The State of Independent Auto Websites 2026: Q4 2026

Clikiti

The State of Independent Auto Websites · 2026

Clikiti Research

Theestimate startsonline

We read the websites of 174 independent auto shops and used-car dealers in the US the way a driver does: on a phone, often with a warning light on or a car to replace, asking what it costs and when they can come in.

Studied

0 websites

Kinds

Four kinds of business

Measured

Eleven checks

The State of Independent Auto Websites · Q4 2026 · edition 2026-Q4

Read the report For agencies PDF · 2.6 MB Markdown

A mechanic tightens a lug nut with a torque wrench beside a blank yellow service tag — **The tag.** The price a driver wants before the car comes in.

The headline

of the websites in this study answer the driver's question.

Summary of findings

Drivers ask seven questions. The median site answers three.

Across 174 independent auto websites, the median site answers four of the seven customer questions this edition tests. 29% show any price; 40% state a warranty with its terms.¹

01 · The questions drivers ask

What a driver can find out before calling

We turned seven questions a driver or a used-car buyer asks into seven checks, then read each site for an answer a visitor could find on a phone.

Share of all websites answering each question · red = fewer than a third · tick = half

The driver asks	Answered	Sites

Figure 1. Share of sites that answer each question on the home page or a page it links to, read from the served HTML. Sorted from least to most answered.

A service advisor turns a phone toward a customer to show a repair quote at a worn shop counter — **The quote.** The moment trust is decided. On most sites a driver cannot see one before calling.

A couple looks at a used SUV with a salesperson on a small lot at blue hour

General repair and service (55): median score 77, a price shown on 22%, online booking on 64%. Tire, brake and quick service (31): median score 76, a price shown on 19%, online booking on 61%. Collision and body (45): median score 76, a price shown on 4%, online booking on 44%. Independent used-car dealers (43): median score 72, a price shown on 72%, online booking on 56%.

Where each website scores

Overall website score out of 100, one dot per site; the yellow rule is each group's median

Hover or focus a dot to see the site.

Figure 2. Overall website score out of 100, one dot per site. The yellow rule marks each group's median.

A technician under a car on a lift with a work light, a yellow service tag hanging from the mirror

Four real sites from this edition, one strong, two in the middle and one weak. Each photograph shows the kind of moment its findings describe; the business itself stays anonymous. The number is the overall website score; each dot is one check, filled when the site passes it.

The Standout

Joey's Auto Shop

Tire, brake and quick service, Des Moines, IA. It answers 6 of the 7 customer questions this edition tests, passes every speed and accessibility check. Its overall website score is 81/100. Named as a positive example; every other site in this report is anonymous.

What it does well

Tappable phone plus opening hours
Makes named, or all makes and models
Qualifications shown (ASE, I-CAR, AAA, OEM, BBB)
Book, request an estimate or a test drive online
Warranty stated with its terms
Reviews marked up, in a widget or quoted
Real phone visitors see the main content in 1.9 s (Chrome UX Report, 75th percentile; good is 2.5 s or less)
No text fails the WCAG 1.4.3 contrast minimum
Every image has a text description (WCAG 1.1.1)
Clikiti pillar scores of 90 or more: accessibility 100, SEO 100, trust 92

Where it could still improve

Not found on the home page or the pages it links to: a price shown: a service, a fee, a labour rate or a car

A driver beside a stopped car with hazard lights on, searching on a phone at dusk — **After hours.** Breakdowns don’t keep office hours. The website is the only part of the shop that’s open.

04 · Accessibility and speed

The drivers left out

A driver using a screen reader, a keyboard, or an old phone on a weak signal at the roadside is still a customer. These checks measure whether the site lets them in.³

Table 1. Technical checks, share of the 174 sites that fail each one.

05 · Method in brief

How the sites were read

Step 1 · all 174 sites

Read

The home page and up to eight pages it links to (services, prices, inventory, warranty, about, reviews, booking, contact), read as a server delivers them. The customer questions are answered here, by fixed published rules (Appendix A4).

Step 2 · all 174 sites

Measure

Google Lighthouse (PageSpeed Insights) in a phone and a desktop render, with Chrome UX Report field data where it exists: load time, contrast and image descriptions. Repeatable.

Step 3 · all 174 sites, score only

Review

An expert usability review of each home page against Nielsen's heuristics, used only in the usability part of the score. Every issue must name the heuristic, a severity and the element, or it is dropped.

ScopeThis study examines how independent shops and dealers present themselves on the web, not the quality of their repairs, their vehicles or their prices.

Read the full methodology Sample, definitions, scoring, precision and limitations, in Appendix A.

After closing, an agency owner shows a laptop to a shop owner at the service counter of an independent garage

For agencies and freelancers

What this means for agencies

what to fix first, and how to pitch it

For small agencies and freelancers who sell websites to independent auto shops and used-car dealers. We scanned 174 of their websites: 1% score under 60 out of 100, and 70% leave at least three of the questions drivers ask unanswered. Here is where the winnable work is, which problems to lead a pitch with, and how to show them without days of spec design.

Who is realistic to win

Independent used-car dealers are the most winnable: the lowest median score in this report (72 out of 100), and 5% of them score under 60. Their problems are visible, specific and fixable by a small team.

Type	Sites	Median	Under 60
General repair and service	55	77	0%
Tire, brake and quick service	31	76	0%
Collision and body	45	76	0%
Independent used-car dealers	43	72	5%

Score out of 100. "Under 60" is the share of sites that miss most of what a driver looks for.

5 problems to lead a pitch with

87%
Loads in under 2.5 s on a phone Build
Resize and compress the hero image and inventory photos, defer scripts, aim for under 2.5 s on a phone.
Your home page takes several seconds to appear on the phone of someone stuck at the roadside.
77%
Text contrast passes 4.5:1 Quick fix
Raise text contrast to at least 4.5:1 in the theme.
Parts of the site are hard to read, and it is a WCAG failure.
71%
Roughly what will it cost? Content
Publish starting prices for common jobs (diagnostic fee, oil change, brakes, alignment) or the labour rate; for dealers, a price on every car.
The first question a driver has is what it will cost. Your site makes them call to ask.
60%
Do you stand behind the work? Quick fix
State the warranty with its terms (months and miles, or lifetime on body work) on the home and services pages.
You guarantee your work. The site never says so, so the cheaper shop down the road looks the same as you.
53%
Are you qualified? Quick fix
Show the shop's qualifications by name: ASE, I-CAR, AAA Approved, manufacturer certifications.
Your technicians are certified and your site keeps it a secret.

Share of sites with the problem. WCAG items are accessibility failures. Every check cites a standard in the method section.

How to show a prospect their problems, and a redesign

1Lead with their problem, not your services
Open with one question the site fails, for example loads in under 2.5 s on a phone (87% of sites in this report miss it), and show the exact page where the answer should be.
2Put a number on it
Compare their site with the sector: across 174 independent repair, tire and collision shops and used-car dealers sites, the median scores 76 out of 100 and answers 4 of the 7 questions drivers ask. A number travels further inside the client than an opinion.
3Show the fix without days of spec work
A rough redesign that answers those questions persuades better than a proposal, but it usually costs a designer a day or two per prospect. You can sketch it by hand, or use Clikiti: the scan is free and shows any site's problems in about a minute, and paid plans draft a redesign of the home page from the prospect's own brand, from about $2.33 per pitch.

Scan a prospect's site free No sign-up. You see what the prospect would see.

For agencies

Show every shop what its drivers see

Clikiti reads a shop's site the way a driver does, states what it found, and generates the redesign you present before the first call.

See your market on Clikiti

Appendix A

Methodology

How this study was designed, who was included, what was measured and how far the results can be relied on. It is written so that an agency can share it with a shop owner who wants to check the evidence behind a pitch.

174websites studied

4types of organisation

35states

±7.4points, margin of error at 95%

2026-10-14date the sites were read

A1. The research question

When a driver needs a repair, or a buyer wants a used car, and looks an independent shop or lot up online, usually on a phone, can they find out how to reach it and when it is open, whether they can book without calling, roughly what it will cost, whether the work or the car is guaranteed, whether the people are qualified, whether it handles their car and whether other drivers vouch for it?

Population. Independently owned US auto businesses with one to three locations and their own website, in four groups: general repair and service, tire, brake and quick service, collision and body, and independent used-car dealers. These are the auto businesses a small or mid-size web agency can realistically win as clients.

A2. Who was studied

The sample was built from local search listings, city by city, then screened so that every site in it is one an independent agency could realistically win.

Source	What it contributes	Sites
Local search, general repair	Independent general auto repair and service shops found in local search results, city by city	55
Local search, tire and brake	Independent tire, brake, alignment, transmission and exhaust shops found in local search results, city by city	80
Local search, collision and body	Independent collision repair, auto body and paint shops found in local search results, city by city	45
Local search, used-car dealers	Independent used-car dealers found in local search results and dealer listings marked independent, city by city	43

Included

An independently owned business with one to three locations and its own website (not a directory, marketplace or social profile)
Based in the United States
Home page responds and shows the business it claims to be (each home page title was checked before scanning)

Excluded

Carmakers and franchised new-car dealerships
Franchises and chains (for example Midas, Meineke, Firestone, Jiffy Lube, Caliber, Gerber, Maaco, CARSTAR, CarMax, Carvana, DriveTime) and any business with four or more locations or in several states
Body shops owned by a dealer group, and buy-here-pay-here chains
Directories, marketplaces and lead-generation pages (Yelp, RepairPal, CarGurus, Cars.com, AutoTrader)
Parked, placeholder, password-protected or unreachable sites, and duplicates

From list to sample	Sites
Candidates listed	245
Removed at screening: the site refused automated visitors (40)	−40
Removed at screening: no response, or no page served to automated visitors (17)	−17
Removed at screening: parked or placeholder (1)	−1
Removed at editorial review: template text, a hijacked domain serving unrelated content, and a duplicate of another dealer (4)	−4
Cohort	183

Region (US Census)	General repair and service	Tire, brake and quick service	Collision and body	Independent used-car dealers	All
Northeast	17	7	10	8	42
Midwest	13	8	14	11	46
South	15	13	15	15	58
West	10	3	6	9	28
All regions	55	31	45	43	174

A3. How the sites were read

Pages. The home page, then for each of eight topics (services, prices and specials, inventory, warranty, about, reviews, booking, contact) the best-matching link on the home page.

Speed and accessibility. Google PageSpeed Insights (Lighthouse) on a mid-range phone profile and on desktop, plus Chrome UX Report data from real visitors over the previous 28 days where Google publishes it for the site.

Crawler conduct. One request at a time to each site, at least 400 ms apart, at most nine pages per site; robots.txt is read and obeyed for every page requested; a site that refuses is left out and never retried. The crawler identifies itself as Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ClikitiResearch/1.0; +https://clikiti.com).

A4. What was measured

7 questions drivers and used-car buyers ask before they call or drive over, answered from what each site publishes, and 4 technical checks against published standards. A check passes only when the rule below is met; anything the crawler cannot confirm counts as not answered.

Question	Counts as answered when	Standard
How do I reach you, and when are you open?Tappable phone plus opening hours	The home page has a tappable phone link, and the home, contact or about page states opening hours (a day and a time range).	Clikiti customer question 1 of 7
Do you handle my car?Makes named, or all makes and models	Three or more car makes are named on the home, services, inventory or about page, or the site says it works on or sells all makes and models.	Clikiti customer question 2 of 7
Are you qualified?Qualifications shown (ASE, I-CAR, AAA, OEM, BBB)	A qualification or affiliation is named: ASE, I-CAR or Gold Class, AAA Approved, a manufacturer certification, a parts-network programme (NAPA AutoCare, Bosch, ACDelco), a state inspection station, BBB accreditation or NIADA membership.	Clikiti customer question 3 of 7
Can I book without calling?Book, request an estimate or a test drive online	A link, button or embedded scheduler lets the visitor book service, request an estimate or quote, or schedule a test drive online.	Clikiti customer question 4 of 7
Do you stand behind the work?Warranty stated with its terms	A warranty or guarantee is stated with its terms: months and miles, years, or lifetime or nationwide.	Clikiti customer question 5 of 7
Roughly what will it cost?A price shown: a service, a fee, a labour rate or a car	A dollar price is shown for a named service, a fee or a labour rate, or a vehicle price appears next to a model year (discounts, savings and monthly payments do not count).	Clikiti customer question 6 of 7
Do other drivers vouch for you?Reviews marked up, in a widget or quoted	Customer reviews are marked up for search engines (Review or AggregateRating structured data), shown through a review widget, or at least two customer testimonials are quoted.	Clikiti customer question 7 of 7
Technical checks
Loads in under 2.5 s on a phoneLoads in under 2.5 s on a phone	Real visitors on phones see the main content within 2.5 seconds (Chrome UX Report, 75th percentile). Where Google publishes no visitor data, the phone lab test is used.	Core Web Vitals · LCP
Text contrast passes 4.5:1Text contrast passes 4.5:1	No text on the home page fails the WCAG 1.4.3 minimum contrast of 4.5:1, in either the phone or desktop test.	WCAG 1.4.3
Images have text descriptionsImages have text descriptions	Every meaningful image on the home page has a text description (WCAG 1.1.1).	WCAG 1.1.1
AutoRepair, AutoBodyShop or AutoDealer structured dataAutoRepair, AutoBodyShop or AutoDealer structured data	The site describes the business to search engines with AutoRepair, AutomotiveBusiness, AutoBodyShop or AutoDealer structured data.	Schema.org · AutomotiveBusiness

A5. The website score

Each site's overall score (0 to 100) is Clikiti's website score, rubric 2.0.0. It measures the website, not the business, and the customer questions above do not feed it. It is a weighted mean of five pillars:

Pillar	Weight	Based on
Usability	30%	Checks of the home page for broken links and images, and an expert review of the page as rendered on a phone and on a desktop screen, against Jakob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics. Each issue must name the heuristic, a severity on the Nielsen Norman Group scale and the exact element or wording; issues without all three are discarded, and two independent passes must agree.
Speed	25%	Google Lighthouse on a mid-range phone (60%) and on desktop (20%), and real-visitor Core Web Vitals from the Chrome UX Report (20%) where available.
Accessibility	25%	Google Lighthouse accessibility audits (70%) and Clikiti's own WCAG checks of the served page (30%).
Search	10%	Google Lighthouse SEO audits (60%) and Clikiti's own search checks of the served page (40%).
Trust	10%	Google Lighthouse best-practice audits (40%) and security header checks (60%).

Within a pillar, each issue costs points by severity (critical, high, medium, low) and by how many times it occurs; issues based on judgement count at 70% of measured ones, and duplicates of the same root cause count once. On the four business profiles, the number out of 100 is this overall score, and each dot is one check in its group: filled when the site passes it, hollow when it does not.

A6. Precision

With 174 sites, a share reported for the whole sample is precise to within ±7.4 percentage points at 95% confidence (worst case, a 50% share; 1.96 × √(0.25/n)). By type: general repair and service ±13.2 (n = 55); tire, brake and quick service ±17.6 (n = 31); collision and body ±14.6 (n = 45); independent used-car dealers ±14.9 (n = 43). Differences between types smaller than these margins should be read as similar. Percentages are rounded to whole numbers; medians are the middle value of the sites in a group.

A7. Quality control

Every home page in the cohort was fetched and its title checked against the listed business before scanning
Detection rules were checked against the evidence they record for a sample of businesses in every group, and revised before the final run
Every published figure is recomputed from the data at build time, and a statement in the text that the data does not support stops the build
Results are published only after automated checks for missing data, anonymity, accessibility of the report itself and the margin of error statement pass

A8. Limitations

A point-in-time snapshot: sites change, and a site may have improved or declined since it was read.
Only public pages were read: the home page and pages it links to. Inventory search tools, chat widgets and multi-step estimate forms were not tested.
Answers are read from the page as a server delivers it. Content that only appears after scripts run in the browser (some inventory listings, schedulers and review widgets) is not seen, which the study counts as a gap a search engine or a slow phone would also meet.
57 candidates blocked or did not answer automated visitors and are not in the study; sites behind such protection may differ from those studied.
The study reports what a website shows. It does not judge any repair, vehicle or price, or compliance with any consumer or dealer licensing rule.
Automated accessibility tests find only part of what WCAG covers; keyboard and screen-reader use need a manual audit.
The sample is a structured list of real, independent businesses, not a random draw. Margins of error are given as a guide to precision, not as a guarantee that the results hold for every business in the country.

A9. Data, licence and corrections

The aggregate results are published as CSV and JSON beside this report under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence: you may reuse, adapt and share them, including in client proposals, with a credit to Clikiti and a link. No per-site results are published. Corrections and removal requests are reviewed and answered personally; see the end of this report.

Appendix B

Businesses in this study

The 174 websites in this edition, by type. This list says who was scanned and nothing more: results in this report are shown only in aggregate or anonymously.

Disclaimer

About this study

This report is based on automated scans of publicly available home pages, and pages they link to, run on 2026-10-14. Its findings are a point-in-time technical snapshot of each website. They are not a judgement of any shop's repairs, any dealer's vehicles or anyone's prices, and automated checks may contain errors. This report is not a judgement of the quality of any repair, vehicle or price, and it does not assess compliance with any consumer or dealer licensing rule. Clikiti is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, any business listed here; trademarks belong to their owners. The report is provided “as is” under CC BY 4.0, without warranty of any kind. Every person in this report's photographs is AI-generated; none is a real person. The one business screenshot is the featured business's own home page, shown unaltered.

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