First-party data · Updated 2026-10-09

The Independent Dealer Index

Name: The Independent Dealer Index
Creator: DealerVLO
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Real numbers from working used-car lots — the sale prices, doc fees, buy-here-pay-here terms, closing rates, and gross-per-unit that independent dealers actually enter into our free calculators. Anonymized, aggregated, and reported as medians with the typical range.

This index is still collecting data

38 dealer submissions so far. Each figure publishes only once at least 30 dealers have entered it — so every number you see here is a real median, never a guess from a thin sample. Check back as the sample grows.

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How this index is built

Source: The numbers independent dealers enter into DealerVLO's free calculators. Nothing is surveyed or estimated — these are inputs from people doing real deal math.
Anonymous & aggregate: No identifying information is used. We aggregate the business inputs only (prices, fees, rates), never who entered them. Figures are group medians, not any individual dealer's numbers.
Median, not average: Each figure is the median, with the middle-50% (25th–75th percentile) range shown, so a few unusual entries can't skew the headline.
Published at n≥30: A metric shows a number only after at least 30 dealers have entered it. Below that it shows nothing but its running count — a thin sample never gets dressed up as a benchmark.
Self-selected sample: These are dealers who chose to use a calculator, not a random or representative survey of the industry. Read them as a real-world signal from working independents, not a census.

Free to cite with attribution to DealerVLO (https://www.dealervlo.com). Updated 2026-10-09.

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Every dealer who runs one of the free calculators makes this index sharper. Run yours — no signup, and your numbers stay anonymous in the aggregate.

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