Ask a classic car buff who does the best chrome, paint or restoration work and you won’t likely get a recommendation for a garage across town. More likely, it’s a specialty shop across the country.
But how do you trust your baby – or parts of your baby – to that stranger? Millions of car buffs already turn to forums and review sites to track down referrals from other vintage car enthusiasts. Now, Angie’s List is compiling consumer reviews on classic and custom car shops, applying its 15-years of experience in developing the most reliable consumer reviews available, and making it easily available.
Angie’s List Classic Car service allows members to search one site to find information on custom and classic car specialty service shops across the country. For a company that has made its mark by telling consumers where the best plumber, mechanic or doctor in town is, redefining “local” for the classic and custom car industry required a little fine-tuning.
“Our classic car categories are the first for us that allow members to search nationwide for specialists who deal in whatever work they need done,” says Angie’s Hicks, founder of Angie’s List, the nation’s leading provider of
consumer reviews on local service companies and healthcare professionals.
Angie’s List Classic Car service currently covers more than 80 categories, from babbitting to paint, plating to polishing, and wiring to welding.
“We expect that once classic car lovers realize we’re offering in-depth consumer information, we’ll see dramatic growth in this niche, too,” Hicks said, pointing out that health care categories have tripled since that service launched in March 2008.
Angie’s List has collected consumer reviews since 1995, starting with a handful of categories focused on home services in suburban Columbus, Ohio. It now offers reviews in more than 500 categories of service in the U.S. and Canada.
Consumers grade service companies’ performance on an A-F scale, making it easy for other members to do their homework before they hire. To ensure those consumer reports are reliable, Angie’s List has a multi-layered accountability structure that:
- Prohibits anonymous reporting;
- Limits members to reporting only once on each, specific hiring experience so no one can stack the deck for or against a provider;
- Prohibits service providers from rating themselves;
- Alerts service providers (free of charge) to reports so they know what's being said about them;
- Encourages companies to respond (free of charge) to reports so members get both sides of the story.