Mobile messaging is now available on Car and Driver.com, via Contact At Once! technology that can foster direct consumer-to-dealer connections from vehicle detail pages on Car and Driver’s vehicle listings platform.

Contact At Once!, a LivePerson company and Car and Driver provider Hearst Autos, announced Tuesday that the companies have partnered to add mobile messaging capabilities to Car and Driver.com dealers' VDPs.

This follows the Car and Driver's April announcement that it added a Trade-In Value tool and a Credit Score tool to make the buying process easier for both dealers and consumers.

When it comes to building relationships between auto shoppers and dealers, Contact At Once! solutions are designed to help shoppers directly text and chat with dealers.

“This partnership further transforms Car and Driver, the most trusted resource for automotive research, into the ultimate car shopping experience,” Hearst Autos senior director product innovation Brian Abrams said in a news release. “Chat and text are effective, natural ways for consumers and dealers to communicate. Adding messaging to our dealers’ VDPs enables car buyers to have their questions answered faster, which will ultimately improve the relationship between the buyer and the dealer.”

At no additional cost, dealers who advertise their inventory on Car and Driver.com can now opt into the new chat and text program powered by Contact At Once!, according to the company.

“In some of our most recent analysis, we see consumers favoring messaging over other types of communication when they are in market for a new car,” said Denise Chudy, Contact At Once! general manager. “Car and Driver.com is one of the most recognized brands in the automotive space, and we think it is a natural next step to enable shoppers to text and chat with dealers directly from the site.”

Contact At Once! said it has more than 17,000 businesses currently leveraging its solutions that are designed to connect mobile shoppers.