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CHICAGO and FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. — Hyundai will soon become the 29th brand to join the certified pre-owned program on Cars.com. 

As part of the program, the CPO inventory of Hyundai entire dealer network will be uploaded to Cars.com, which will include Hyundai certified branding on all of the CPO vehicles listed. The launch is expected to take place in about a week.

These CPO listings will also be distributed to Cars.com's exclusive partner sites and more than 100 affiliated newspaper and TV websites.

Cars.com will also include Hyundai dealers' certified listings on all of its partner sites, and will offer in-dealer training regarding best practices for online vehicle marketing.

The CPO inventory listings on Cars.com will be free to all Hyundai dealers, regardless of whether the dealer is affiliated with Cars.com. Each of the vehicles will have a stock photograph included, as well, explained Tracy Bowes, national manager of retail operations for Hyundai Motor America.  

Then, for dealers who already have merchandising agreements with Cars.com, they can upgrade their listings with additional photos and dealer branding, he added.

"The majority of vehicle purchases are being researched online, so it made sense to focus our marketing efforts in that media," Bowes told Auto Remarketing in a recent interview.

The major benefit to the program is that "it increases the visibility of dealers' CPO inventory and connects them with serious customers who are ready to buy a Hyundai CPO vehicle," Bowes stated.

"As a brand, Hyundai certified has experienced aggressive growth in 2010," he noted, citing data that shows year-to-date CPO sales being up about 36 percent with the overall market being down roughly 2 percent. We're optimistic this visibility will result in CPO sales for the Hyundai brand and our dealers."

Discussing further how this program can continue help push Hyundai's momentum in the CPO market, Bowes added the program aims to "continue to build on the success we've already experienced in the certified sector and we believe that success with certified is evident that consumers recognize the quality of our vehicles and industry-leading benefits of our program."