CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -

CarGurus has rolled out a new version of its DealFinder shopping tool that has been enhanced to include ratings of dealerships by users.

As most likely know, DealFinder takes available car listings and ranks them based on which ones offer the best deals. Since user ratings of dealerships have been integrated into the search algorithm, these ratings will be taken into consideration when the tool ranks the listings.

“Online reputation ratings and reviews dominate in just about every other service industry except auto sales,” stated Langley Steinert, founder and chief executive officer of CarGurus.

“Yet anyone who has bought a car knows how much the professionalism of the dealer matters in the buying process,” Steinert added. “Our goal is to provide complete transparency around price and dealer reputation, so consumers can find great deals from great car dealers and avoid wasting their time or money with the minority of dealers that are known to misrepresent the cars they are selling.”

In early tests of the new DealFinder, CarGurus discovered that there were 8 percent more inquiries for dealers that had ratings greater than “3” than there were for stores with scores lower than “3.”