27 September 2007

On the Road with Daihatsu: Multimap Drives Car Buyers to Dealerships with its Ground-breaking API v1.2

Multimap, one of the world's leading online mapping and location-based services providers, today announced the implementation of the latest version of its leading-edge mapping API for compact car specialist, Daihatsu. Thanks to the service, customers are able to locate their nearest dealerships in seconds and access interactive maps showing their exact locations; a tabbed information box with top-line details is just a click away. The service also delivers step-by-step travel directions to dealerships of interest. Users can also search for new or used cars. The location services can help to boost the ratio of online to actual visitors.

Paul Tunnicliffe, Managing Director at Daihatsu, said "In joining forces with Multimap, we have enhanced our website, allowing our customers to save a great deal of time and effort researching the whereabouts of a dealership that is right for them. By empowering them to find the location information they need quickly, and presenting the results in an easy-to-digest way, we increase the probability of a visit, and hopefully of a purchase. We are very pleased with both the way the service looks and works, and the speed with which it was implemented."

To access the service, car buyers visit www.daihatsu.co.uk, click on the "Find a dealer" link, and enter their postcode or town. Multimap then delivers a street-level map with the following features:

• draggable maps with "fast fill" smooth zooming and panning
• a tabbed information box, showing an overview of the dealership and contact details on one tab, and dealership opening hours on the next tab
• step-by-step travel directions from the postcode/place name entered in the initial search to the dealership of interest. The directions appear as text and as numbered icons on the map
• additional search criteria - customers looking for used cars can refine their search by model, derivative, color, price, age and mileage, in addition to location (the results page links to the same rich functionality described above).

Dominic Deacon, Senior Account Manager for the automotive sector at Multimap, said, "We are pleased to be working with such a prestigious and successful company as Daihatsu Vehicle Distributors Limited. The Daihatsu website is one of the most advanced showcases of our latest API service (v.1.2), incorporating virtually all of the most sophisticated features currently offered by Multimap. And, as always, part of the beauty of the sophisticated, sleek, rich functionality and mapping that the API undoubtedly presents, is the fact that it can be implemented so very quickly!"

About Multimap

Multimap is one of the world's leading providers of mapping and location-based services. The company delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to more companies than any other supplier in Europe. All services are offered on mobile, PDA, kiosk, and interactive TV platforms. We also offer a highly-functional API (Application Programming Interface).

The public website, www.multimap.com, provides a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and countries in Asia; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; links to location information; and services such as hotel, restaurant and entertainment booking. The public site attracts over 10 million unique users, registers more than 190 million page impressions every month, and is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the UK.

About Daihatsu

The Japanese-manufactured Daihatsu range enjoys a strong following in the UK thanks to its reliability, fuel-efficiency and low running costs. Daihatsu offers a wide range of compact cars including the Copen sportscar, Sirion supermini, Terios mini-SUV and new Materia mini-MPV launched this July. Celebrating its 100th anniversary as a manufacturer, Daihatsu was the first to import a car in the UK in 1965, with the exact vehicle still on the road, having recently been restored by Daihatsu Vehicle Distributors Limited.