CarsDirect Receives Diamond Dealer’s Choice Award from Auto Dealer Monthly

April 04, 2007 (PRLEAP.COM) Business News
LOS ANGELES (April 2007) – CarsDirect, a leading online automotive research and shopping service, today announced that it has been selected as the winner of the Diamond Award for New Internet Leads by the readers of Auto Dealer Monthly magazine.

The first-place award for superior lead generation services is the result of a survey of more than 15,000 dealers and dealership personnel who were asked to rate auto service providers on criteria including customer service, overall value, and performance in relation to other service providers.

“At CarsDirect, our core goal is to help people buy cars by building our community and providing each individual customer with a great experience,” said Josh Evans, vice president of dealer relations at CarsDirect. “This care and focus on the consumer translates into an effective marketing product for our dealer partners, and the Diamond Award is recognition by our dealer partners that we are being successful in helping them to grow their business. There is no better feeling than knowing that we are doing just that.”

CarsDirect made several improvements to its lead generation services over the past year, including the launch of a new product called CarsDirect Platinum. Platinum leverages CarsDirect’s expertise in the online automotive industry to produce the most qualified leads in the industry. Each Platinum lead is contacted within minutes after being received, enabling CarsDirect vehicle specialists to engage the customer, define the buying process, answer questions, and endorse the dealership and the dealer contact.

“The launch of Platinum is definitely one of the most exciting things that we did over the past year. During the pilot phase, many of our dealerships were able to double their close ratios,” said Evans.

Other recent enhancements to the CarsDirect family of websites include the re-design of the CarsDirect Used Car Channel, acquisition of GreenHybrid.com and NewCarTestDrive.com to give customers additional research tools, and a large-scale expansion of Wikicars.org, a community-driven auto enthusiast site.

About CarsDirect
CarsDirect (www.carsdirect.com) is a leading online automotive research and shopping service, providing new and used automobiles and related products and services, such as loan and lease financing and in-demand aftermarket products including extended warranties.

CarsDirect is a division of Los Angeles-based Internet Brands (www.internetbrands.com), a leading operator of media, community, and e-commerce sites for consumer categories including cars, real estate, mortgages and travel. The company empowers consumers to make better product and lifestyle choices, and to save money. Internet Brands’ sites deliver superior content and consumer insight, and have received dozens of “best-in-class” awards.

Internet Brands’ automotive division includes CarsDirect.com, Autos.com, Wikicars.org, GreenHybrid.com, NewCarTestDrive.com and Autodata Solutions. The company's real estate and finance division includes Loan.com, LoanApp.com, BestRate.com and RealEstateABC.com. Internet Brands’ travel division includes VacationHomes.com, Vamoose.com, Wikitravel.org, World66.com, BBOnline.com, CruiseMates.com, CruiseReviews.com, and FlyerTalk.com.

Internet Brands was founded in 1998 as CarsDirect and added the new parent company name of Internet Brands in June 2005.