Who uses CarGurus
Car shoppers comparing dealerships, and dealers listing inventory on CarGurus. Dealers with a CarGurus account are notified when a review arrives.
Claim your profile
- CarGurus links to a dealer sign-up and dealer resources from its site; its public help pages do not describe a step-by-step claim process.
- The review-response tools are available to any dealership with inventory on the site, whether or not it has a business relationship with CarGurus.
- Dealers with a CarGurus account are notified soon after a shopper posts a review.
Replying to reviews
When a shopper submits a review, dealers with a CarGurus account get a notification with an invitation to respond directly or to challenge the review as fraudulent. A response is published just below the review.
- Because the reply sits under the review, write it for the general public, not only for the reviewer.
- CarGurus says advertising with it is not a reason for it to take down a negative review.
- The help pages do not give length or timing limits for replies.
Review rules
In our own words. The official page is the rule that applies.
- Only shoppers who contacted the dealer through CarGurus, or recently visited it, are invited to review; reviewers are asked to verify an email address or phone number.
- Reviews are a 1 to 5 star rating plus a written account, and CarGurus asks for specifics rather than vague praise or criticism.
- Not published: claims of criminal conduct, inappropriate or discriminatory language, personal attacks, personal details (full names, initials, credit information and similar), all-caps text, reviews about a different dealer, and comments only about CarGurus itself.
- Every review is screened, usually posted within one to two business days; if it cannot be published, the reviewer is invited to edit and resubmit.
- CarGurus states a zero-tolerance policy for fraudulent review submissions; dealers found to have taken part in review fraud, directly or indirectly, may get warnings and, for repeated or significant violations, consequences such as review removal, disqualification from Top Rated Dealer, or restrictions on receiving new reviews.
- CarGurus strongly discourages dealerships from offering financial incentives or otherwise pressuring shoppers to leave a review.
- Reviews older than two years remain visible but are excluded from the overall rating.
Reporting a review
CarGurus's own process, step by step.
- Dealers with a CarGurus account who believe a review is fraudulent or otherwise invalid can challenge it from the notification they receive when the review is submitted.
- CarGurus may ask for evidence supporting the challenge.
- For a change of dealership ownership, the new owner must supply a valid, executed purchase and sale agreement showing the prior owner, the new owner and the date of the change (redactions allowed if those details stay visible); dealer licenses, leases, and state records are not accepted. Prior-owner reviews are labeled as such and, six months after the notice is accepted, stop counting toward the aggregate star rating and move to an Old Reviews section.
- The public help pages do not describe a separate process for reporting reviews outside of this notification.
CarGurus Reviews Widget
Show your CarGurus reviews on your own website, updated by themselves. Connect CarGurus in Grades.com, then copy a widget from Review Marketing in your dashboard with CarGurus as the only site (sites="cargurus"). On WordPress, use [grades_widget preset="carousel" theme="light" accent="#6b42fe" sites="cargurus"].
Script tag: a CarGurus carousel
<script src="https://app.grades.com/embed/widget.js" data-widget="carousel" data-key="gk_pub_YOUR_KEY" data-theme="light" data-accent="#6b42fe" data-sites="cargurus" async></script>
4.9128 reviews
CarGurusReviews on grades.com
CarGurusReviews on grades.comDana K.CarGurus
CarGurusQuick to answer and easy to work with. They did exactly what they promised, on time.
Luis M.CarGurus
CarGurusFriendly people and a fair price. I would happily go back and recommend them.
Priya S.CarGurus
CarGurusThey explained every step and followed up afterwards. A great experience.
Tips
- Reply professionally and in a way that makes sense to a stranger reading the page.
- Keep reviews honest: do not write or arrange reviews for your own dealership, which CarGurus treats as fraud.
- Only challenge a review as fraudulent when you have specific evidence to back it up.
- Respond to reviews quickly after the notification arrives.
Sources
Last checked October 22, 2026. Site rules change; the official pages are the final word.
- https://www.cargurus.com/about/dealer-reviews
- https://cargurus.helpscoutdocs.com/article/145-about-cargurus-reviews
- https://cargurus.helpscoutdocs.com/article/28-how-do-i-review-a-dealer
About the numbers
- AI citations: the share of answers from AI assistants that cite a page on cargurus.com, out of 23,227 answers in the last 90 days, to questions about the businesses in our directory ("what do customers say about ...") and to category questions ("best dentist in ..."). Search-result and help pages on a review site are not counted. As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- Cited by AI, by industry: for each industry (a directory category, or the national brands filed under an industry such as e-commerce), the share of AI answers about businesses in that industry that cite a page on cargurus.com; n is the number of answers in that industry (last 90 days; only industries with at least 20 answers). As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- Has a profile, by industry: the share of the businesses we checked in each industry that have a CarGurus profile; n is the number of businesses checked in that industry. As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- States: the share of the businesses we checked in each state that have a CarGurus profile. States with too few businesses for a stable number are marked "small sample" and are not ranked; when every state is a small sample, none is shown. As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- Typical rating: the mean star rating of the CarGurus reviews we collected for the businesses we checked (23 reviews). As of October 30, 2026. ↩
- Site reach: the estimated monthly organic search visits to cargurus.com (DataForSEO Labs) and its Domain Rating (Ahrefs, 0 to 100). These are third-party estimates for the whole domain, not figures from CarGurus. As of October 2026. ↩
How these numbers are collected: how we measure.