FTC CARS Rule: What Every Dealership VDP Must Show Before March 2026 #shorts

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]The vast majority of dealership websites are not compliant with the FTC. Let me show you exactly what you need to do to stay compliant. When it comes to your vehicle display page and you're talking about pricing of a vehicle, the MSRP, let's just say, is $35,000. You want to offer a $5,000 discount basically on all your vehicles. You're just taking a five grand haircut across the board. That's fine. You can advertise it on every vehicle, but this has to be available to every single person walking on your lot.

[00:00:25]Whether they're financing it, whether they're a previous customer, whether they're trading it in, whether they're a Costco member, it doesn't matter. That discount, if you're going to show it on your VDP, has to be available to everyone. Your doc fee, and I see this missing still to this day, your dock fee, if you charge one, and if you charge one person, you have to charge everyone, has to be included in that price. And that's really where it is.

[00:00:46]It's a requirement of the FTC and frankly by most states as well. If you want to do a dealer add-on, those are totally fine. I've shown you tent and ceramic coating. When it comes to pre-installing items on a vehicle before the customer even gets there and making it, you know, required two things. Number one, you can still do that as long as you disclose it in the price. However, the add-on that you're adding has to directly benefit the customer. So, for instance, nitrogen tire fill does not benefit the customer according to the FTC. Uh, pinstripes does not benefit the customer. So, you can't do that. So, as long as you're including it in the price, it's totally fine. So, what should the price be? So, if the MSRP is 35,000, you're giving everyone a $5,000 discount. Your doc fee is 600 bucks. You're charging $6.99 for tint. I'm sorry, $4.99 for tint and $6.99 for ceramic. The total sales price to be FTC compliant that you're showing on your VDP on CarGurus everywhere has to be 31798.

[00:01:46]This is how you have to have the VDPs to be compliant with the FTC. One big warning, and this is kind of the final piece. If you have a button that says click for a better price or click to get the best interest rate, that is illegal.

[00:01:58]It's an deceptive practice. If you want to find out how to make your dealership compliant with the FTC and the state, it's real simple. We do audits at dealerships. There's a booking link in my bio if you'd like to schedule one or reach out.