Online automotive community DrivingSales just announced the winners of its first annual Vendor Ratings Awards, honoring vendors in Web site, CRM, SEO, 3rd party leads, and vehicle classified categories.

The Awards allowed the thousands of auto dealers in the DrivingSales community to publicly rate and review their vendors in a real-time, anonymous – yet verified – setting.Winners will be honored at the 2010 NADA Convention and Expo in Orlando, Fla. They’ll also be featured in the inaugural issue of DrivingSales Dealership Innovation Guide, an annual publication focused on new and proven best practices submitted by the DrivingSales community.

“We would like to congratulate the winners of the first annual DrivingSales Vendor Ratings Awards, all of whom have achieved a standard of excellence in satisfaction that is resonating with the nation’s dealers,” said DrivingSales CEO and Founder Jared Hamilton, in the announcement. “We launched DrivingSales Vendor Ratings to help dealers find and select the best vendor partners based on feedback from those who know best — their colleagues who use them — while at the same time holding vendors accountable to deliver better products for the dealers.”

The first, second and third place winners for each category are:

Online Vehicle Listings,
      — AutoTrader.com                      
      — Cars.com                             
      — Dealix UsedCars.com  

3rd Party Leads Provider
      — Dealix, a Division of Cobalt        
      — AutoUSA                              
      — Cars.com 

CRM System
      — Autobase                             
      — DealerSocket                         
      — CAR Research XRM     

Database/Owner Marketing
      — OneCommand                           
      — CIMA Systems                         
      — Cobalt                               
DMS
      — Reynolds and Reynolds                
      — ADP Dealer Services                  
      — DealerTrack DMS

Internet Lead Management System
      — Dealer.com                           
      — AVV WebControl                       
      — ADP iLead Control                    

Inventory Pricing Tools
      — vAUTO                                
      — DealerTrack AAX                      
      — HomeNet Inc.                        

SEO Provider
      — eXteresAUTO                          
      — Dealer.com                           
      — Pasch Consulting Group

Web site Provider
      — Dealer.com                           
      — Cobalt                               
      — Dealer eProcess                      

Dealers were asked to rate their vendors on a 1-5 star scale, including whether they would recommend the vendor product to colleagues, and why they would or would not recommend the product. All survey-takers were verified to ensure that the reviewers were actual dealership employees.