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The most comprehensive reputation data resources in automotive, brought to you by Widewail.
  • Widewail Automotive Reputation Index
  • The REV Newsletter (1x/month)
  • Industry Reports

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Automotive Index Training: Basic Actions

Sort

  • In the top toolbar, click “Sort”

  • Select a column title in the dropdown menu and sort in ascending or descending order

  • Add multiple sorts for additional layers of ordering

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Automotive Index Training: Basic Actions

Filter

  • In the top toolbar, click “Filter”

  • Focus on certain areas by filtering by categorical fields like "Brand" or "City"

  • Set conditional filters like "all dealers with an average rating greater than 4"

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Get to Know the Reputation Data

This Widewail Automotive Reputation Index dataset consists of:

  • 16,671 new car dealers in the U.S.

  • 1.6M reviews

  • Google reviews only

  • Current Timeframe: February through June of 2023

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What Does This All Mean?

Find definitions of each column header

In the row of column headers, you can hover over the ⓘ symbol next to each label to read the definition of what is being measured in that column and how the data was collected. 

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Where to Find Benchmarks

At the bottom of the table, you'll find aggregated numbers for each column. These are the benchmarks. We've preset the benchmarks in each column for you.

The benchmark data updates as you filter and sort the table, producing thousands of variations, each specific to your market or interests.

 

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Common Use Cases & More

Below the Reputation Index table, you'll find a Common Use Cases section to get you started. Each common use case includes a how-to video.

The Automotive Reputation Index is ever-evolving. Check back regularly for updated data and new use cases. If your dealership is missing and you’d like to add it to the Index, select “Submit a request to add.”

Get Started
April 25, 2024

REV #009: Love, Deals and Tough Towns

REV #009: Love, Deals and Tough Towns

Welcome to the REV. A briefing that goes deep into the Widewail Automotive Reputation Index data, surfacing the most interesting insights. Every 3 weeks we Rank, Explore & Visualize automotive reputation & sentiment data. 

All data is sourced from the Widewail Automotive Reputation Index (unless noted). The Index aggregates over 1.6 million Google reviews from 16k new car dealerships in the U.S. Customize the dataset like it's your own personal spreadsheet. Try it out. It’s free.

Read online. Subscribe.

RANK

So Much Love

Let’s look at brands with the fewest negative mentions of staff.

While STAFF is the #1 driver of positive reviews, mentioned in 56.9% of positive reviews, the topic is not a major driver of negativity.

Mentioned in only 17.49% of negative reviews, it’s the #7 driver of negativity.

Our hypothesis: unhappy customers prefer to highlight a specific problem and are understandably reluctant to bash an individual by name.

In the topic rankings for the fewest negative mentions of staff, MINI takes the win and GM makes a strong showing.

Topic Rank

Brand

Mentions

Difference vs. Benchmark

1

MINI

13.46%

-23.03%

2

VOLKSWAGEN

14.20%

-18.78%

3

BUICK

14.44%

-17.42%

4

GMC

14.51%

-17.06%

5

CHEVROLET

14.58%

-16.63%

 

We will release more in-depth automaker topic rankings over the next few months. 

First, the top 5 brands to buy a car from and the top 5 to service a vehicle at. We’ll launch that project in partnership with Car Dealership Guy on May 6th.

EXPLORE

Deals

Deals don’t drive positive reviews.

But for these four brands, deals have an outsized influence.

Each brand is either affordable or affordable luxury. While deals don't drive positive reviews for most brands, they are effective reputation drivers for these brands.

Topic Rank

Brand

Percent Difference vs. Benchmark

1

MITSUBISHI

+55%

2

ACURA

+47.58%

3

MAZDA

+42%

4

HYUNDAI

+31%

VISUALIZE

Top 5, Bottom 5

Tough Towns (lowest reputation health score)

  1. Kahului, HI
  2. Poplar Bluff, MO
  3. Montgomery, OH
  4. Lihue, HI
  5. Ithaca, NY

Friendly Towns (highest reputation health score)

  1. Concord, NC
  2. Coral Springs, FL
  3. Buford, GA
  4. Mckinney, TX
  5. Amherst, NY

*We filtered out any towns with less than 5 dealerships for both lists

When I published REV #001 on DealerRefresh, Joe Pistell commented, ”Love to see:

Tough Towns: Top 10 Cities with the lowest average ranks.”

Well, Joe, I finally got it done - it only took 6 months.

We collected data on 868 cities across the US to find the 5 with the lowest health score and the 5 with the highest. To remove outliers, we only looked at towns with 5+ dealerships.

The toughest town for dealers in the US: Kahului, HI.

Concord, NC, takes the top spot for friendliest. I’ll be honest; I’m not seeing much of a trend here.

Here’s the full list of cities if you’re curious.

See you in 3 weeks - Jake, Marketing @Widewail