I was a dealer with CarGurus until the end of last month, November, when I was told my rate will be increased 100% in two business days. Is there any other dealers out there that have experienced this? I have been with them for a long time, and the only time I heard from them was this call. Completely unfair!

It's called marketing costs. If you don't want to spend the money, simply discontinue your subscription. As CarGurus grows in popularity, the cost to advertise on their website will continue to climb. A dealer saying ANYTHING is "unfair" is absolutely, positively hilarious though.

Fair enough, and you are right. However, as our industry has evolved to complete transparency, I find the sales tactics offensive, just as you would if I dealt with you in the same fashion. We are a full disclosure dealer with four decades of history. 70% of our customers are repeat/referral, so for you to lump us in with your perception of how you view auto dealers just tells me that you haven't had anyone in this industry treat you like you deserve to be treated.

My opinion is that of someone who has spent over a decade in the auto industry working for a multi-generation dealership chain who claim "complete transparency", just like they say "The online price is the lowest we can go" when I'm looking at the books knowing for a fact they're in the car for say $10k and have it listed at $19k refusing to budge. I am yet, in my experience working with hundreds of dealers, to see an honest dealer making FAIR deals. You have to put food on the table, and that's fair. But raking people over the coals is what makes me go private party for all of my purchases and sales from my collection. Not to mention the "four square" sheet is very 1970's and I'm not wasting my time with it. BUT....you are correct in your answer in that I have not been treated well as a customer. Based on your response, maybe I should deal with your dealership in the future and see if you can change my opinion. It was a good, fair response either way and I respect that. I'm sorry you feel the advertising costs are out of line.

In any industry you are going to find good and bad examples of how to conduct business. In today's marketplace, bad dealers, accountants, lawyers and any other profession you can think of will simply not make it. The cream will always rise to the top and the bad, dishonest ones will simply fail over time. There is so much information out there with price guides, vehicle history reports and condition disclosure that if anyone does their do diligence they should be able to detect who is treating them right and who is not. My original point speaks to being treated right, and I was not. They since have come back to me and made good on an agreement. The amount of revenue it takes to afford CarFax, cars.com, cargurus.com and a whole host of other providers has shifted the revenue to all of our venders. The guys like me who actually go out and invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on the actual product are getting squeezed out. In any event, I agree, it has been a good exchange and helpful. Thank you for your time, and best to you! Please visit our website at dacquistomotors.com to get a feel for who we are and how we do business.