WALTHAM, Mass. -

Review site DealerRater celebrated its first decade in the business on Monday.

And the company is also celebrating growth that has made them one of the largest third-party review website dedicated solely to automotive dealerships.

The company was founded in Waltham, Mass., by its current president Chip Grueter.  

“DealerRater was launched in 2002 as a way for consumers to share their sales and service experiences at automotive dealerships with other website users. The fact that we’re celebrating a decade in business is a wonderful accomplishment and I’m extremely grateful to our dealer clients, consumer users, partners and employees for the tremendous success we continue to experience, ” Grueter said.

“Our growth represents a strong validation of the importance of online third-party reviews in the automotive industry and the effectiveness of the online reputation management tools that we’ve developed exclusively for our Certified Dealers. Ten years in and we’re still at the forefront of the consumer revolution and leading the way for car dealerships,” he continued.

The company also offered some numbers to show company growth. Officials shared that the DealerRater brand sees more than 30 million impressions a month, and during the past year, nearly 7 million unique in-market car shoppers visited DealerRater to research dealerships before purchasing or servicing a vehicle.

“The DealerRater site receives an average of 870 new reviews per day, and on weekdays records a new review every 55 seconds. With itsunparalleled volume of dealer reviews now approaching 900,000, 25 percent of all franchised dealers in the U.S. have embraced DealerRater and its popular Certified Dealer Program as a critical component to their online reputation efforts,” officials added.

And the company had a busy October, rolling out new mobile offerings for its customers.

This past month the company announced the launch of its mobile optimized website, which aims to make it easier for automotive consumers to research dealer reviews, rate their own car dealership experiences, and browse cars for sale using mobile browsers on iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices.

“Currently more than 20 percent of DealerRater’s site traffic comes from a mobile device,” officials said.

And dealers and shoppers can look for more new offerings this year, according to the company.

“DealerRater remains committed to offering the dealer community the most innovative products and services in the reputation management and social media arenas. We are truly enthusiastic for the future and have a number of exciting initiatives planned, including the unveiling of the next generation of the DealerRater.com web site later this year, which will offer a refreshed design as well as many new features for both our dealer clients and consumer users,” Grueter concluded.