Waltham, Mass. – January 16, 2012 - DealerRater, the world’s premier car dealer review web site, will host a press conference at the 2012 NADA & ATD Convention and Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, to announce winners of the 2012 Dealer of the Year Award Program.  The press conference will occur at 2-2:45 p.m., on Sunday, February, 5, in Room 235 of the Las Vegas Convention Center.  At the press conference, a select number of car dealerships throughout the United States and Canada will be awarded for outstanding customer satisfaction, as expressed through customers’ online reviews posted on DealerRater’s web site. 

According to recent studies, 84% of Americans say online evaluations have an influence on their decision to purchase a product/service, and 73% of car shoppers now consult online dealership reviews. With the growth of Internet use in the car shopping process over the past decade, reputation management has become a vital part of any dealership’s marketing process.

DealerRater was founded in 2002 as the first car dealer review website worldwide.  With more than 500,000 people joining the DealerRater user community each month, DealerRater is the world’s #1 online resource for anyone seeking third-party information on automobile dealerships.   DealerRater features more than 41,000 U.S. and Canadian car dealers, and 550,000 consumer reviews.

Established in 2007, DealerRater’s Dealer of the Year awards are given each February to car dealerships that have the highest PowerScore™ in their brand category.  Each dealership’s PowerScore is determined using a Bayesian algorithm that considers the dealership’s average DealerRater user rating and the total number of reviews written about the dealership during the 2011 calendar year.  The dealership must also have at least twenty-five (25) new reviews written on DealerRater’s web site during the previous calendar year and an average rating greater than 4.0, with 5.0 as the highest possible score. 

In addition, one dealership will be chosen as the overall Dealer of the Year for 2012.  This dealership will be recognized for having a PowerScore that outranks all other brand-specific Dealer of the Year winners.  For the first time since initiating the Dealer of the Year Award Program, DealerRater will also recognize top dealers in their brand category at the individual state level.

Participants in the press conference will be: Jamie Oldershaw, Senior Vice President of Operations & Planning, Heather MacKinnon, Vice President of Sales, and Amy Rosenfield, Marketing Manager.