$re = '/^<a.*href="((?:.*)carSale(?:.*))".*>(.*)<\/a>$/';
$str = '<a target="_" href="/carSale/12/..">link1</a>';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php