Autobytel Editors Choose Awards Based on Innovation, Design and Features

IRVINE, Calif. — Autobytel Inc. (Nasdaq: ABTL), the company dedicated to helping consumers research and find the information they need to purchase new and used cars and connect to dealers online, is pleased to announce its 2013 Car and Truck of the Year Awards. Led by editor-in-chief Michelle Naranjo, the editorial group of Autobytel has over 80 years of combined experience and has driven hundreds of vehicles. The choices made this year are based on innovation, design and features. According to Naranjo, “this year’s winners stand out in an exceedingly competitive automotive marketplace. We are pleased to announce the 2013 Autobytel Car and Truck of the Year winners and category winners.”

Autobytel 2013 Car of the Year
2013 Ford Fusion

Autobytel 2013 Truck of the Year
2013 Mercedes GL

Jeffrey H. Coats, Autobytel Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer, extended his congratulations to all winners, “the automotive marketplace continues to excite us with new technologies and vehicle improvements. We celebrate the best with our 2013 Autobytel Car and Truck of the Year and category awards, and we congratulate all of this year’s winners.”

Commenting on the top Car award winner, Autobytel editor-in-chief Naranjo said, “In a highly competitive segment with competitors raising the bar a little more each year to try and stay at the top, the newly re-designed 2013 Ford Fusion is Autobytel’s 2013 Car of the Year for pouncing right into the middle of the pack and causing quite the stir.” Naranjo continues, “The 2013 Ford Fusion has arrived just in time to do battle with the best that Japan, Korea, and its U.S. counterparts have to offer. The problem for everyone else? The 2013 Fusion might be the best of a really good bunch.”

Speaking about the top Truck award winner, Naranjo feels that, “The newly refreshed 2013 Mercedes-Benz GL-Class is the largest SUV offered by the German luxury company and is the Autobytel 2013 Truck of the Year.” She continued, “Taking square aim at the full-size luxury offerings built by Detroit stalwarts with its updated design and advanced tech and safety features, the GL-Class offers a range of options that will carry occupants in luxury but get them where only trucks can go.”

For more information about Autobytel’s Car of the Year Awards, and more Autobytel editors’ choices, visit www.Autobytel.com. Watch exclusive videos on Autobytel’s YouTube page or join the conversation on the Autobytel Facebook Fan Page.

About Autobytel Inc.
Autobytel Inc., an online leader offering consumer purchase requests and marketing resources to car dealers and manufacturers and providing consumers with the information they need to purchase new and used cars, pioneered the automotive Internet when it launched its flagship website in 1995. Autobytel continues to offer innovative products and services to help consumers buy, and auto dealers and manufacturers sell, more used and new cars. Autobytel has helped tens of millions of automotive consumers research vehicles; connected thousands of dealers nationwide with motivated car buyers; and helped every major automaker market its brand online. Through its flagship website, network of automotive sites and respected online affiliates, Autobytel continues its dedication to innovating the industry’s highest quality Internet programs to provide consumers with a comprehensive and positive automotive research and purchasing experience, and auto dealers, dealer groups and auto manufacturers with some of the industry’s most productive and cost-effective customer referral and marketing programs.

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