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...”
“The last mile of auto is hard. Local dealers have proven reliably the best operators at handling that trade-in exchange and new sale opportunity with ease and efficiency. To think that digital retail is going to magically fix that last mile is a fool's errand.”
“I think companies like Honda and VW creating sub-brands to sell direct to consumers and compete with dealer partners are going to burn through a lot of capital and piss off a lot of investors because there won't be a return.”
“Service is the number one need of most owners and more valuable than the purchase experience. You better be boots on the ground at the local level to deliver that ownership experience and brand loyalty.”
“We continue to see third-party companies tagging dealer websites with no commitment to what that data is being used for. Dealers have asked for features but there's enormous data loss and lack of transparency about what third-party vendors are doing with dealer data.”
“Data is like the new oil. If the data doesn't flow the way it should, it's going to hold us back in delivering that customer experience. Customers want a great product and a smooth, transparent experience regardless of manufacturer or dealer.”
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