T. Vetter on direct sales
From Cars Commerce: Fireside Chat with Alex Vetter, CEO of Cars Commerce · · National Automobile Dealers Association
“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.”
On , T. Vetter, Chief Executive Officer & Director at CARS.COM INC, spoke about direct sales during Cars Commerce: Fireside Chat with Alex Vetter, CEO of Cars Commerce on National Automobile Dealers Association.
About T. Vetter
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.