Legal

Terms and Conditions

Effective date: April 1, 2026  ·  DealerSurface  ·  Texas, USA

DealerSurface is a consumer-only platform that collects and publishes anonymous, verified reports about auto dealership experiences. These Terms and Conditions govern your use of the site. They're written in plain language — not pure legalese — because we want you to actually read them. By using DealerSurface, you agree to these terms.

Section 1

Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using DealerSurface — whether you browse dealer profiles, submit a report, or use any other feature of the platform — you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree, please do not use the site.

These terms apply to all visitors and users of DealerSurface, including individuals who submit dealership experience reports. DealerSurface is operated by Car Dorx, a Texas-based company.

Your continued use of the platform after any update to these terms constitutes your acceptance of the revised terms. We recommend checking this page periodically.

Section 2

What DealerSurface Is

DealerSurface is a consumer transparency platform — not a review site, not a directory, and not an advertising service. Its sole purpose is to give car buyers meaningful, unfiltered information about the dealerships they're considering.

Consumer-only, by design. DealerSurface has no dealer accounts. Dealers cannot create profiles, respond to reports, flag submissions, pay for better placement, or take any action on the platform. Everything you read on DealerSurface comes from consumers.

No pay-to-play. Grades are calculated algorithmically from consumer reports. A dealer's grade cannot be influenced by any business relationship with DealerSurface — because no such relationship exists.

Not affiliated with any dealership or manufacturer. DealerSurface has no business or ownership connection to any auto dealership, dealer group, or vehicle manufacturer.

By aggregating verified consumer reports and converting them into transparent grades, DealerSurface helps buyers make more informed decisions and creates accountability incentives for dealerships to improve their practices.

Section 3

Eligibility

To use DealerSurface and submit reports, you must meet the following requirements:

  • Age. You must be at least 13 years old to use the platform. If you are under 18, you must have parental or guardian consent. By submitting a report, you represent that you meet this age requirement.
  • First-hand experience. You may only submit a report about a dealership you have personally visited or with whom you have personally transacted. You may not submit reports about dealerships based on second-hand accounts, hearsay, or information from others.
  • Legitimate use. You must be using the platform in good faith as a consumer — not on behalf of a dealership, competitor, marketing agency, reputation management firm, or any other commercial entity.

DealerSurface reserves the right to reject or remove submissions from users who do not meet these eligibility requirements.

Section 4

Submitting Reports

Reports are the foundation of DealerSurface. We take their integrity seriously. By submitting a report, you agree to the following:

  • Personal first-hand experience required. You affirm that the report you submit is based entirely on your own direct, first-hand experience with the dealership — not on rumor, online chatter, or what someone else told you.
  • License to publish. By submitting a report, you grant DealerSurface a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to publish, display, and use your report in fully anonymized form. Your identity is never associated with published reports. This license allows us to maintain the platform's public-facing records indefinitely.
  • No fabricated reports. Submitting false, exaggerated, or fabricated information is strictly prohibited. Reports must reflect what actually happened during your dealership experience. Fake reviews submitted to this platform may also violate federal law under FTC regulations.
  • One report per vehicle transaction. You may submit one report per vehicle transaction, enforced by VIN. If you submit a duplicate report for the same transaction, it may be rejected or removed.
  • Removal of violating reports. DealerSurface reserves the right — but is not obligated — to review, edit, or remove any report that we believe violates these terms, is fabricated, is submitted in bad faith, or could expose the platform to legal liability. We make these determinations at our sole discretion.

Your report is your voice. We believe in the right of consumers to share their honest experiences. We will not remove accurate, good-faith reports simply because a dealership disputes them. Our commitment is to the integrity of real consumer data.

Section 5

Grades and Scores

DealerSurface assigns a grade to each dealership based on the consumer reports in our database. Here's how it works and what it means:

  • Algorithmic, not editorial. Grades are calculated automatically from the data in submitted consumer reports. No human edits a grade. No dealer pays to change a grade. The algorithm applies consistently across all dealers.
  • Based solely on consumer reports. A dealer's grade reflects only what consumers have reported. It is not influenced by advertising relationships, geographical considerations, brand affiliations, or any factor other than submitted report data.
  • Not a guarantee of accuracy. While we take steps to verify that reports come from real people who had real experiences, DealerSurface does not independently verify every factual claim in every report. We do not guarantee that grades perfectly represent a dealership's current practices. Grades should be one input among many when making a purchasing decision.
  • Not endorsements or defamatory statements. Grades and the reports underlying them represent aggregated consumer opinion and experience. They are not editorial endorsements by DealerSurface, nor are they statements of fact made by DealerSurface. They are protected expressions of consumer experience.
  • Grades cannot be purchased. No dealer, dealer group, or affiliated party can pay DealerSurface to improve, adjust, suppress, or influence a grade in any way.
Section 6

Prohibited Conduct

The following actions are explicitly prohibited and may result in removal of your submission, blocking of access to the platform, and/or referral to appropriate authorities:

Fake, coordinated, or incentivized reports. Submitting reports that are fabricated, part of a coordinated campaign, or submitted in exchange for any form of compensation or benefit is strictly prohibited.

Reports on behalf of a dealer or competitor. You may not submit reports at the direction of, or for the benefit of, any dealership, dealer group, or competitor of a dealership. This includes reputation management, astroturfing, or negative review campaigns.

Grade manipulation. Any attempt to manipulate dealer grades — whether through bulk submissions, VIN spoofing, coordinated negative reporting, or any other method — is prohibited and may constitute fraud.

Automated access and data extraction. You may not use bots, scrapers, crawlers, or any automated tool to access, extract, or reproduce DealerSurface's data without express written permission.

Additional prohibited actions include: impersonating another person, transmitting malicious code, attempting to breach platform security, using the platform in any way that violates applicable law, and any commercial use of platform data without authorization.

Section 7

Disclaimer of Warranties

DealerSurface is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, DealerSurface and its operator disclaim all warranties, including but not limited to:

  • Implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement
  • Any warranty that the platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of viruses or harmful components
  • Any warranty regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or reliability of any grades, scores, or consumer reports published on the platform
  • Any warranty that defects will be corrected or that the platform will meet your specific requirements

We do our best to keep the platform running reliably and the data as accurate as possible — but we can't guarantee perfection, and these terms reflect that honestly.

Section 8

Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, DealerSurface and Car Dorx, shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of or related to your use of — or inability to use — the platform.

This includes, without limitation:

  • Any purchasing, financing, or other decisions you make based on grades, scores, or reports published on DealerSurface
  • Any inaccuracy, incompleteness, or error in any report or grade
  • Any loss of data, business, profits, or goodwill
  • Any unauthorized access to or alteration of your data

In any case, DealerSurface's total aggregate liability to you for any claims arising out of these terms or your use of the platform shall not exceed fifty dollars ($50.00).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

Section 9

Dealer / Business Notice

If you are a dealership, dealer group, or representative of a business that appears on DealerSurface, please read this section carefully.

Grades reflect aggregated consumer opinion. The grades and reports published on DealerSurface are expressions of consumer experience and opinion, protected under the First Amendment and applicable free speech law. They are not statements of fact made by DealerSurface.

We do not accept payment to alter grades. There is no mechanism — formal or informal — by which a dealer can pay, negotiate, or otherwise arrange for a grade to be changed.

If you believe a report is fabricated or violates these terms: You may contact us at info@dealersurface.com with a detailed description of your concern. We will review the submission in good faith.

However, DealerSurface is under no obligation to remove accurate reports reflecting genuine consumer experiences, even if the dealership disputes the characterization. We are committed to protecting the integrity of authentic consumer data.

Please also be aware that attempting to intimidate, threaten, or legally harass consumers who submit good-faith reports may violate applicable anti-SLAPP statutes and consumer protection laws.

Contact us about a report: info@dealersurface.com
Section 10

Governing Law

These Terms and Conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas, USA, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or your use of DealerSurface shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Texas. By using this platform, you consent to personal jurisdiction in Texas for the resolution of any such dispute.

Section 11

Changes to Terms

DealerSurface reserves the right to update or modify these Terms and Conditions at any time. When we make changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page.

Your continued use of DealerSurface after updated terms are posted constitutes your acceptance of those changes. If you disagree with the revised terms, you should stop using the platform.

We will not apply retroactive changes to these terms in a way that materially harms the rights of users who relied on prior terms in submitting reports.

Section 12

Contact

If you have questions about these Terms and Conditions, or if you need to report a violation, please reach out:

We aim to respond to all inquiries within 5 business days.

info@dealersurface.com
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