UsedCars.com Challenges Auto Marketplace Giants with Zero-Risk, Pay-Per-Sale Model

WALNUT CREEK, CA – March 26, 2026 – As sticker shock continues to drive consumers from new car showrooms, a new online marketplace is launching with a model designed to intercept those buyers and eliminate financial risk for dealers. UsedCars.com, powered by digital automotive veteran AutoWeb, announced today the launch of its performance-based platform in Arizona, a move that challenges the decades-old subscription and lead-fee structures that dominate the industry.

The service is now live for dealerships in Phoenix, Prescott, Mesa, and Tucson. Unlike established competitors, UsedCars.com charges no upfront costs—no listing fees, no lead fees, and no monthly subscriptions. Instead, dealers only pay a fee when a vehicle is sold to a customer sourced through the platform, a model the company calls "zero-risk."

This launch represents a calculated bet on a powerful economic trend: the growing exodus of shoppers from the new to the used vehicle market. By aligning its revenue directly with dealer sales, the platform aims to prove that performance, not presence, is the most valuable currency in automotive marketing.

Capitalizing on an Affordability Crisis

The strategic timing of the launch is no accident. It lands squarely in the middle of a widely acknowledged vehicle affordability crisis. Industry data consistently shows the average transaction price for a new vehicle hovering above $47,000, with some reports pushing the figure closer to $50,000. Combined with higher interest rates, this has inflated the average monthly payment for a new car to well over $700, a figure that is simply untenable for a large segment of the American public.

This economic pressure has created a distinct and growing consumer behavior: the "new-to-used pivot." AutoWeb's internal data suggests that as many as one in three shoppers who begin their journey intending to buy a new car ultimately purchase a used one. UsedCars.com is purpose-built to identify and capture these buyers at that critical decision point.

"Most used-car marketplaces only engage shoppers after they've already decided to buy used," said Payam Zamani, Founder and CEO of One Planet Group, the parent company of AutoWeb and UsedCars.com. "UsedCars.com connects with buyers the moment they pivot from new to used - giving dealers earlier access, before shoppers begin comparing options across multiple sites."

By getting in front of these high-intent consumers earlier, the platform offers dealers a chance to make the first impression on a motivated buyer who has just recalibrated their budget and expectations, making them prime candidates for a quality pre-owned vehicle.

A New Playbook for Dealer Marketing

The platform's business model represents a fundamental departure from the industry standard. Major online marketplaces like CarGurus, AutoTrader, and Cars.com have traditionally relied on subscription packages and per-lead fees. In that model, dealers pay for visibility and potential customer contacts, regardless of whether those leads translate into actual sales. This can lead to significant marketing spend with an uncertain return on investment.

By shifting to a purely performance-based model, UsedCars.com aims to eliminate what it considers wasted spend and misaligned incentives.

"We designed this model to eliminate the risk dealers face with traditional marketing programs," said Dan Ingle, President and COO of AutoWeb and UsedCars.com. "There are no upfront costs and no wasted spend. Dealers only pay when they see results. That alignment fundamentally changes the relationship."

Crucial to this model's integrity is a reliable method for sales attribution. To solve this, the company has integrated with DealerVault, a widely trusted and secure data syndication platform. Backed by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), DealerVault allows dealerships to securely manage and share sales data with their vendor partners. This integration provides a transparent and verifiable system for matching leads delivered by UsedCars.com against a dealership's official sales records, ensuring dealers are only billed for confirmed transactions.

A Calculated Regional Rollout

Rather than attempting a nationwide launch, the company is pursuing a methodical, market-by-market expansion strategy, with Arizona serving as the initial proving ground. This approach allows the company to concentrate its efforts on building a dense network of local dealer partners, ensuring that shoppers in a given region are met with a robust and relevant selection of inventory from the outset.

A strong local inventory is critical for converting online interest into foot traffic and sales. By focusing on one state at a time, the platform can ensure a positive user experience for its first wave of consumers while building strong relationships with its initial dealer clients. The company has already announced that Colorado is slated to be its next market.

To accelerate adoption in the Grand Canyon State, UsedCars.com is offering a suite of early adopter benefits to participating dealers. These include priority inventory integration to get their vehicles listed faster, waived fees on their first three verified sales made through the platform, and a locked-in pricing structure for 12 months, protecting them from future rate increases as the service expands.

"The goal is simple," Zamani added. "Deliver on the promise of performance-based marketing and remove unnecessary risk."

Leveraging a Legacy in Digital Auto

While the platform is new, the company behind it is a seasoned industry player. AutoWeb has operated in the digital automotive space for over three decades, pioneering many of the online car-shopping tools used today. The company's network of properties attracts more than 11 million automotive searches each month, creating a massive, pre-existing funnel of in-market shoppers that can now be channeled into the UsedCars.com ecosystem.

This new venture is also part of a strategic renewal for AutoWeb, which was taken private in 2022 by One Planet Group, a firm founded by Payam Zamani, who was also one of the original co-founders of AutoWeb in the 1990s. This return of a founding figure signals a deep-seated effort to innovate from a foundation of extensive industry knowledge and consumer behavior data.

By combining a disruptive, dealer-friendly business model with the traffic and data intelligence of an established digital marketing powerhouse, UsedCars.com is making a compelling case to dealers in Arizona and beyond. The coming months will reveal whether this zero-risk proposition is enough to loosen the grip of the subscription-based incumbents and redefine the economics of selling used cars online.