BRITISH car dealers have made major leaps forward in the way they promote themselves on the web during 2001. Faster responses to e-mailed customer enquiries, more dynamic and relevant websites and more web-related vehicle sales are among the success stories of the past six months, according to a special survey.

The findings are revealed in the second probe into dealers' online marketing strategies conducted by independent automotive intelligence specialists, CAP Network. Best news for customers is that 81 per cent of dealers with a website now respond to e-mail enquiries within a day - an improvement on the previous survey figure of 63 per cent. And all dealers now claim to respond within two days where previously the CAP survey revealed that four per cent could only manage a same week response.

Mark Cowling, CAP Network editor in chief, said: "Earlier this year we put the spotlight on dealers' professionalism when it comes to marketing themselves on the web and found real shortcomings.

"We are, therefore, delighted that our second investigation reveals more professionalism across the board, from better updating of websites with available stock details to the all-important response time for customer enquiries by e-mail."