Transparency First

How DealerSurface Grades Dealerships

DealerSurface doesn't rate hugs, coffee, or showroom vibes.
We grade how the deal was structured.

Every dealer starts at A+.

Over time, repeated reports of pricing games, forced add-ons, or financing tricks pull that grade down. Clean behavior keeps stores at the top. You cannot buy a better grade. Dealers cannot post, reply, or manage their profile. This is a consumer-only platform.

Four Deal Pillars

Each report contributes data across four metrics. Reports are weighted by verification status and combined into a rolling dealer score.

Price Integrity
35% of score

Starts at 100. Deducts based on discrepancy size between website price and quoted price. Small gaps (under $500) lose 10 points. Gaps over $3,000 lose up to 50 points.

100 − up to 50 pts for price gap = Price Sub-Score
Add-On Behavior
40% of score (highest weight)

Starts at 100. Deducts 12 pts per add-on attempted (capped at −40), then an additional 15 pts for each one the buyer couldn't remove (capped at −45). +10 credit if dealer backed off everything they tried.

100 − 12 per add-on attempted − 15 per unremovable = Add-On Sub-Score
Remote Friendliness
15% of score

Full remote (price, trade, and financing locked before arriving) = 100. Partial remote = 55. In-person required = 0.

Full = 100 · Partial = 55 · In-Person = 0
Cash & Outside Financing
10% of score

Clean acceptance of outside bank or cash = 100. Pushback = 60. Penalty/discouragement = 30. Outright refusal = 0.

Clean = 100 · Pushback = 60 · Refused = 0

Grade Scale

Composite score = (Pricing × 0.35) + (Add-Ons × 0.40) + (Remote × 0.15) + (Financing × 0.10), adjusted by a confidence multiplier based on report volume.

Confidence multiplier: A dealer with only 4 reports won't falsely earn A+ status. Reports under 5 carry 50% weight; 5–14 carry 75%; 15–29 carry 90%; 30+ carry full weight.
A+
Plays it Straight

Price almost always matches website. Add-ons are rare and removable. Welcomes outside financing and cash. Often allows full remote deals.

90–100
A
Mostly Straight

Occasional small price gaps. Add-ons appear but are usually removable. Some financing friction but not punitive.

80–89
B
Mostly Fair

Regular small pricing gaps. Add-ons common but many removable. Partial remote possible in many cases.

70–79
C
Gamey Store

Frequent price gaps or "market adjustments." Add-ons common; some can't be removed. Reluctant on outside financing. Negotiate hard if you go.

55–69
D
Avoid if Possible

Frequent large price gaps. Mandatory add-ons, difficult to remove. Often refuses outside financing or penalizes cash. Won't quote remotely.

40–54
F
Hard Pass

Consistent, verified patterns of deceptive pricing, forced add-ons, financing refusals, and no remote capability across many reports.

0–39

How We Prevent Gaming

Consumer reviews are only worth something if they're real. Here's how DealerSurface makes fake reports costly, detectable, and ultimately pointless.

SMS PIN + Geo-Stamp

We text a 6-digit PIN to your mobile phone before you submit. That PIN is tied to your approximate location at time of request. A dealer employee sitting at their desk cannot generate a valid PIN for a competitor across town. PINs expire in 72 hours.

Prevents competitor attacks

NHTSA VIN Validation

Every VIN submitted is cross-checked live against the federal NHTSA vehicle database. Fabricated or mismatched VINs are rejected. One report is allowed per VIN, ever — so a dealer can't fake 50 five-star reports using the same vehicles they have on the lot.

Prevents fake volume attacks

Anomaly Detection

Every submission is silently scored for risk signals: burst volume from the same IP subnet, identical rating patterns, submissions completed in under 60 seconds, future-dated visits, and suspicious all-positive combos. Flagged reports are held in a manual review queue and cannot affect a dealer's score until cleared.

Catches coordinated campaigns

Document Upload Verification

Submitters can optionally upload their buyer's order, purchase agreement, or window sticker. Uploading a document earns a Verified badge and higher score weight. Fabricating a real-looking purchase agreement to game a website constitutes federal fraud — most won't risk it.

Raises the cost of faking

Legal Attestation

Every submission requires a signed attestation confirming the report reflects a genuine firsthand experience, and that the submitter was not paid or directed by any dealership or competitor. Submitters are informed that fake reviews may violate federal FTC regulations. This alone deters the majority of bad actors.

FTC-aligned deterrent

Confidence Multiplier

Dealers with fewer than 5 reports have their score multiplied by 0.5×. It takes 30+ verified reports before a dealer receives their full score weight. A single fake burst of reports can't move a grade — it takes sustained, consistent consumer input over time.

Resistance by design
No consumer review platform has fully solved fake reviews — including Google, Yelp, and Edmunds. DealerSurface is designed to make gaming measurably harder and more expensive than any alternative, and to be transparent about exactly how.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. Dealers cannot buy reviews, change scores, or pay to move from a C to an A. Any paid visibility we may offer in the future is only available to dealers that have already earned and maintained a high grade based solely on consumer reports.
No. DealerSurface is a consumer-only reporting platform. Dealers can't post public replies, ask customers to "update" reports, or run reputation campaigns here. This keeps the focus on patterns in real buyer experiences, not PR.
That's exactly why your report matters. Grades are based on all reports over time. If a store has cleaned up its act — or started slipping — new reports will move the score accordingly. One outlier experience rarely moves a grade with sufficient volume; patterns do.
We use a combination of friction, verification, and pattern detection. One report per IP/device per week. VIN-backed reports are weighted more heavily. Bursts of similar reports from the same network are flagged. Mandatory legal attestation makes fake submissions a federal risk under FTC rules. And we reserve the right to suppress suspicious reports from scoring.
A report is marked Verified when the submitter provides a VIN or uploads supporting documentation (deal jacket, purchase order, or window sticker). Verified reports carry more weight in the dealer's score calculation. Documents are never shown publicly — they're only used for score weighting.
You don't sign up for a grade. As your real customers submit reports about their experiences, your score builds automatically. If you already play it straight on price, add-ons, and financing, that behavior will surface naturally over time. You can encourage customers to share their experience — but you may not pay, bribe, or pressure anyone to submit a favorable report.
An A doesn't guarantee the absolute lowest price in town. It means this store is consistently reported to play it straight on deal mechanics. A C doesn't mean no one ever has a good experience there — it means there's a documented pattern of pricing games, add-on pressure, or financing friction you should know about before you go. Use it as one signal in your research.

Ready to report your dealer experience?

Takes about 3 minutes. Your identity is never shared. Every report makes the grades more accurate for every buyer.

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