Beyond listings: Dealers share honest takes on third-party marketplaces

Breaking down the pros, cons, and real-world results

Hey, everyone — New Orleans getting covered in 3 in. of snow the day before the NADA Show was not on my 2025 bingo card. Wishing everybody safe travels. 

See you on the show floor.

—CDG

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If you’ve ever bought or sold a car online, chances are you’ve used a third-party marketplace at some point.

These platforms look simple enough—buyers browse, dealerships pay to list, and everyone hopes for sales. But like most things in this business, it’s never as easy as it seems.

What I want to know is: how do dealers really value these platforms, and where do they think there’s room to improve?

So—I connected with several dealers this week and spoke to some of the biggest marketplaces like Autotrader, Cars.com, CarGurus, TrueCar, and Edmunds. Here’s what they told me—

1. The here and now: It’s not a perfect science…yet. 

Third-party marketplaces run on proprietary algorithms, but they’re constantly challenged with ranking the listings and weeding out the “junk”. So—these algorithms get tweaked constantly, but no one outside the companies really knows exactly how they work.

Like Google—it boils down to “relevance”—a very hard concept to nail down. But it’s getting more sophisticated. 

Andrew Grochal, Senior Vice President of Product Management at CarGurus told me in an email that their AI analyzes millions of daily searches to learn which listings are converting best. When data suggests testing a new algorithm factor, they roll it out quickly.

And while CarGurus didn’t provide hyper-specific details—Andrew mentioned a relatively new AI model that assesses the quality of the first photo of a listing. Photos, along with vehicle details, pricing, and relevant inventory are all weighted factors.

However, some dealers have figured out how to “game the system”—inputting the exact right criteria to exploit the ranking system and get the coveted “best match” badge.

These dealers often lowball their advertised prices which can be thousands off the actual transaction price.

The result? Customers show up expecting a deal, only to face hidden fees and surprise add-ons. Meanwhile, dealers who price cars accurately and transparently inevitably get penalized in the rankings.

Recently, on the Car Dealership Guy Podcast, Cars.com’s Brian Kramer was very candid on the subject. So far—it’s the closest I’ve come to having a real conversation about vehicle pricing issues with any third-party marketplace.

“Cars.com’s internal teams have been dedicated to trying to isolate and figure this out for a while,” he told me.

Brian Kramer

They explored licensing technology to scan listings and catch vehicle pricing violators, but nothing fit their needs. So—they decided to build it from scratch with a generative A.I. back bone.

“It's a Herculean task. Every single time we think we've got a blanket solution to incorrectly priced vehicle listings, there's another variable, another factor. Our goal is to get it done before the end of 2025,” he explained.

Jade Terreberry

Other marketplaces have some safeguards in place too, but Cox Automotive’s (Autotrader) Jade Terreberry rightly points out that these pricing practices hurt dealers even more than customers.

“They post 10 negative reviews about you, and you’re done. They’re not helping themselves.” And on top of that, other dealers in the local market are forced to slash prices to unsustainable levels to stay competitive.

(My personal take? These practices screw over everyone…)

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But beyond the algorithms…

 2. Dealer POV: Determining the value of each lead.

Take Brett Sutherlin, CEO of Sutherlin Automotive. His group was paying $50 - $2,000 per lead until—in 2023—he pulled his four-dealership group off all major third-party marketplaces.

Brett’s reasoning? The listings were overlapping his other marketing efforts, claiming that dropping these services saved him nearly “$200,000 per month, or $2.5 million annually.”

A month after leaving, he said he had 25% fewer leads but only six fewer cars sold. And in his mind, it was hard to justify a $200K monthly investment for six cars. Instead—Brett reinvested some of that money in paid and organic Google search along with social media ads.

Brett Sutherlin

But here’s the deal—Brett’s strategy is one many dealers have tried. For some, it works, while for others, it doesn’t. As Jaime Drabczak, Sutherlin’s VP of Vendor Relations, explained to me, their dealer group’s goal is to be “the authority in [their] market,” and they believe advertising their vehicles on third-party sites undermines that objective…

Now—on the flip side, some dealers say third-party marketplaces are completely necessary—like Bill Vaughn, the General Manager at Kirksville Motors Company.

“The biggest thing is we always want someone searching for ‘new Chevrolet’ within 100 miles of our town to see our inventory,” Bill said.

To measure the value from these listings, Bill watches conversion rates. If they drop, Bill doesn’t necessarily think it's the marketplace’s fault right off the bat. Instead, he evaluates his own processes: lead response times, personalization, and management.

Bill—and many other operators also told me…

3. The next step: More support and customization from third-party marketplaces.

Even some dealers who see value in marketplaces feel they’re not getting everything they need. 

One of the most significant pain points? Identifying high-quality customer inquiries versus tire-kickers. Marketplaces hold valuable consumer data, but it’s not always reliably shared with dealers.

Jason Courter

But Jason Courter, CEO of Honda of Bellevue, believes the real problem is that third-party listing platforms miss the mark on letting dealers showcase their unique value. For example, a dealer who spends more on reconditioning or has detailed maintenance records often struggles to convey that in a standardized listing.

You see—buyers often rely on marketplaces for convenience and comparison shopping. That leaves dealers looking for more support like tools that allow them to differentiate themselves beyond price, insights that focus on true in-market shoppers, and flexibility to showcase what makes them stand out.

“It just seems like there’s room for these third parties to aggregate customer shopping information,” he told me. In this case, more detailed data would help him feel better about his monthly investment.

At the end of the day—it’s clear dealers need more than a platform. They need a partner that helps them connect with real buyers, not just clicks. 

The path forward? It’s all about transparency and trust. Marketplaces that invest in tools that really let dealers show off their strengths and cut through the noise of dishonest dealers—will keep their edge and win with the ultimate decision-makers—consumers.

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—Car Dealership Guy

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