The Best and Worst Cities for Car Dealers

The best cities for car dealers in our directory are led by Madison, WI, and the worst by Atlanta, GA, but every city on both lists still has plenty of A dealers.

How We Ranked the Cities

Every dealer in our directory with 20 or more public reviews gets a grade of A, B, C or F. The grading page shows exactly how. For this ranking, we grouped graded dealers by metro area.

We only ranked a metro if it had 60 or more graded dealers. That keeps a small city with a few lucky shops from topping the list. 98 metros made the cut.

Then we looked at two numbers for each metro. The first is the share of dealers that grade A or B. The second is the share that grade F. A good city has a high first number and a low second one.

The Five Best Cities

These metros had the strongest dealer grades in our directory.

• Madison, WI with 83 percent A or B and 5 percent F.
• Syracuse, NY with 79 percent A or B and 7 percent F.
• Worcester, MA with 75 percent A or B and 11 percent F.
• Sarasota, FL with 74 percent A or B and 9 percent F.
• Boise, ID with 73 percent A or B and 6 percent F.

Across the whole directory, 62 percent of graded dealers earn an A or B and 16 percent get an F. These five cities beat that mark.

The Five Worst Cities

These metros had the weakest dealer grades.

• Atlanta, GA with 28 percent F and 49 percent A or B.
• Memphis, TN with 27 percent F and 45 percent A or B.
• Cincinnati, OH with 24 percent F and 56 percent A or B.
• Oklahoma City, OK with 23 percent F and 53 percent A or B.
• Los Angeles, CA with 22 percent F and 52 percent A or B.

In these cities, an F grade is more common than the national rate of 16 percent. That is worth knowing before you shop there.

A Bad City Still Has Good Dealers

Look at the numbers again. Even in Atlanta, GA, 49 percent of graded dealers earn an A or B. That is a lot of good stores. A low city rank does not mean you cannot buy a car there.

It means the odds of landing at a bad lot are higher if you pick at random. So do not pick at random. Look up the grade of the exact dealer before you go. Read the one star reviews. Check the review count. A few extra minutes of checking matters more in these cities than in others.

The reverse is true too. A top city is not a promise. Madison, WI still has F dealers. The city rank tells you about the crowd, not about the one lot you are about to visit.

Why Some Cities Grade Lower

We cannot say for sure why one metro grades worse than another. The grade is a summary of what past buyers wrote, not a study of causes. Still, there are a few possible reasons worth naming.

• Some metros may have more small used lots, which grade F more often than franchise stores in our directory.
• Some may have more lots that sell cash cars or cars bought at auction with little reconditioning.
• Buyers in some places may be quicker to post a review when things go wrong.

These are possibilities, not findings. What we do know is the grade mix in each city, and that is what the ranking shows.

How to Shop in a Lower Ranked City

If you live in one of the lower ranked metros, you can still shop with confidence. Just add a few steps.

• Start with dealers that grade A or B, and favor those with many reviews.
• Read the newest one star reviews for any lot on your list.
• Ask for the out the door price in writing before you visit.
• Ask if you can have the car inspected by an outside mechanic.

Our guide on how to check out a car dealer turns these into a quick routine. It takes about ten minutes.

A Second Set of Eyes

A good dealer grade is about the store. It says nothing about the car on the lot. Our used car inspection covers 122 points, a full OBD-II scan, a road test, and tire and brake measurements, with photos. We come to the car, and the report comes the same day.

Common Questions

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