Hummer Reigns Supreme

Last year, Hummer's website was named the best by J.D. Power and Associates. This year, after six months, the automaker's site once again achieved the highest ranking in the 2008 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study conducted by J.D. Power and Associates.

Steve Witten, the executive director of marketing/media research at J.D. Power, outlined the things that made Hummer the winner saying: "HUMMER continues to set the standard with a Web site that satisfies shoppers through fast performance and streamlined navigation. A focus on a user-friendly site that delivers robust information to shoppers both quickly and easily has put HUMMER's site in the top spot three times in the past four waves of MWES."

According to The Auto Channel, the automaker's site received 867 points out of a 1,000 scale. Although the automaker retained its lead in the rankings, its index dropped by 2 points.

With more and more consumers looking to gain information regarding vehicles or purchase auto part like fuel injectors on the World Wide Web, automakers continued to improve on the design of their sites to provide information to consumers.

Witten said: "Traditional point-and-click Web site navigation is changing as a growing number of shoppers use search engines to link directly to automotive manufacturer model pages rather than the home pages."

Witten also pointed out Lincoln's site which made it to the top three this year to be one of the sites which have been improved to suit the needs of site visitors. "As a result, manufacturer vehicle model pages are beginning to contain more functionality than ever before. Lincoln's Web site, in particular, combines rich content on its model pages with fast, clear navigation," Witten added.