Dealer terms

Last updated October 14, 2026

These terms are an agreement between CTE Digital LLC, doing business as CTE Studios ("we", "us"), and the dealership that opens a Car Central account ("you"). They cover the dealer management system, the marketplace listings, the lead exchange and the referral program (together, the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to them. If you sign up for a dealership, you confirm you have the authority to bind it. The Terms of use for shoppers and the Privacy page also apply.

Who can use it

The Service is for businesses that hold a motor vehicle dealer license, or are allowed to sell vehicles, in the state where they operate. You must give us true information at signup, including your license number, and keep it current. You are responsible for everyone you add to your account and for what they do with it. Keep sign-in details private and tell us promptly if you think an account was used without permission.

The verified check

A blue check means we compared the dealer license number on the account with the state's records at the time we granted it. An "Unverified" label means we haven't done that yet. Neither one is a recommendation, a guarantee of a dealership's conduct, or a statement about its cars. We can add or remove a check at any time, for example if a license lapses.

Free trial, price and billing

New accounts start with a free trial. The length is shown when you sign up. After the trial, the Service is a flat monthly subscription at the price shown on the Billing page, covering every user and every feature we include in the plan. Some items, such as lead exchange credits, are bought separately and are priced where you buy them.

Payments are processed by our payment provider. We don't see or store your full card number. By subscribing you authorize us to charge your payment method each month until you cancel. Subscriptions renew automatically at the then-current price. If a payment fails, we may retry it and may limit or suspend access until it is paid. You are responsible for any taxes that apply to your subscription.

We may change the price. We'll give you at least 30 days' notice, and the change applies from your next billing period after the notice. If you don't want the new price, cancel before it takes effect.

Cancelling and refunds

You can cancel at any time from the Billing page. There is no long-term contract. Cancelling stops future charges, and you keep access until the end of the period you've paid for. Fees already paid are not refunded, including for a partly used month, except where the law requires it or where we say otherwise in writing. Prepaid lead exchange credit is covered by the exchange rules shown where you buy it.

Referral program

When a licensed dealer you refer signs up with your referral link or code and keeps a paid subscription, your subscription fee is reduced by 20% for each qualifying referral. Five qualifying referrals reduce it by 100%. The reduction never goes below zero and has no cash value.

• A referral qualifies once the dealer has made a first payment and 14 days have passed since it.
• A referral stops counting if that dealer cancels, or its subscription lapses or ends. Your reduction is recalculated, and may go up or down from one billing period to the next.
• The reduction applies only to the subscription fee. It does not apply to taxes, lead credits or any other usage charge.
• You can't refer yourself or a business you own or control, and a dealer can only be referred once. We compare license numbers, phone numbers and emails to find duplicates.
• We may decline or cancel a referral, and remove a reduction already applied, if we reasonably believe the signup was fake, duplicated, paid for in a way that breaks the rules, or otherwise abusive.
• Don't advertise the program misleadingly or send unsolicited bulk messages to promote it.
• We may change or end the program. Changes apply to future billing periods, and we'll tell you before they take effect.

Marketplace listings

If you publish a car, your listing appears on BuyCarCentral under the name you've chosen for the public. You are responsible for every statement, price and photo in it, for having the right to use them, and for following the laws on vehicle advertising, including price, fee and history disclosures. We may review, decline, or remove a listing. Listings that look false, duplicated or unsafe may be removed without notice. We aren't a party to your sales and don't guarantee that a shopper will buy or contact you.

Leads and the lead exchange

Inquiries from shoppers arrive in your account for you to answer. Leads you buy on the exchange come from people who agreed to be contacted by dealers about their car; the lead shows what they agreed to. You agree to contact people only in the ways they agreed to and in line with the law, including the rules on calls, texts and email, honoring requests to stop, and quiet hours. You may not resell or share exchange leads. The exchange may not be open yet, and we may change how it works and its price. A lead you believe is false or unusable can be reported through the refund request shown in the app, and we decide the outcome fairly and in good faith.

Texting

If texting is turned on for your dealership, you may text customers only in line with the law and with what they agreed to. The inbox blocks texts to people who replied STOP and, until someone has agreed or texted you first, to people who haven't opted in. Texts to people who haven't texted you in the last day wait until 8 a.m. if they would go out overnight. These tools help, but you remain responsible for having each person's permission and for the content of your messages. Texting needs a number registered with the mobile carriers, which can take several days and may be refused. Carrier fees, if any, are passed through with notice.

You are responsible for your paperwork and compliance

Car Central is software. It helps you fill in forms, calculate figures, keep records and screen customers, but it does not give legal, tax or accounting advice, and it does not replace your own review. Rates, fees, deadlines and forms are set by you or taken from sources we show, and they change. You must check that every document, contract, tax and fee figure, odometer and damage disclosure, title and registration filing, and temporary tag record is correct and complete before you rely on it or sign it. You are responsible for your dealership's compliance with all laws that apply to it, including consumer protection, financing disclosures, the FTC Safeguards Rule for customer information, sanctions screening, and the state's records and filing rules. A sanctions screening result in the app is an aid to your own check, not a final determination.

Contract and disclosure text in documents is yours. If a form or clause needs to be reviewed by a lawyer, you are responsible for getting that done.

Your data

You own the information you and your staff put into the Service, including your inventory, customers, deals and records ("your data"). You give us permission to store it, process it and show the parts you choose to publish, only to run and improve the Service for you and to follow the law. For your customers' personal information, you decide why and how it is used and we process it on your behalf. You promise you have the right to put it into the Service and that you'll use it lawfully. See Privacy for what we collect and how we protect it.

Sensitive items such as driver license numbers and deal files are encrypted in storage. We use reasonable measures to protect your data, but no system is perfectly secure, and we can't promise it will never be accessed without permission. If we learn that your customers' personal information was exposed because of a problem on our side, we'll tell you promptly so you can meet your own obligations.

After your account ends, we'll give you a copy of your data in a common format on request made within 30 days. After that, we will delete it on request, except for what we must keep to follow the law, resolve disputes or prevent fraud. Legally required dealer records, such as the temporary tag log, are yours to keep; export them before closing your account.

Acceptable use

Don't use the Service to break the law, to post false or misleading listings, to harass or spam anyone, to collect shoppers' details for other purposes, or to copy the Service's content in bulk. Don't try to break, overload, probe or reverse engineer it, or get around its limits, or let anyone else use your account. We can limit or suspend access to protect the Service or its users.

Suspension and ending

You can stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or end your account if you break these terms, if a payment isn't made, if your license lapses or is revoked, or if we reasonably believe the account is being used for fraud or harm. Where we can, we'll tell you why and give you a chance to fix it first. Sections that by their nature should continue after the account ends (such as billing owed, data, limits on liability and the legal terms below) do.

The Service as provided

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". We work to keep it running and accurate, but we don't promise it will be uninterrupted or free of errors, or that it will meet every requirement of your business. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all other warranties, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

Limit on liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost sales or lost data, arising from the Service. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the fees you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the event that gave rise to the claim. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law doesn't allow to be limited, such as for fraud or willful misconduct.

Indemnity

You will defend and cover us against claims, losses and reasonable costs brought by a third party (including a customer, a government agency or a lender) that arise from your data, your listings, your dealership's sales, paperwork or advertising, your breach of these terms, or your breach of the law. We'll tell you about the claim promptly and cooperate with you at your cost.

Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute that can't be settled informally will be brought in the state or federal courts located in North Carolina, and you agree to their jurisdiction. Please contact us first at support@sellcarcentral.com and give us a chance to resolve it.

Changes and the rest

We may update these terms. We'll tell account owners about material changes by email or in the app, and the date at the top shows when the page changed. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept it. If you don't agree, cancel before it takes effect. These terms, with the Terms of use and Privacy pages, are the whole agreement about the Service. If part of them can't be enforced, the rest still applies. You may not transfer your account to someone else without our written consent; we may transfer ours as part of a sale of our business.