Methodology

What we scan

LotCite samples a dealer’s public-facing pages — typically vehicle detail pages (VDPs) and search-results inventory pages (SRPs). For each sampled page, we capture the rendered HTML and extract advertised prices, fees, rebates, add-ons, and disclosure text.

We respect robots.txt and throttle requests. Scans identify themselves with the user-agent DealerComplianceScanner.

Active rules

• ftc-total-price — Advertised price must include all mandatory fees other than government taxes and registration. Source: FTC Warns 97 Auto Dealership Groups (March 2026).
• ftc-rebate-disclosure — Conditional rebates must disclose conditions.
• ftc-financing-condition — Advertised price cannot require dealer financing.
• ftc-mandatory-addons — Add-ons must be marked optional.
• ftc-fee-itemization — Fees must be itemized with descriptive labels.
• ftc-clear-conspicuous — Disclosures must be clear and conspicuous. Evaluated by Claude with confidence threshold 0.75.
• ca-addon-optional-disclosure — California: add-on optional status must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed. Effective 2026-10-01.

Scoring

Scores start at 100. Each finding deducts: low 2, medium 5, high 12, critical 25. Scores cannot go below 0. The score reflects flagged violations against active rules; it is not a comprehensive audit and is not legal advice.

Coverage

The free scanner reads dealer pages with a standard HTTP client. Many large dealer groups serve inventory through JavaScript-rendered platforms (Cox Automotive, Dealer.com SPA, ZMOT) or block non-browser User-Agents. When that happens the scanner reports “no inventory accessible” rather than guessing at compliance.

For dealers behind those platforms, our paid engagement uses a hosted-browser pipeline that renders the same pages a customer would see — and produces the same citation-grade report.

Limitations

• The free scanner samples public-facing inventory; it does not exhaustively scan every page.
• Soft rules (Claude-judged) flag at confidence ≥ 0.75; lower-confidence verdicts pass.
• Scanner heuristics may miss novel page structures; the absence of findings does not mean compliance.
• LotCite does not access non-public pages, dealer CRM, or transactional data.