Frequently asked questions

What is CARZyro?

CARZyro is an online marketplace for used cars in the U.S. Local dealerships and private sellers list their cars, and you search, compare and contact them here. CARZyro isn't a dealer and doesn't sell cars itself: the sale is agreed between you and the seller.

Does it cost anything to buy through CARZyro?

No. Searching, saving cars and searches, comparing, email alerts and contacting sellers are all free for buyers. You don't even need an account to browse or to send a seller a message.

What does “Verified dealer” mean?

A car page shows the Verified dealer badge only when the dealership passed all of these checks:

• it confirmed its email address with a code we sent to it,
• a member of the CARZyro team called the dealership's phone number and confirmed it,
• both of those happened before we approved the dealership, and
• it signed CARZyro's listing agreement (the Inventory Listing Authorization) and hasn't withdrawn it.

What it doesn't mean: it's no guarantee that a dealer license is valid today (we ask new dealerships for their license number and check it when we call them, but a license can lapse later), and we don't inspect the cars. A few dealerships approved before these checks existed don't show the badge. Always see the car and its paperwork in person before you pay.

Are private sellers checked?

Every private listing is reviewed by a member of the CARZyro team, with its photos, before it goes live; the car page then shows Listing reviewed by CARZyro. Private sellers need an account with a confirmed email address to list a car. We don't check who owns the car or its title, so ask to see the title and the seller's ID when you meet.

How are Great, Good and Fair deals worked out?

We compare the car's asking price with the average asking price of similar cars for sale on CARZyro right now. “Similar” means the same make and model, within one model year, within 40,000 miles, and the same kind of title (clean titles with clean titles; rebuilt and other titles with each other).

• Great Deal: 10% or more below that average.
• Good Deal: 3% to 10% below.
• Fair Deal: from 3% below to 5% above.

A car priced more than 5% above the average gets no badge. A car needs at least 2 similar cars to compare with; salvage-title cars are never rated. The car page shows the average and how many cars it's based on. Ratings use only asking prices on CARZyro, not sale prices or outside price guides, so they get more accurate as more cars are listed. Great deals shows the cars rated Great or Good.

How is the monthly payment estimate worked out?

The “Est. $…/mo” next to a price assumes 10% down, a 60-month loan and 7% APR, and the terms are always shown with it. If you enter your own down payment, loan length or APR in a car page's payment calculator, this browser uses your numbers everywhere instead. It's an estimate only, not a loan offer: CARZyro isn't a lender, and the estimate doesn't include sales tax, title, registration or dealer fees. Your real rate depends on your credit and lender.

How do I contact a seller?

Use Contact dealer (or Contact seller) on the car's page. Your message goes straight to the dealership or private seller by email (dealers also see it in their dashboard), and they reply to you directly.

• Signed in: “Is it still available?” sends in one click, using your account's name and confirmed email.
• Without an account: enter your name and email. The first time, there's a quick “I'm human” check and we email you a 6-digit code to confirm your address; this device then remembers it for 30 days.

Because every message comes from a confirmed email address, sellers know they're hearing from real buyers. With an account you can also chat with sellers in Messages; chat messages are normally kept for 3 months; longer if needed for a report or dispute (more).

How do saved cars, saved searches and alerts work?

Tap the heart on a car to save it. Without an account, saved cars are kept in this browser until you sign in, when we offer to move them to your account. Saving a search needs a free account.

With a confirmed email, we check every hour and email you when a new car matches a saved search, or when a saved car's price drops. Every alert email has a link to stop that alert.

How does Compare work?

Press Compare on two cars (in the results, on car pages or on your Saved page), then Compare now to see them side by side, including the estimated monthly payment. The two cars are kept in this browser; no account needed.

Does CARZyro inspect cars or handle the payment?

No. CARZyro doesn't inspect cars, check vehicle history or take payment for a car. Before you buy: see the car in person, take a test drive, check the VIN and title, consider an independent inspection, and never send money for a car you haven't seen.

How do I report a listing or a dealership?

Use Report this listing on the car's page (under the contact buttons), or Report this dealership on the dealer's page. Choose what's wrong (a scam, a car that doesn't exist or was already sold, wrong price or details, offensive content, a suspected stolen car, or something else) and add what you noticed.

• Signed in: the report is sent from your account, and your own conversation about that car or dealership (if you had one) is kept while we look into it.
• Without an account: give your email address so we can reach you, and pass a quick “I'm human” check.
• Limits: one open report per person for the same car or dealership, and a few reports an hour from the same place, so the button can't be misused.

Our team reviews every report. While we look into it we may hide the car from buyers; then we show it again, or act on the listing or the account. The seller is never told who reported them, and we may email you if we need to know more. We keep your email address (or the link to your account) until 6 months after the report is closed. In an emergency, or if you've lost money, contact the police too.

What does it cost to sell my own car?

There's no sign-up fee, and the first month is free once your car is approved. After that, the listing renews monthly until you mark the car sold or remove it:

• $100 a month for cars priced $10,000 or less,
• $200 a month for $10,001 to $20,000,
• $300 a month for over $20,000.

You save a card when you list (saving it doesn't charge it). If you change the price, the next monthly charge uses the new price. Months already started aren't refunded. If CARZyro changes these fees, we email you and the new fee applies from your next monthly charge after the change. Sell my car

Your car's details: the year can be from 1900 on, the mileage up to 2,000,000, the price a whole number of dollars from $500 to $2,000,000, and the description up to 8,000 characters. The VIN is optional for private sellers, but if you enter one it must be a real 17-character VIN, and you can't list the same VIN twice.

What does it cost for a dealership?

3 months free, then $199.99 a month. No card is needed to sign up. The free months start the day we approve your dealership, and we email you before they end. To keep your cars on CARZyro after that, buy the monthly subscription from your dealer dashboard: you see the price and agree to it before anything is charged. If CARZyro changes the price, we email you and the new price applies from your next charge after the change.

• Subscribing early doesn't cut your free months short. If you subscribe during them, your card is saved and first charged on the day they end, then every month on that date. (If they end within 48 hours, the first charge is the day you subscribe.)
• If you subscribe after the free months have ended, you're charged that day and then every month on the same date.
• You can cancel any time from the Account section of your dashboard. Cancel before the first charge and you're not charged at all; your cars stay visible until the free months end. After that, the subscription runs to the end of the month you've paid for.

CARZyro may extend free months or issue credits at its discretion (a credit comes off your next invoices). To update your card or download receipts, see the next question. Sign up your dealership

Where do I update my card or get receipts?

In your dealer dashboard, go to Account and choose Manage card, receipts & billing email. It opens Stripe's secure billing page, where you can change the card, download invoices and receipts, and change the email address receipts go to. Only the dealership's owner can do this, and we may ask for your password first. Cancelling stays in the Account section of your dashboard.

How do I sign up, and how is a new dealership approved?

Sign-up is one page: enter your dealership's details, type the 6-digit code we email you, then review and sign the Inventory Listing Authorization. If someone else signs for the dealership, choose to sign later from your dashboard; you can't add cars until it's signed. Your dashboard then shows a Getting started checklist with each step and what to do next.

A member of the CARZyro team then calls the phone number you gave us and checks the dealer license you entered with the state. Only after both the email and the phone are confirmed can we approve the dealership; your listings go live and your free months start that day.

We usually review new dealerships within 1 business day (Monday to Friday). You don't have to wait to get started: you can add your cars and preview your dealer page while we review. Nobody else sees them until you're approved.

What do I need to list a car?

The year, make, model and price, and the mileage for a used car. The same rules apply however a car is added (one by one, with a CSV file or from your inventory feed):

• VIN: required for a dealership's cars from 1981 on (when 17-character VINs began). It must be a real VIN: we check its check digit to catch typing mistakes.
• Price: a whole number of dollars from $100 to $2,000,000.
• No duplicates: a dealership can't list the same car (the same VIN) twice. A private seller may list a VIN that a dealer also has; our team checks those.
• Car limit: up to 500 cars for sale per dealership (cars marked sold don't count). If you need more, contact CARZyro support and we can raise it.

Why wasn't my listing approved?

Every private listing is checked by our team, in the order they arrive. If one isn't approved, we email you and Sell my car shows the reason, which is one of these, sometimes with a message from our team:

• “The photos don't clearly show the car for sale.”
• “Some of the car's details are wrong or missing.”
• “The price looks wrong.”
• “We couldn't verify this listing.”
• “This car is already listed on CARZyro.”
• “This listing isn't allowed on CARZyro.”

Nothing is charged for a listing that wasn't approved. If you think we got it wrong, contact us.

Why does my car say “Hidden while CARZyro reviews a report”?

Someone reported the listing, and our team has hidden it from buyers while we look into it (a “hold”). Nothing else about it changes: you can still see it on Sell my car or in your dealer dashboard, and we may contact you if we need to know more. We don't say who reported it.

• Private sellers: the listing's monthly fee is paused while it is hidden, so nothing is charged for that time; billing carries on from the next billing date once it is shown again.
• Dealerships: your subscription isn't per car, so it doesn't change.
• If the car was featured, the featuring stops and the paid time left is kept for you to move to another car.

When we're done, the car is shown again as it is, or we email you about what happens next.

Can CARZyro keep my cars in step with my website?

Yes. Ask the CARZyro team to connect your dealership's website. We read the cars on it, you check the first import with us, and from then on CARZyro checks your website every 6 hours: new cars are added, and price, mileage and colour changes are copied over. A car that leaves your website is removed from CARZyro, except when something looks wrong (your website can't be read, shows no cars, or more than 30% of the cars disappear at once): then nothing is removed and we email you to confirm. Your dashboard shows when your website was last checked.

We can read websites built by MotorCarSites and DealerCenter, and most websites that publish standard car details. Some websites block automatic reading (many DealerCenter websites do); for those, use your dealer software's inventory export as an inventory feed (Import cars > Inventory feed) instead. A dealership uses either its website or a feed, not both.

How do I manage a large inventory?

The inventory list in your dealer dashboard is made for big lots:

• Search and filters: find cars by year, make, model, trim, VIN or stock number, filter by status, photos or days listed, sort them, and move through the pages. Sold cars are under Status: Sold.
• Bulk actions: select up to 500 cars to mark them sold, change their price (set a new price, or raise or lower it by dollars or a percentage, with a preview first) or remove them. Removing cars this way asks for your password again.
• Export CSV: download all your cars, a search or a selection as a spreadsheet. You can edit it in Excel and import it again to update the same cars. Everyone on your team who can see the cars can export, including Sales.

How does CARZyro help me price my cars?

When you add or edit a car, the form shows a market range for similar cars for sale on CARZyro: a low, a typical and a high price. It is the middle half of their prices, adjusted for each car's mileage and rounded to $100. “Similar” means the same cars the deal badge compares with (see deal ratings). With fewer than 5 similar cars, it says “Not enough similar cars on CARZyro yet” and shows no numbers.

• Suggested price: the typical price, lowered if needed so the car still gets at least a Fair Deal badge. Use suggested price puts it in the price box. The form also shows the badge buyers would see at your price.
• Price history: for a car you already listed, every price change with its date, and when the price was last changed (for example “last changed 12 days ago”).
• In the inventory list: each car for sale shows where its price stands, such as “Market: In range” or “Market: $1,200 above typical”. Priced above market lists the cars above the range.

These figures only use totals from other listings: how many similar cars there are and what they cost. You never see another dealer's cars, name or details, and they never see yours. They are estimates from asking prices on CARZyro, not an appraisal. Everyone on your team who can see the cars sees them.

How do I see how my cars are doing?

The Performance view in your dealer dashboard shows these numbers for the last 7, 30 or 90 days, or dates you pick (up to a year, within the last 13 months), next to the period just before:

• Search appearances: how often your cars were on screen in search results, on your dealer page, on city and model pages and in “Similar cars”, and separately in the Featured carousel;
• clicks to your car pages from those places, and the click-through rate;
• car-page views and visitors, phone taps, website clicks (“Visit dealer's website”) and leads.

A table shows every car, and you can download the numbers as a CSV file. The owner and managers see it, or anyone given the “Performance” permission. Robots, and people signed in as dealers or CARZyro staff, aren't counted.

Weekly email: off unless you switch it on (the owner in Account, others in Performance). It comes on Monday mornings (U.S. Central time) with last week's numbers next to the week before, your top cars, and cars with views but no leads. Every email has a link to stop it.

Featuring results: for each car you featured, what happened while it was featured, next to the same number of days just before. It shows what happened, not how much of it featuring caused, and featuring doesn't promise any number of views or leads.

Which reports are there, and can they be emailed?

Open Reports in your dealer dashboard. Besides the inventory and messages reports, there are inventory aging, price changes, sales, leads by team member and reviews. Each one shows its main numbers, and Download CSV gives you the whole list.

The owner and managers can have any of those five reports emailed to them every week (on Mondays) or every month (on the 1st). The email shows the main numbers and has a link to download the CSV file, which works for 7 days. The inventory and messages reports can't be emailed.

Can my staff have their own sign-in?

Yes. The dealership's owner invites each person by email from the Team section of the dashboard, and gives them a role: Manager, Sales or Inventory. The roles are starting points: the owner can tick or untick single permissions for one person, or change what a role includes for the whole dealership. The permissions are:

• See cars, Add and edit cars, Delete cars;
• Buyer messages, Manage all leads;
• Performance, Reply to reviews, All support tickets, Activity log.

A Manager starts with all of them, including the activity log. Billing, the team, the account and the listing authorization always stay with the owner. If someone loses a permission, they are signed out, so the change works straight away.

A team can have up to 10 people (not counting the owner). Contact CARZyro Support to raise it.

Can I see who on my team changed something?

Yes. The Activity log in your dealer dashboard shows who did what, and when: cars added or edited, price changes, cars marked sold or removed, imports, leads, team changes, reports and more, with each person's name and email. You can filter it by person, type of action and dates, and download it as a CSV file. Changes CARZyro made for you show as “CARZyro team” or “Automatic”.

The owner and managers see it, or anyone given the “Activity log” permission. If a person's details were erased (for example after 24 months), the entry shows them as erased.

What is featuring?

Dealers and private sellers can pay a flat price to show a car in the Featured carousel at the top of CARZyro for a week or a month. It's a one-time payment that doesn't renew automatically, and it's optional. How featuring works

Who can review a dealer?

Anyone with a CARZyro account and a confirmed email who contacted that dealer through CARZyro, one review per dealer. Reviews marked Verified purchase are from buyers who told us they bought the car after the dealer marked it sold. Negative reviews are never removed just for being negative, and dealers can't pay to hide them. A dealer can ask a buyer who contacted them through CARZyro, once, to write an honest review; CARZyro sends that email, and nothing is offered for a review. Review guidelines

Where is the help for dealers?

The Dealer help center has step-by-step answers for dealerships: signing up, adding and importing cars, pricing, leads, reviews, your team, billing, featuring and reports. You can search it, and you don't need to sign in.

What cookies and tracking does CARZyro use?

Essential storage keeps you signed in and remembers things like your compare list; it's always on. Optional visitor statistics use an anonymous ID so dealers can see unique and returning visitors to their cars; choose “Essential only” to switch it off. Dealers also see how often their cars are shown and clicked, and how often their phone number is tapped; those are only daily totals per car, with no ID or cookie. If CARZyro uses Google Analytics, it stays off until you say yes. You can change your choices any time with Cookie settings, also at the bottom of every page. Details are in our Privacy Policy.

What does a seller see when I contact them?

Your name, email address, your message and, if you give one (or have one on your account), your phone number, so they can reply. Nothing else from your account.

How long are messages kept, and who can read them?

Chat messages in Messages are normally kept for 3 months: each one is deleted automatically 3 months after it was sent. They are kept longer if needed for a report or dispute: while a conversation is linked to a report or dispute that is still open, or our team has marked it to keep while they look into something. After that, the normal rule applies again.

CARZyro staff may read conversations when investigating a report, a dispute or misuse: only the primary administrator and managers. Every time staff open a conversation, it is recorded.

If you delete your account while one of your conversations is kept like this, it stays anonymised: you are shown only as “Deleted user”, without your name or email, and the other person no longer sees it. Once it's no longer needed, it is deleted. Your other conversations are deleted with your account.

What happens if CARZyro suspends my account?

We may suspend an account that breaks our Terms, for example for a scam, spam or a fake listing. While it is suspended, you are signed out everywhere and can't sign in, your cars for sale are hidden from buyers, and messages to and from you are refused. The monthly fee of your private listings is paused, so nothing is charged for that time. We usually email you a short notice.

When a suspension is lifted, the cars that were live are shown again exactly as they were, and billing carries on from the next billing date. The reason and our staff's notes are kept in our records. If you think it's a mistake, contact us.

How do I delete my account or my data?

Signed in, go to My account and choose Delete my account. For anything else, or if you don't have an account, use Delete my data. The only thing we keep is evidence for an open report or dispute: a conversation kept for one stays anonymised until it's no longer needed (more).