After Major FTC Warning, Car Dealers Called Deceptive Pricing a Fringe Problem. New CoPilot Data Show It Happens in 59% of Car Deals.

After Major FTC Warning, Car Dealers Called Deceptive Pricing a Fringe Problem. New CoPilot Data Show It Happens in 59% of Car Deals.

New data from AI car shopping app CoPilot finds “bait-and-switch pricing” - a practice flagged by federal regulators as illegal - is far more widespread than the industry admits

On March 13, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its most serious warning to the auto industry in years, specifying that deceptive dealership pricing practices are illegal. The agency followed this up by sending letters to 97 dealership groups threatening enforcement action. The auto industry’s response was to downplay the issue, with the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) issuing a statement that the “overwhelming majority” of dealers are compliant and framing the issue as a niche problem.

New transaction-level data from AI car shopping app CoPilot, released today, reveals a different story: 59% of recent used car purchases included fees added on top of the advertised price – the specific practice the FTC flagged as illegal. This finding is based on CoPilot’s analysis of nearly 500 used vehicle purchase transactions completed between December 2025 and April 2026.