ATLANTA — Hearst Autos has outfitted Car and Driver’s vehicle listings platform with Contact At Once!’s web and mobile messaging solutions as part of a new partnership between the two companies.

The additional tools enable direct consumer-to-dealer connections from a dealer’s vehicle detail pages (VDP) on the publication’s vehicle listing platform. Dealers who advertise their inventory on the platform can now choose to opt into Car and Driver’s chat and text program at no additional cost.  

“This partnership further transforms Car and Driver, the most trusted resource for automotive research, into the ultimate car shopping experience,” said Brian Abrams, senior director of product innovation for Hearst Autos. “Chat and text are effective, natural ways for consumers and dealers to communicate. Adding messaging to our dealers’ VDPs enables car buyers to have their questions answered faster, which will ultimately improve the relationship between the buyer and the dealer.”

Contact At Once!’s messaging platform is designed to deliver conversational commerce at scale. More than 17,000 businesses currently use the company’s solutions to build relationships with online and mobile shoppers.

“In some of our most recent analysis, we see consumers favoring messaging over other types of communication when they are in the market for a new car,” said Denise Chudy, Contact At Once!’s general manager. “CarandDriver.com is one of the most recognized brands in the automotive space, and we think it is a natural next step to enable shoppers to text and chat with dealers directly from the site.”