CarGurus Identifies U.S. Cities with Highest Satisfaction Among Automotive Shoppers

Nashville, TN; San Diego, CA; and Austin, TX top the list

February 3,2015 -- CarGurus (https://www.cargurus.com), a leading car shopping and research website, today released a study identifying where in the nation consumers report the best car-shopping experiences, as measured by customer ratings of dealerships submitted to the site. Topping the list is Nashville, TN, where shoppers gave the highest percentage of perfect 5-star reviews (58%) when rating their dealership buying experiences. San Diego, CA (57% 5-star reviews); Austin, TX (56%); Memphis, TN (56%); and Birmingham, AL (55%), also rank among the top five cities.

On the other extreme, shoppers in New York, NY, were least likely to give 5-star reviews (45% of reviews were 5-stars) and more likely than shoppers in other cities to give 1-star reviews (20% of reviews were 1-star). Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; Oklahoma City, OK; and Miami, FL, also ranked in the bottom five cities with the lowest proportion of perfect reviews.

While the study reveals regional differences in consumer shopping experiences at local dealerships, analysts at CarGurus note that on average, dealerships across the nation get high marks from customers. The average star rating for all dealers reviewed on the scale of 5 stars (great) to 1 star (terrible) is 3.8. In addition, 70% of dealer reviews analyzed were rated with 4 or 5 stars; only 20% were rated with 1 or 2 stars. According to a CarGurus poll of its users, 65% say they always consult dealership reviews before contacting a dealer.

“Consumers often approach the car-shopping process with trepidation, but our data shows that in fact most shoppers end up having a pretty good experience at the dealership,” ” said Amy Mueller, Director of PR at CarGurus. “Still, where you shop matters, and consulting dealership reviews from other shoppers can go a long way to ensuring a great shopping outcome. This is why CarGurus factors dealer ratings in addition to price analysis when we rank search results– we want to help shoppers find the best deals from the best dealers as easily as possible.””

The following cities ranked highest for most satisfied car-shoppers:

1. Nashville, TN (57.5% 5 Star Reviews)
2. San Diego, CA (56.9% 5-Star Reviews)
3. Austin, TX (56.1% 5-Star Reviews)
4. Memphis (55.8% 5-Star Reviews)
5. Birmingham, AL (55.2% 5-Star Reviews)
6. Tampa, FL (55.1% 5-Star Reviews)
7. Kansas City, KS (54.8% 5-Star Reviews)
8. Charlotte, NC (54.7% 5-Star Reviews)
9. Saint Louis, MO (54.5% 5-Star Reviews)
10. New Orleans, LA (54.5% 5-Star Reviews)

To see the full ranked list of cities, click here: (https://cargur.us/6Kd9h.html.). For this study, CarGurus examined more than 100,000 recent dealer reviews from the top 51 metro areas in the contiguous U.S. Our most satisfied car shopping city rankings were determined by comparing the percentage of 5-star reviews among total submitted reviews for dealers in each city; cities with the highest proportion of 5-star reviews ranked highest. CarGurus solicits dealership reviews by inviting CarGurus shoppers who engaged with a dealership to review it. This program is strictly monitored to ensure the authenticity and integrity of reviews.

CarGurus helps shoppers search local car listings to find the best deals from the best-rated dealers, providing transparency on price, days on market, and dealer reputation. Every day, the company analyzes millions of car listings as well dealership reviews submitted by other shoppers, then ranks search results according to which are Great, Good, Fair or Overpriced deals. CarGurus Instant Market Value (IMV) assessments take into account variables including make, model, year, trim, options, mileage, location, and vehicle history.

About CarGurus

With more than 18 million unique monthly visitors, www.CarGurus.com is a leading automotive research and shopping website. The company was founded by CEO Langley Steinert, also a co-founder of TripAdvisor, and has world headquarters based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. CarGurus also serves shoppers and dealers in Canada (http://www.cargurus.ca) and the UK (http://www.cargurus.co.uk).