Autoland Puts Point West Credit Union in Fast Lane with First Deployment of New Car-Buying Application; Seamless Integration with Credit Union Site Lets Point West Drive Branding, Speeds Members' Ability to Complete Transactions and Secure Loans.

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. -- Autoland (www.autoland.com), the nation's oldest and most successful Credit Union auto-buying service, today announced that Point West Credit Union has become the first to deploy its new car-buying application.

Point West Credit Union, based in Portland, Ore., seamlessly integrated Autoland's new offering into its own site, taking the driver's seat in branding and controlling its members' purchasing experience. Members now have a straightaway to finding and financing cars directly from Point West's site -- where they can keep shopping for other financial products.

The new Autoland platform is designed to support Credit Union dealer partners that are unique to that Credit Union, aggregating their inventory, providing consistent service levels and offering clear areas of differentiation.

Point West incorporated Autoland's automotive-center application into its "Auto Center" -- with identical navigation, graphic treatment and branding as the rest of the site. Autoland's car-buying application sits alongside Point West-specific functionality, such as online loan applications.

"The new Autoland application truly is seamless -- it gives us complete control over advertising and branding, so we can highlight certain rates and products on the entry page," said Mike Fletcher, vice president of marketing and business development, Point West Credit Union. "Autoland looked at the application from our viewpoint, and approached it as a partner, not as a vendor, going out of their way to integrate with our current brand, always keeping in mind what would be best for our members."

"Everyone is aware that the way people shop for cars has changed," Fletcher said. "In order to be relevant, we must provide new and fresh information, and we're now doing that across our entire site. The main way that we drive new membership is through auto loans, since a huge portion of our membership is always involved in the car-buying process. Autoland enriches our ability to offer something relevant and useful in the buying experience."

Prior to implementing the new application, Autoland operated as the Credit Union's visible e-commerce partner: the consumer would click a link from Point West's site to a separate Autoland-branded site. As Point West updates its site, it can independently keep Autoland's application current with the site's new look, feel and navigation.

"The bottom line is that by offering one platform, one channel and one familiar brand, we're giving Credit Union members a better overall experience," said Ron Frey, Autoland CEO. "Our new offering is just one more way we're differentiating ourselves as Credit Unions' best business partner. Not only is the platform co-branded and integrated with the Credit Union's site, we enable any Credit Union to conduct business and direct inquiries across multiple dealer partners that are unique to that organization -- and that's huge."

When users click "Auto Center" and "Find an Automobile," they move, in an integrated fashion, to Autoland's application to research new and used cars, sell their old cars, calculate payments and even compare two cars side-by-side. Autoland's new platform preserves the Credit Union's navigation, so users can easily move between the car-buying service, online banking and other parts of Point West's site.

Autoland is a subsidiary of Zag, a visionary new company with a state-of-the-art technology platform that makes it possible to integrate and customize the automotive center application for all Credit Unions' sites. New functionality allows it to work with Credit Unions' other auto partners to search inventory, better identify members who are in the market for a car and provide extensive reporting to the financial institutions.

About Autoland

Autoland is the nation's largest Credit Union auto-buying service, representing more than eight million Credit Union members. But despite its size, the company's commitment to personalized service remains a constant. Founded in 1971, Autoland now partners with hundreds of Credit Unions and sells more than $270 million in vehicles per year. Autoland is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zag (www.zag.com), of Santa Monica, Calif.