“Responsiveness” and “Accountability” Give Award-Winning Dealers a Boost to the Top of This Year’s List

DealerRater, a leading reputation management and car-dealer review platform and company of Cars.com Inc., announced its annual Dealer of the Year Awards (DOTY). In total, 1,197 dealers were awarded out of 18,600 dealerships across the U.S. and Canada. Winners were selected based on more than 1.1 million consumer reviews and ratings submitted online by car shoppers last year.

“The Dealer of the Year Awards recognize local dealerships that take the extra time to elevate the consumer experience and seek out feedback for continuous improvement,” said Jamie Oldershaw, general manager of DealerRater. “Ninety percent of consumers¹use dealership reviews when buying a car, so it’s more important than ever that dealers seek out customer feedback to amplify their reputation and long-standing history of creating a quality car shopping experience.”

There are two key areas that helped winning dealerships get boosted to the winner’s circle in DealerRater’s Dealer of the Year Awards:

• Responsiveness: Eighty-five percent of DOTY winners actively responded to new customer reviews, compared to just 40% of non-DOTY dealers.
• Dealership Employee Accountability and Performance: Eighty-seven percent of winning dealers enable their employees to be tagged and rated on DealerRater reviews and 67% have employee pages where customers can give individual feedback, which holds everyone in the dealership accountable to improving their customer experience.

The DealerRater Dealer of the Year Awards are presented annually to the top U.S. and Canadian car dealers with 25 or more reviews based on categories such as trade-in and financing experiences, quality of work, transaction speed, pricing transparency and overall experience, key drivers of repeat and referral business.

DealerRater Dealer of the Year Regional Winners

• Mid-Atlantic: Mercedes-Benz of Edison – A Ray Catena Dealership
• Midwest: Phillips Chevrolet
• New England: Mercedes-Benz of Natick
• Plains: Reliable Toyota
• Rocky Mountain: EchoPark Automotive Thornton
• Southeast: Newton Nissan
• Southwest: D&M Leasing – Fort Worth
• West: Gosch Toyota

DealerRater U.S. Dealer of the Year National Brand Winners

• Acura: Mission Viejo Acura
• Alfa Romeo: Alfa Romeo Fiat of Strongsville
• Aston Martin: Foreign Cars Italia
• Audi: Audi Atlanta
• Bentley: Foreign Cars Charlotte
• BMW: Circle BMW
• Buick: Arlington Heights Buick GMC
• Cadillac: Gold Coast Cadillac
• Chevrolet: Phillips Chevrolet
• Chrysler: Arrigo CDJR Sawgrass
• Dodge: Arrigo CDJR Sawgrass
• Ferrari: Ferrari Maserati Alfa Romeo of Fort Lauderdale
• Fiat: Cross Chrysler Jeep Fiat
• Ford: Klaben Ford Lincoln
• Genesis: Allen Turner Hyundai
• GMC: Crown Buick GMC
• Harley-Davidson: Manchester Harley-Davidson
• Honda: Valley Honda
• Hyundai: Allen Turner Hyundai
• Infiniti: Jackie Cooper Imports
• Jaguar: Jaguar Sarasota
• Jeep: Marino Chrysler Jeep Dodge
• Kia: Preston Superstore
• Lamborghini: Lamborghini Dallas
• Land Rover: Jaguar Land Rover Princeton
• Leasing Company: D&M Leasing – Fort Worth
• Lexus: Hendrick Lexus Northlake
• Lincoln: Klaben Ford Lincoln
• Lotus: Glenview Luxury Imports
• Maserati: Foreign Cars Italia
• Maybach: Mercedes-Benz of Houston Greenway
• Mazda: Tustin Mazda
• McLaren: Avondale Premier Collection
• Mercedes-Benz: Mercedes-Benz of the Woodlands
• Mini: Mini of Allentown
• Mitsubishi: Bell Mitsubishi
• Nissan: Newton Nissan
• Porsche: Porsche Ontario
• Ram: Arrigo CDJR Sawgrass
• Recreational Vehicles: Dodd RV of the Peninsula
• Subaru: Subaru of Jacksonville
• Toyota: Gosch Toyota
• Used Car Dealer: Dallas Lease Returns
• Volkswagen: City Volkswagen of Chicago
• Volvo: Smythe Volvo

DealerRater Canadian Dealer of the Year National Brand Winners

• Acura: Regina Acura
• Audi: Capilano Audi 
• BMW: Parkview BMW
• Buick: Capital GMC Buick 
• Cadillac: Budds’ Chevrolet Cadillac Buick GMC
• Chevrolet: Kelowna Chevrolet
• Chrysler: Ontario Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram
• Dodge: Ontario Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram
• Ford: Erinwood Ford
• GMC: Capital GMC Buick
• Honda: Halton Honda 
• Hyundai: Kingscross Hyundai
• Infiniti: Myers Infiniti
• Jeep: Ontario Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram
• Kia: Turpin Kia
• Lexus: Lexus of London
• Lincoln: Courtesy Ford Lincoln
• Mazda: Freeway Mazda
• Mercedes-Benz: Mercedes-Benz London
• Mini: Mini Vaughan West
• Mitsubishi: Nanaimo Mitsubishi
• Nissan: Grande Prairie Nissan
• Ram: Ontario Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram
• Recreational Vehicles: Auto Show Sales & Finance
• Subaru: Go Langley Subaru
• Toyota: ToyotaTown
• Used Car Dealer: Most Wanted Cars by Theo Motors
• Volkswagen: Vaudreuil Volkswagen
• Volvo: Volvo of Unionville

Leveraging Reviews to Improve the Consumer Experience

Cars.com’s market-leading audience coupled with DealerRater’s review technology produces powerful insights that help dealers stay competitive. Available to all Cars.com and DealerRater customers beginning in late March is a new personalized Experience Report that will help dealer managers understand the full picture of the customer experience they deliver at their dealership across key dimensions, including lead follow-up, pricing transparency, trade-in, service lane and more, ultimately helping improve their business. This new report paired with existing DealerRater tools like LotShot and ReviewBuilder will give dealers and their teams the information they need to truly offer the best start-to-finish shopping experience.

DealerRater Dealer of the Year and Consumer Satisfaction Award Methodology

Dealer of the Year Award scoring algorithm considers the dealership’s average DealerRater star rating as well as the total number of reviews written about the dealership during the 2022 calendar year. Consumer Satisfaction Awards are given to the top 10% of U.S. new-car dealers, as well as independent and Canadian dealerships that earn at least 25 reviews and maintain a minimum average review rating of 4.0 out of 5.0 during the 2022 calendar year.

Visit DealerRater.com for a full list of winners U.S. and Canada.

1 Cars.com Consumer Survey; 632 respondents; Feb. 20-24, 2023