New Vehicle Internet Lead Provider

Overall dealer satisfaction with new vehicle leads has improved over last year; however, this category was a polarized one. The award winners’ scores were well above average, while all others seemingly fell by the wayside with below-average scores.

Double Diamond winner CarsDirect turned in a stellar performance this year, beating last year’s score by almost 10 points and proving that bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. According to Ken Potter, vice president of sales at CarsDirect, this year’s win “means a great deal and is reflective of the effort we have put forth the past couple years at improving quality to be best in class.” He added, “It starts with having great people within our ranks from the sales side to the account managers and then carries over into our philosophy of providing quality over quantity..”

Cars.com stepped up to claim this year’s Platinum Award, returning to the top three with a score more than eight points higher than last year’s fourth-place ranking. “To help our dealers compete, we continue to: one, offer Internet sales and marketing training with today's longer buying cycles in mind, and two, equip them with new tools to engage in-market car buyers,” said Michael Page, vice president of advertising products for cars.com.

AutoTrader.com rounded out the top three with the Gold Award, and it too saw a nice increase over last year’s score. Additionally, AutoTrader.com has the distinction of being the only provider in this category to win an award every year. “We feel honored to be partners with the dealers and to hear firsthand from them through this recognition that they feel we are really working for them,” said Chip Perry, president and CEO of AutoTrader.com.