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Building on a longstanding relationship with San Francisco-based RepairPal, earlier this week Cars.com led a $13 million investment in the company, whose site provides customers the tools to pick the right auto repair providers.
“When it comes to maintaining a vehicle, there is a lot of confusion among consumers,” says Cars.com president, Mitch Golub. “We see an opportunity to transform the repair category and provide vehicle owners the same credible advice they have come to depend on us for when it comes time to service or repair their car.”
For Cars.com, this investment is a strategic one. Its management sees this as a way to further support its customers’ and dealers’ needs, by guiding the former to pick a maintenance center and helping the latter increase their service offerings.
Car service, in their eyes, is a “natural extension” of the car sales business, and helping customers find it builds trust.
“We already see a high level of interest in service and repair from our visitors. In fact, more than a quarter of dealership reviews on our site are about a service and repair experience,” says Golub. He says the addition of service providers’ information adds value to advertisers’ buys, and drives used and new car sales.
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Looking ahead the Cars.com team hopes Repairpal’s efforts to grow brand awareness and traffic to their site, along with adding to TopShops, their database of trusted repair shops, will provide benefit to both sites.
Visit Cars.com’s website, check out their BIC profile, and follow them on Twitter at @carsdotcom.
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