Cars Commerce Acquires DealerClub to Expand Into Automotive Wholesale Market

Cars.com parent company Cars Commerce has acquired DealerClub, a digital wholesale auction platform that facilitates transactions between automotive dealers.

With this move, Cars Commerce expands into the wholesale market, the company said in a Friday (Jan. 24) press release.

“By integrating DealerClub’s technology onto the Cars Commerce platform, we add transactional dealer-to-dealer wholesale capabilities focused on transparency and digital efficiency, and significantly extend our influence into the wholesale market by giving power and profits back to the retail community,” Cars Commerce CEO Alex Vetter said in the release.

This acquisition will add DealerClub to the Cars Commerce platform that includes the Cars.com automotive marketplace and dealer reputation site, Dealer Inspire digital marketing technology and services, AccuTrade trade-in and appraisal technology, an in-market media network, and artificial intelligence technologies designed for retail operations, according to the release.

DealerClub, which launched to customers in 2024, features a “reputation-based” auction model and currently serves more than 650 dealer customers, per the release.

Vetter said in the release that Cars Commerce’s acquisition of DealerClub will enable the company to cater to “the large dealer segment looking to gain operating and financial efficiencies by leveraging technology to trade used vehicles within a trusted network.”

In addition, according to the press release, the acquisition will allow Cars Commerce to enter the $10 billion wholesale used car market, add a transactional revenue stream to its existing subscription business, create long-term cross-selling opportunities, and bring “the transparency of reviews” to the wholesale market.

Cars.com finalized its acquisition of the Accu-Trade Group in March 2022, saying that move would bring real-time, VIN-specific appraisal and valuation data, instant guaranteed offer capabilities and logistics technology to its online automotive marketplace platform.

“The acquisition of Accu-Trade appraisal technology facilitates our entry into the rapidly growing multi-billion digital vehicle acquisition market,” Vetter said at the time.

In November 2021, Cars.com signed a definitive agreement to acquire automotive FinTech platform CreditIQ in a move that it said would enable instant financing for consumers, dealers and lenders and build additional revenue streams for Cars.com.

The company closed that acquisition about a week after announcing it.