What FairDrive is trying to do

Car buyers shouldn't have to guess how they can negotiate off a new car—or give their phone number or email to dealers just to find out. FairDrive is trying to answer one simple question: how much below MSRP (sticker price) can you actually negotiate on a new car? We use real buyer reports to show what people actually negotiated.

In my research, TrueCar, Kelley Blue Book, and Edmunds often showed discounts that were thousands of dollars less than deals I found on Reddit, Facebook groups, and model-specific forums. But those buyer reports were scattered across various websites, weren’t easily searchable, and were often missing crucial information that made it hard to compare apples to apples. For example, people often list out-the-door (OTD) prices online, but OTD includes taxes that vary wildly by state, and the buyer might not have specified where they bought their car.

FairDrive turns real buyer reports into apples-to-apples negotiation data. When a buyer reports an OTD price, FairDrive backs out the available location-specific taxes, government registration/title fees, and dealer documentation fees so the negotiation amount is accurate and easier to compare across states. It then uses those comparable buyer reports to show Typical, Strong, and Weak outcomes and estimate OTD separately for your location. If you’re familiar with Levels.fyi, the basic idea is Levels.fyi for car purchases. That site helped me negotiate my salary—hopefully FairDrive can help you figure out what to pay for your next car.

The hope is that people like you eventually contribute your own purchase prices and dealer quotes directly to FairDrive, so the data gets better and becomes more useful for everyone. The more people share their own experiences purchasing cars, the more leverage we have as individual buyers.

Is FairDrive free?

It is free and will remain free for as long as I can keep this website running!

If I submit my quote, will it be private?

A lot of car-shopping websites make money by turning shoppers into sales leads. I’m not trying to do that, so you can browse without an account and submit a buyer report without giving FairDrive your name or email address. If you upload a quote, screenshot, or purchase document to support a report, the original evidence is never publicly displayed. Only the key details—like transaction month and pricing—are shown.

I also don’t sell personal information or use advertising trackers. I use website analytics to understand visits and how people interact with pricing information. You can read the full Privacy Policy for details.

I’m Colin. I built this website because when I shopped for my cars, I commonly found that while TrueCar, KBB, and Edmunds were a good starting point for pricing, real buyers on Reddit and Facebook were getting much better deals. By using those real buyer datapoints, I saved myself thousands. With this website, I’m trying to make real-world discounts easier to find so people can negotiate better.

I built this service (in full transparency, using AI) to solve a problem and then decided to share. If you have comments or questions, please submit some feedback via the feedback form. I’ll do my best to get back to you!

Was this website built with AI?

Yes. Frankly, without AI, I couldn’t have built FairDrive. However, I do hope this website is better than the AI slop we find everywhere on the internet now. If you have any feature requests or want to see any other cuts of data for a specific model or brand, let me know!