Your first thought might be “So what?” when we say that, according to TrueCar founder and CEO Scott Painter,  1.3 percent of the new car market is buying their vehicles through affinity programs and member organizations.  What this translates too, however, is impressive – 15,000 vehicles sold each month.  That’s 180,000 each year.

“Within a year, we expect this monthly number to jump to 100,000,” Painter told us. Right now the auto valuation research vendor is working with 5400 dealerships, and helping them sell to 75 different affinity groups that include its owner USAA, Consumer Reports, AAA and American Express. The attraction to dealers, of course, is in the number of consumers these groups can bring to their dealership. In return, the dealerships provide discounts that are well into the $1000′s for most consumers.

How TrueCar (the former Zag.com)  and USAA work together to provide leads to dealers and hefty discounts to consumers is the subject of an upcoming CIR. Clients, stay tuned. If you’re an auto vertical publisher, this is important information.