DriveChicago.com

For more than a decade, DriveChicago.com has provided new and used car leads to CATA member dealers at no charge. The mission of DriveChicago.com is simple: "Cultivate new- and used-vehicle shoppers, guide them through the selection process, and pass them to CATA member dealers." In carrying out its mission, DriveChicago.com is has become a well-known and trusted site in Chicagoland that helps consumers locate vehicles at new-car dealerships. Dealership information and inventory listings on DriveChicago.com are free to CATA members. DriveChicago.com's inventory team works with individual dealer's inventory provider and internet manager to make sure its dealership information and inventory listings are up to date.

In November of 2009, DriveChicago.com was completely redesigned, making use of cutting-edge architecture provided by Automotive Internet Media (AIM). The relationship with AIM has allowed the CATA to significantly streamline operations and cut fixed costs while continuing to provide simple one-click access to dealer's inventory. Mark Bilek, internet director at the CATA noted that DriveChicago.com continues to grow its traffic from sites like Google, Yahoo and Bing thanks to AIM's focus on search-engine optimization.

DriveChicago.com has entered into several partnership agreements where CATA dealer inventory is syndicated on community Web portals. Partners include ClearChannel Radio, Northwest News Group, and Daily Herald. The syndication agreements with these companies provides operating revenue for DriveChicago and also gets CATA member dealers' inventory in front of more prospective customers. This same inventory feed is available to local dealer organizations for use on their Websites. In the past, Infiniti, Chevrolet, and Acura have taken advantage of this valuable service.

In May 2011, DriveChicago.com partnered with Experian to offer free vehicle history reports on every used vehicle on DriveChicago.com. This program included radio and billboard advertising. During the month of May, visitors ran more than 34,000 Experian AutoCheck reports on more than 27,000 different vehicles. Traffic on DriveChicago.com increased five percent for the month, while traffic at similar sites like Cars.com and AutoTrader.com was down more than 20 percent during the same time period.

This past August, DriveChicago.com embarked on a service campaign. Enhancements to the site included a dedicated Auto Repair section that features informative videos and dedicated service pages for each dealership. The goal of the service campaign is to divert search-engine traffic that would normally go to independent repair shops to new-car dealerships. Because DriveChicago.com is ZIP code based, it can pass this Web traffic out in a fair manner.

DriveChicago.com is also the Web companion to the popular Drive Chicago radio show, hosted by CATA Director of Communications Paul Brian. Visitors to DriveChicago.com are asked to submit questions for Paul to answer on air or via email.

For more information on DriveChicago.com and the service it provides, please contact Mark Bilek at 630-424-6082.