Scott Painter and Tom Taira started the business to provide white-label auto-buying programs to affinity groups.

The company's initial partner was Capital One in order for its customers to arrange financing, access upfront pricing, and locate inventory online.

[7][8] After a year of development, Scott Painter (Chairman) and Tom Taira (President) introduced TrueCar during the Techcrunch's Startup Battlefield in September 2008, launching it as a separate company from Zag.com.

[9] TrueCar gathers automotive retail transaction data from thousands of sources in order to enable consumers "to see what's paid" on any vehicle in the US.

[20] In August 2011, TrueCar purchased ALG, a company that provides information on future residual values of vehicles, for an estimated $83 million.

[33] Shortly after disappointing first quarter results in 2019, TrueCar announced the immediate resignations of the accountable senior executives, including CEO Chip Perry, CTO/CPO Tommy McClung, CMO Neeraj Gunsager, and EVP Brian Skutta.

In May 2020, TrueCar announced a program focused on active military members[36] designed to help offset its loss of the USAA Car Buying Service.