The federal government just put nearly 100 dealership groups on notice.

On March 13, the Federal Trade Commission sent warning letters to 97 auto dealer groups across the country, telling them in plain terms: the price you advertise has to be the price customers actually pay. No hidden fees tacked on at signing. No mandatory add-ons buried in the paperwork. No prices that only apply if you use the dealer’s financing.

For anyone who has ever sat in a finance office watching a $32,000 car turn into a $38,000 car, this is not a surprise. It’s great to see the FTC finally doing something about it.

What the FTC Is Calling Out

The agency’s letters flagged several specific practices it considers illegal under the FTC Act:

• Advertising a price that doesn’t include all required fees
• Advertising a price that reflects rebates not available to every buyer
• Conditioning an advertised price on the customer using dealer financing
• Requiring add-on purchases that aren’t reflected in the advertised price
• Advertising vehicles that don’t exist or aren’t available

The FTC also pointed to active enforcement cases it already has underway against Lindsay Chevrolet, Leader Automotive Group, and Asbury Automotive Group as examples of what happens when dealers don’t clean up their act.

This is part of a broader FTC push on pricing transparency across multiple industries, but cars have long been one of the worst offenders. Anyone who has spent time at a dealership knows why.

CarEdge Has Been Tracking This All Along

Here’s what’s worth knowing: the behaviors the FTC is warning dealers about are exactly what CarEdge’s Dealer Transparency Index is built to measure.

Our AI agent contacts dealers on behalf of real car shoppers, collects itemized out-the-door quotes, and scores every dealer based on what they actually charge, not what they advertise. The scoring breaks down like this:

• Doc fees (30%) — Lower fees score higher. The benchmark is $499.
• Add-on behavior (30%) — Fewer mandatory add-ons score higher.
• Dealer markup (30%) — Lower dealer-controlled fees above the listing score higher.
• Data quality (10%) — Complete, detailed quotes score higher.

The result is a 0–100 score for every dealer in our database. Some dealerships score a perfect 100. Others are in the 20s and 30s.

The dealers at the bottom of our index aren’t just underperforming on a CarEdge metric. They’re doing the things the FTC is now formally warning the industry about.

What This Means for Car Shoppers

A warning letter from the FTC doesn’t mean dealers will immediately change their behavior. Enforcement takes time, and habits baked into a dealership’s F&I process don’t disappear overnight. That’s why having independent, data-backed ratings matters.

Before you visit a dealership, you can check their Dealer Transparency score. This tool is 100% free. See their average doc fees. See how often they push mandatory add-ons. See how their out-the-door prices compare to what they advertise.

The FTC is telling dealers they need to be honest. CarEdge tells you which ones already are.

Check your dealership’s transparency score on the CarEdge Dealer Transparency Index.