February 20, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Directory Will Highlight Gay-Friendly Dealerships
ATLANTA, GA – Gaywheels.com, the only website designed for the GLBT automotive consumer, continues to grow with a major new section: the web’s first gay-friendly automotive dealership locator. Among Gaywheels.com users, a dealer directory is the most frequently requested service. The new dealer locator goes live in early March.
“Creating the Gaywheels.com Dealer Directory is the logical extension of our product offerings,” says Joe LaMuraglia, founder of Gaywheels.com. “Consumers are showing a clear preference for gay-friendly brands and now we’ll be able to connect them to a gay-friendly dealer in their area.”
Virtually every new car, SUV and light truck model for sale in the U.S. is summarized on Gaywheels.com with photos, prices, safety information, driving impressions and a detailed description. In order to provide even more comprehensive automotive information, Gaywheels.com will list the name and location of every auto dealership in the U.S., accessible via an easy-to-use search feature.
The directory’s gay-friendly ratings will be based on a self-classification, opt-in system. The dealers who want to reach out to the strong buying power of the GLBT community can register as a “gay-friendly” dealership, highlighting their listing, activating links to their own website, and adding contact information as desired. In addition, the dealer locator will have consumer feedback capability so users can leave comments about their experience with a dealer – positive or negative. Essentially, the users decide the “gay-friendliness” of a dealer.
Although Gaywheels.com encourages its readers to patronize gay-friendly car companies and dealerships, it includes information on all cars, and will list all dealerships. Gaywheels.com classifies all vehicle manufacturers as gay friendly or not based on their corporate policies for offering domestic-partner benefits to their employees in the U.S. However, this will not have a bearing on whether an individual auto dealership can be included as gay-friendly. Any dealership – from any automotive brand – can register as a gay-friendly dealership.
“We don’t want to limit the consumer’s choice – if they WANT a vehicle from a non-gay-friendly brand, it is not Gaywheels.com’s position to keep them from buying what they want. We are an information resource,” LaMuraglia emphasizes. “Furthermore, we don’t want to penalize a dealership for the corporate policies of their automotive brand.”
The new Dealer Directory will be featured on the recently redesigned Gaywheels.com site, designed to be easier to use and more visually appealing. Gaywheels.com also features original new-vehicle reviews by gay automotive writers, advice and recommendations on vehicle purchasing, financing and insurance.
Gaywheels.com is dedicated to promoting responsible consumerism and affecting change by encouraging car shoppers to patronize gay-friendly companies throughout the vehicle purchase process. Users of the site are able to investigate which automakers and other automotive companies offer domestic partner benefits to their employees, thus qualifying them as “gay-friendly.” With that information at hand, they can make educated choices during the car-buying process. Gaywheels.com launched in June 2005 as the consummate gay-friendly automotive resource.

Dealers – Click here to sign up to be part of the directory