CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -

Along with hiring an executive for a personnel role, CarGurus released a study this week identifying where consumers report the best vehicle-shopping experiences as measured by customer ratings of dealerships submitted to the site.

Topping the list where shoppers gave the highest percentage of perfect five-star reviews when rating their dealership buying experiences was Nashville, Tenn., coming in at 57.5 percent.

Just 0.1 percent point off of the Music City’s pace was San Diego at 56.9 percent. Here is the rundown of the top 10:

1. Nashville, Tenn.: 57.5 percent

2. San Diego: 56.9 percent

3. Austin, Texas: 56.1 percent

4. Memphis, Tenn.: 55.8 percent

5. Birmingham, Ala.: 55.2 percent

6. Tampa, Fla.: 55.1 percent

7. Kansas City, Kan.: 54.8 percent

8. Charlotte, N.C.: 54.7 percent

9. St. Louis: 54.5 percent

10. New Orleans:  54.5 percent

On the other extreme, the site noticed shoppers in New York City was least likely among the nation’s largest markets to give five-star reviews as just 45 percent of reviews included five stars. Meanwhile, CarGurus noticed that shoppers in the Big Apple were more likely than in other cities to give one-star reviews as 20 percent of reviews originating in the market included just one star.

Baltimore, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Okla., and Miami also ranked in the bottom five cities with the lowest proportion of perfect reviews.

While the study reveals regional differences in consumer shopping experiences at local dealerships, analysts at CarGurus note that on average stores across the nation get high marks from customers.

The average star rating for all dealers reviewed — on the scale of five stars (great) to one star (terrible) — was 3.8.

In addition, the site pointed out 70 percent of dealer reviews analyzed were rated with four or five stars while only 20 percent were rated with one or two stars. 

According to a CarGurus poll of its users, 65 percent say they always consult dealership reviews before contacting a dealer.

“Consumers often approach the car-shopping process with trepidation, but our data shows that in fact most shoppers end up having a pretty good experience at the dealership,” said Amy Mueller, director of public relations for CarGurus.

“Still, where you shop matters, and consulting dealership reviews from other shoppers can go a long way to ensuring a great shopping outcome,” Mueller continued. “This is why CarGurus factors dealer ratings in addition to price analysis when we rank search results — we want to help shoppers find the best deals from the best dealers as easily as possible.”

For this study, CarGurus examined more than 100,000 recent dealer reviews from the top 51 metro areas in the contiguous U.S. The site’s most satisfied vehicle shopping city rankings were determined by comparing the percentage of five-star reviews among total submitted reviews for dealers in each city. Cities with the highest proportion of five-star reviews ranked highest.

CarGurus solicits dealership reviews by inviting CarGurus shoppers who engaged with a dealership to review it. This program is strictly monitored to ensure the authenticity and integrity of reviews.

To see the full ranked list of cities, go to this website.

Kenny joins CarGurus as VP of people and talent

In other site news, CarGurus announced that Kristen Kenny has joined the company as vice president of people and talent, a new position. Kenny, formerly director of people operations at HubSpot, will be responsible for leading CarGurus' global human resources organization, including recruiting, company culture and employee development operations.

“Kristen brings tremendous relevant experience leading rapid corporate growth and global expansion, and we are thrilled to have her on board as CarGurus continues to grow in the U.S. and beyond,” CarGurus chief financial officer Jason Trevisan said.

“Our success hinges on our ability to support and inspire our people, and Kristen will help to foster the unique culture we have built here and continue to attract the best and brightest talent to our team,” Trevisan continued.

In the past year, CarGurus highlighted that it has doubled its staff and plans to add more than 100 new employees in 2016 in the U.S. and abroad. Executive claim the website is now the second most trafficked vehicle-shopping website in the U.S. and has recently launched sites in Canada and the United Kingdom, with further global expansion scheduled for 2016.

“I am fortunate to be building on a strong foundation of success at CarGurus alongside such a smart, passionate and fun group of people,” Kenny said.

“We have big plans for growth, and with that, great opportunity for new gurus to join in helping us radically change the way people shop for cars,” she went on to say.

Prior to joining CarGurus, Kenny was director of people operations at HubSpot where she was the company's first in-house HR hire, responsible for building the human resource and recruiting function and scaling these to support the company's rapid international expansion.

Before working at HubSpot, Kenny was director and HR business partner at Endeca Technologies where she helped expand the company into seven countries.

Throughout her career, she's specialized in building custom infrastructure around HR operations and international expansions at startup companies.