Chief Executive Officer & Director, Cars
Search every verified T. Vetter interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. At a February 2025 fireside chat at the NADA show, Cars Commerce CEO Alex Vetter discussed the company's recent acquisition of Dealer Club, a wholesale trading platform. Vetter said the platform pays sellers to list vehicles and charges only a buyer fee, and he described wholesale as a potential profit center for dealerships as used-car prices decline. He also stated that Cars Commerce's algorithms prioritize consumer sentiment, causing higher-rated dealers to appear more prominently in search results. Vetter expressed skepticism about automakers creating direct-to-consumer sub-brands, saying such efforts would burn capital without a return. He argued that local dealers remain the best operators for the "last mile" of auto transactions and that digital retail alone cannot fix that process. Vetter also called for greater transparency from third-party vendors regarding how they use dealer data, comparing data to "the new oil" and saying its proper flow is essential to customer experience.
“The company we acquired is called Dealer Club and it's a wholesale trading platform built for dealers by a dealer. One of the essences I loved about Dealer Club is that we pay sellers to sell cars on our wholesale marketplace and so we charge only the buy fee but sellers get rewarded and get paid to sell on the platfor...”
“Our algorithms favor consumer sentiment so if you're a five-star dealer on our platform you're organically going to elevate in our rankings because ultimately the delta on what you pay for a car has become very small over time. It's really more about the customer experience and can they trust you.”
“We're already seeing normalization in the market with new car volume up 2% and used car pricing coming down about 5%. Dealers are trying to find new profit centers and we think wholesale should be a profit center for dealerships.”
“Technology is speeding operations; most dealerships are acquiring multiple stores and looking for technology to run across a platform of dealerships to get operating leverage. Cars Commerce was built to enable you to get data across all your websites, appraisal technology that you can do in minutes, and trade inventory...”
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