How we score a price

The rules

How does SilentAutoBroker decide whether a car's price is fair?

Used cars are never scored against MSRP. A window sticker from a car that has depreciated for eight years is not a deal — it is arithmetic. Used vehicles are compared against what similar cars are listed at today, never against a window sticker.

Does SilentAutoBroker compare cars of the same trim?

Same trim, where the listing states one. A Wrangler Sport is not comparable to a Rubicon — trim is the biggest price difference after year and mileage. But many listings never state a trim at all, and treating a blank as a mismatch would empty most comparison sets rather than sharpen them. So an unstated trim counts as unknown rather than as different, and the car is kept.

Does SilentAutoBroker count dealer fees in a deal score?

Against other dealerships' listings (and a new car's MSRP), a good score includes this dealer's mandatory fees and Above Market is judged before them; against our own inventory every price, ours and the comparables', is all-in wherever that dealership's fees are on file. A car that is fairly priced or better before its fees and above market after them is not scored.

Why does a dealership that has not confirmed its fees get no good deal score?

A store with no fees on file that hasn't confirmed its fees gets no favorable grade until they are confirmed. We cannot tell “no fees” from fees we were never told about, so there is no Fair Price and no deal there. Above Market can still show: it is judged on the price before fees, the only price we have.

A real car, scored

Can I see a real example of a scored car?

Picked from live inventory when this page was last rebuilt. Open it and check every number.

Price history

Which price history does a SilentAutoBroker vehicle page show?

Each vehicle page shows the price history of the car's current listing: the dealership's asking prices since it listed the car, recorded whenever its inventory feed or an inventory upload brings in a different price. A price the dealership sets in SilentAutoBroker itself is recorded at the car's next feed sync or upload if it is still the price then, not the moment it is set. Where a dealership's listings are read from its own website instead of a feed, that reading never changes the price on file or this history; where a price read there is shown, it is shown separately, labeled with the date we read it. If the car comes off the site and returns to the same dealership within 30 days, for a recall for example, it is still the same listing. An earlier listing of the same car, or a listing by another dealership, starts a new history: we keep those prices, but we do not publish them. On a vehicle page, a price drop label means the dealership lowered the price within the current listing in the last 30 days. A different dealership listing the same car for less is not shown as a price drop. Price alert emails and a dealership's follow-up messages likewise count a drop only when that dealership lowered its own price within the current listing, never a lower price at another dealership.

And a car we will not score

Why do some cars have no deal score?

Also from live inventory. It has a price and it is for sale — but we cannot stand behind a verdict on that price, whether because there are too few honest comparables, because the verdict does not survive the dealer's fees, or because the store has not confirmed its fees, so we say nothing instead of guessing.

If you are a dealer

How does SilentAutoBroker score a dealer's own inventory?

The same rules run on your inventory, and you can see them here rather than taking our word for it. We never call one of your cars overpriced without a comp set we are willing to show, we never build that comp set out of sold inventory, and when there is not enough data we print nothing rather than something unflattering and unfounded.