CarGurus NASDAQ: CARG Chief Executive Jason Trevisan said the company is accelerating product development across dealer and consumer offerings, with inventory tools, artificial intelligence and international expansion among the key areas of focus.
Speaking at a JPMorgan event hosted by analyst Rajat Gupta, Trevisan said CarGurus has historically operated primarily in dealer marketing but is expanding into three additional workflow areas: inventory, lead-to-sale conversion, and market and competitive intelligence. He said the inventory category is the area where the company is “most excited” and “furthest along.”
Inventory Tools Lead Product Expansion
Trevisan said inventory management covers a dealer’s ability to determine what vehicles to stock, where to source them, how much to pay, how to price them and how to merchandise them. He highlighted PriceVantage, a pricing software product introduced at the end of last year, as an early monetized offering in that category.
Trevisan said CarGurus has “several hundred or many hundreds” of paying customers for PriceVantage. He also said PriceVantage and a newer marketing product for new cars are expected to grow from launch in the fourth quarter to more than $10 million in combined revenue this year.
On the consumer side, Trevisan said AI is changing the shopping process from a filter-based search experience into one that is more conversational and personalized. He said AI can help shoppers determine the make, model and trim that fits their needs, while also supporting sort order and personalization across the shopping journey.
Trevisan also pointed to Dealership Mode, an AI-powered feature designed to help consumers while they are at a dealership. He said the product can help shoppers evaluate other cars at the dealer, understand financing options and navigate what has historically been a “clunky” in-store experience.
AI Search and Internal Productivity
Trevisan said CarGurus is performing well in large-language-model search results, saying the company is number one in visibility in organic LLM results and in traffic generated from those results within auto. He said CarGurus was the first to introduce an app in the ChatGPT app ecosystem and is working with both ChatGPT and Google as paid models begin to emerge.
He cautioned that LLM-driven traffic remains a small portion of overall traffic, describing it as “low, low double-digit” percentage of traffic, but said it is growing quickly.
Trevisan also said CarGurus is seeing productivity gains from AI internally, particularly in engineering. He cited faster and more frequent code releases, more pull requests per developer, more lines of code written and greater use of code assistance. However, he said those gains are not translating into near-term headcount reductions.
“Our headcount forecast for 2028 is lower today than it was three months ago,” Trevisan said. “We do not have plans to reduce our headcount in the near term because of the productivity gains we’re seeing from AI.”
Revenue Growth Drivers and Margin Investment
In discussing guidance, Trevisan said CarGurus does not break down the drivers of its expected 10% to 13% revenue growth in greater detail, but said the company typically sees revenue growth from a combination of dealer rooftop growth and QARSD, which he defined as quarterly average revenue per customer.
He said most of the company’s growth in recent years has come from QARSD, while rooftops have also continued to grow. Within QARSD, Trevisan pointed to several drivers, including upselling dealers into higher packages, add-on products, lead quality and quantity, and measured unit pricing increases.
Trevisan highlighted Shopper Signals as a recently introduced feature available to premium-tier customers at no extra cost. He said it gives dealers a fuller view of each consumer referred by CarGurus and can improve conversion when dealers use the information.
He also said CarGurus is sending value to dealers through channels beyond traditional leads, including clicks to dealer websites, map and directions activity, and consumers opening Dealership Mode while on dealer lots. Trevisan said dealers are largely paying for traditional leads today, even as these additional channels grow.
Asked about expected EBITDA margin compression of 150 to 250 basis points, Trevisan said the pressure is driven primarily by investment in product and engineering, go-to-market efforts to educate and onboard customers, and continued investment in international markets. He described the margin impact as a “one-time push” in investment rather than a structural reset.
Market Opportunity and International Growth
Trevisan said CarGurus sees room for growth both within marketplace advertising and in newer dealer workflow categories. He said U.S. dealers spend about $3.5 billion on marketplaces, compared with more than $20 billion in total marketing spend. He said CarGurus represents about 27% to 30% of total marketplace spend, while capturing about half of consumer mindshare and time spent on marketplaces by some measures.
Beyond marketing, Trevisan said dealers spend about $4.5 billion across inventory, conversion and data categories, where CarGurus has less than 1% market or wallet share. He said those categories represent an opportunity set larger than the company’s current marketplace business.
Internationally, Trevisan said CarGurus is continuing a playbook that positions the company as a fast-growing number two competitor behind large incumbents. In Canada, he said CarGurus believes it is becoming a viable challenger to the market leader and has seen some large dealer groups transition exclusively to its platform. The company also recently introduced Sell My Car in Canada.
In the United Kingdom, Trevisan said the business is earlier stage but continues to gain share in traffic, paying dealers and wallet share.
Capital Allocation and M&A
Trevisan said CarGurus continues to follow a capital allocation hierarchy that prioritizes investment in the business, then M&A, and then share repurchases if the company has excess capital and views its stock as a good investment.
He said potential acquisition areas include technology and data companies serving auto dealers in inventory, conversion and market intelligence. Trevisan said many of those companies are current partners, and acquisitions could help CarGurus move faster or enter areas that would otherwise take longer to build organically.
Trevisan added that AI is making it easier to build software internally, but said proprietary data, integrations, established capabilities and dealer trust could still make certain companies attractive acquisition targets.
About CarGurus NASDAQ: CARG
CarGurus, Inc operates an online automotive marketplace designed to connect buyers and sellers of new and used vehicles. Through its proprietary search engine and data-driven pricing tools, the platform enables consumers to compare listings, assess fair market values and locate local dealers offering competitive deals. CarGurus also provides detailed vehicle history reports, dealer reviews and financing options to streamline the car-shopping process for both private parties and franchised dealerships.
The company's core product offerings include Instant Market Value (IMV), which leverages pricing algorithms to help buyers identify over- or under-priced vehicles, as well as dealer subscription services that grant automotive retailers access to lead generation tools, targeted advertising and dynamic pricing insights.
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