The FTC Just Drew a Line on Car Prices. Here's What 775,000 Listings Show.

7 min read

By Marcus Bell, Editor

Figures as of early June 2026, from our live active-inventory data.

If you've shopped for a new car online, you know the move: the price in the search result is one number, and the price the dealer actually quotes you is another — after “dealer prep,” “market adjustment,” nitrogen-filled tires, and a few fees you didn't ask for.

In March, the FTC told 97 dealer groups to knock it off (a warning letter, not a finding of wrongdoing). The message was simple: the price you advertise has to be the total price a customer will actually pay — every mandatory dealer fee included, only government taxes excluded. And in May, the agency made clear this isn't just about a dealer's own website — dealers are responsible for the prices on the third-party listing sites you actually browse, too. The big listing platforms have already started reworking how they show price to comply.

Here's the rule in plain English, and then what we see across every car we track.

What the FTC says is off-limits

The FTC flagged six advertised-price practices as deceptive:

1. A price that doesn't include all required fees
2. A price built on rebates or discounts not available to everyone
3. A price that ignores a required down payment
4. A price that's only real if you finance with the dealer
5. Requiring add-ons that aren't in the advertised price
6. Advertising cars that aren't actually available

If you've bought a car in the last few years, you've probably met at least three of these.

What 775,000 listings actually show

We track 775,000+ new vehicles across 5,700+ dealers and 8 brands, refreshed daily. Here's the honest picture.

The good news: most listings are at or below MSRP. Of the listings where dealers disclose a real selling price, about two-thirds are priced at or below sticker. The “every dealer is gouging” narrative isn't what the data says.

The catch: it depends enormously on the brand — and the dealer.

So Kia is the discount story — essentially every listing at or below sticker. Hyundai is the opposite, with most listings priced above MSRP. Toyota, Lexus, GMC, and Cadillac mostly list at or below MSRP — GMC and Cadillac do so ~95% of the time, with near-sticker averages. But when those two mark up trucks and big SUVs, they mark them up hard: the largest markup we can find right now is a Cadillac Escalade listed about $81,000 over its ~$94,000 stickerin Florida. And it's not just six-figure SUVs — a Toyota Tundra 1794 Edition sits about $70,000 over its ~$83,000 MSRP in Missouri. The brand averages stay modest precisely because most cars list fairly; it's the tail that stings — which is exactly why a per-car number you can trust matters.

So “is there a markup?” has no general answer. It's a per-brand, per-dealer, per-model question — which is exactly why an advertised number you can trust matters. You can see the spread yourself in our per-model markup-by-state breakdowns.

And then there's availability — the FTC's sixth practice, advertising a car you can't actually buy. We see about 18,000 listings flagged as sold or spoken-for yet still showing, plus a much larger set of Toyota and Lexus listings carrying a “DealerHold” status (the car is reserved or allocated, not free to walk in and buy). To be fair, those holds are disclosed in the data — so this isn't automatically deceptive. But it's exactly why the smart move is to confirm a specific car is actually available before you drive an hour to see it.

How to protect yourself

• Ask for the out-the-door price in writing. Under the FTC's standard, the advertised number should already include every mandatory fee. If the quote jumps, ask what changed and whether it's actually required.
• Watch the asterisks. “Price requires dealer financing” or “with all available rebates” means the number isn't yours unless you qualify.
• Confirm the car exists and is available before you drive over. If it's been listed for weeks or flagged as held, push on it.
• Bring comps. Knowing 80% of this trim sold below MSRP last month is the single best thing you can say at the table.

One promise from us

We're a listing site too, so we hold ourselves to the same line. A few things to know about our numbers:

• The price we show is the dealer's advertised / window-sticker price — not a guaranteed out-the-door total. Always get the all-in number in writing.
• When a brand's feed doesn't disclose a real selling price (today that's Honda and Acura), we don't invent one — we show MSRP only and say so, rather than dress it up as a deal.
• We flag held and spoken-for cars so you're not chasing a unit that's already gone.

That's the whole point of the site: the number you see should be the number that's real. The FTC just made that the law for the people selling the cars. We think it should be the standard for the people listing them, too.

Sources: FTC press release (March 2026) and its May 2026 third-party-listings follow-up; industry total-price display changes (spring 2026). Our figures are a snapshot of active inventory and shift daily — see the live model pages and best deals for current numbers.