. In fact, I view their realization as a vindication of our founding principle: the truth conquers all.