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AI visibility benchmark · Montréal, QC · Oct 20

Montréal buyers are asking AI where to buy a car.
No dealership owns these answers yet.

We asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity 12 real buyer questions in 6 parts of the Montréal area. 63% of the 216 answers sent buyers to a marketplace, and the most-named dealership showed up in just 16. The lead is up for grabs — see where you stand before your competitors do.

Use your dealership or dealer-group email; a personal email works too. We also check your website’s AI readiness. Free.

ChatGPTsaved Oct 20

“Quel VUS d'occasion puis-je avoir pour environ 500 $ par mois à Saint-Léonard?”

The answer named

  • St-Léonard Toyota
  • KSA Auto
  • Longue Pointe Chrysler
  • Hamel Chevrolet Buick GMC

And sent the buyer to

  • autotrader.ca
  • stleonardtoyota.com
  • longuepointechrysler.com
  • consumerreports.org
One of 216 saved answersall questions ↓

The dealerships AI names in Montréal

The whole field is bunched together: the leader is named in 16 of 216 answers, and a handful of answers separates the top three from the pack. Counted across the 131 tracked Montréal area dealerships; ties share a rank. Nothing is paid for — VIN Index members are counted exactly like everyone else.

  1. 1St-Léonard Toyota16 of 216
  2. 2Classe Auto12 of 216
  3. 3A Plus Auto10 of 216

48 more Montréal dealerships were named. Is yours one of them?

See the full leaderboard, and where you rank

Every dealership AI named for Montréal buyers, plus your own report with the exact answers.

Use your dealership or dealer-group email; a personal email works too. We also check your website’s AI readiness. Free.

Your opportunity in Montréal

Most of these answers are still up for grabs.
Here’s how to take them first.

127of 216

Montréal buyer answers name no tracked local dealer yet

We do thisAnswer pages built around these exact questions, filled with your inventory.

1of 1

Dealer sites missing vehicle data AI can read

No complete machine-readable price, mileage and year on the vehicle pages.

We do thisEvery vehicle published with its price, mileage and year labelled for AI.

0of 1

Inventory hidden behind JavaScript

Vehicle pages that don’t fully appear to most AI crawlers.

We do thisVehicle pages served as plain, readable HTML.

0of 1

Dealer sites turn away an AI crawler

At least one refused.

Your fixAllow AI crawlers in your site’s firewall or bot settings — usually a single setting.

VIN Index publishes your inventory as pages AI can read and cite — straight from your feed, with no change to your website — and every enquiry goes to you. The first dealers here to do it are competing with almost no one.

See where you rank

Website figures: the newest VIN Index AI-readiness check of every Montréal area dealership website we track (1 sites, Oct 4–Oct 4) — wider than the 131 dealerships on the leaderboard, which are the ones we match by name in answers. Each card counts only the sites where that particular check gave a clear result, so each has its own total. Sites may have changed since. Totals across dealerships, never about one.

The VIN Index content engine

AI quotes pages that answer the question.
We write them for you.

  1. 01

    Finds the questions

    The buyer questions AI is fielding in Montréal — like the 12 on this page — matched to what you have on the lot.

  2. 02

    Writes the answers

    A page for each question, built from your live inventory, prices and payments, published on your own VIN Index site.

  3. 03

    Tracks the citations

    Regular checks across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity show which pages AI is quoting, and which questions to answer next.

An Ottawa used-car dealership, on the content engine

40 answer pages · through Sep 28

0→10

From invisible to named in nearly half its buyer answers (10 of 21) in 10 weeks.

14days

From its first answer page going live to AI citing it as the source.

171

Times AI cited its VIN Index pages in the last 14 days, across 37 different buyer questions.

The dealership’s own tracked questions, not this page’s sample, and none names a dealership. “Named” compares the same questions and assistants in its first ten days of checks (Jul 18) and its latest ten (Sep 28). Citation counts are from our checks, not buyer traffic. One dealership’s result, not a guarantee.

See where you rank

216

AI answers saved across 6 parts of the Montréal area

63%

cite a listing marketplace like CarGurus, AutoTrader or Clutch

41%

name one of the 131 tracked local dealerships in the answer itself

16 of 216

the most any single Montréal dealership was named — nobody's running away with it

The 12 questions, asked in every area

  • Quel est le meilleur VUS d'occasion à sept places que je peux avoir pour 800 $ par mois à Montréal?
  • J'ai besoin d'un véhicule d'occasion à traction intégrale pour l'hiver à Montréal. Qu'est-ce que je peux avoir pour 600 $ par mois?
  • J'ai besoin d'un véhicule d'occasion à traction intégrale pour l'hiver à Montréal. Qu'est-ce qui est bien à moins de 25 000 $?
  • Quel genre de véhicule d'occasion puis-je avoir pour 400 $ par mois à Montréal?
  • Quel est le meilleur VUS d'occasion à sept places à moins de 30 000 $ à Montréal?
  • J'ai 20 000 $ comptant pour une auto d'occasion à Montréal. Qu'est-ce que je devrais acheter?
  • Je paie comptant une auto d'occasion pour aller au travail à Montréal. Qu'est-ce que je peux avoir pour 15 000 $?
  • Quelle est une bonne auto d'occasion pour aller au travail à Montréal pour moins de 400 $ par mois?
  • Quel VUS d'occasion devrais-je acheter pour moins de 25 000 $ à Montréal?
  • Quel VUS d'occasion puis-je avoir pour environ 500 $ par mois à Montréal?
  • Quels concessionnaires indépendants de véhicules d'occasion devrais-je considérer à Montréal?
  • Où devrais-je acheter un véhicule d'occasion à Montréal?

Each asked in Montréal-Nord, Mont-Royal, Montréal, Saint-Laurent, Saint-Léonard, Anjou — 216 answers in all. No question names a dealership, so a dealer only counts when AI brings them up on its own.

Where the answers send buyers

Which websites the 216 answers pointed buyers to. The marketplaces publish a price and a payment for every car in one place — exactly what a budget question asks for — so that’s where the answers go.

63%

of answers cite a listing marketplace

61%

of answers cite a local dealership’s own website

Linking isn’t recommending: an answer can list a dealer’s page among its sources — any dealer’s, not only the 131 on the leaderboard — without naming that dealer to the buyer. That’s why this is higher than the 41% of answers that name one.

  1. 1cargurus.ca76 / 216
  2. 2occasionbeaucage.com60 / 216
  3. 3automobileendirect.com59 / 216
  4. 4otogo.ca58 / 216
  5. 5auto123.com38 / 216
  6. 6autoquebec.com34 / 216
  7. 7groupelauzon.com32 / 216
  8. 8autotrader.ca31 / 216
  9. 9autohebdo.net30 / 216
  10. 10guideautoweb.com25 / 216

The questions no Montréal dealer is winning yet

How often each question’s answers named a local dealership, across every area and every assistant. “Où devrais-je acheter un véhicule d'occasion à Montréal?” gets a dealer named 100% of the time; the budget questions are where the answers go elsewhere.

  1. Quel est le meilleur VUS d'occasion à sept places que je peux avoir pour 800 $ par mois à Montréal?17%
  2. J'ai besoin d'un véhicule d'occasion à traction intégrale pour l'hiver à Montréal. Qu'est-ce que je peux avoir pour 600 $ par mois?22%
  3. J'ai besoin d'un véhicule d'occasion à traction intégrale pour l'hiver à Montréal. Qu'est-ce qui est bien à moins de 25 000 $?22%
  4. Quel genre de véhicule d'occasion puis-je avoir pour 400 $ par mois à Montréal?22%
  5. Quel est le meilleur VUS d'occasion à sept places à moins de 30 000 $ à Montréal?28%
  6. J'ai 20 000 $ comptant pour une auto d'occasion à Montréal. Qu'est-ce que je devrais acheter?33%
  7. Je paie comptant une auto d'occasion pour aller au travail à Montréal. Qu'est-ce que je peux avoir pour 15 000 $?33%
  8. Quelle est une bonne auto d'occasion pour aller au travail à Montréal pour moins de 400 $ par mois?39%
  9. Quel VUS d'occasion devrais-je acheter pour moins de 25 000 $ à Montréal?44%
  10. Quel VUS d'occasion puis-je avoir pour environ 500 $ par mois à Montréal?44%
  11. Quels concessionnaires indépendants de véhicules d'occasion devrais-je considérer à Montréal?89%
  12. Où devrais-je acheter un véhicule d'occasion à Montréal?100%

Share of that question’s answers (18 each) naming at least one tracked local dealership.

The assistants don’t answer alike

Same questions, same areas, same day. How often each one named a local dealership, and how often it pointed to a marketplace.

ChatGPT72 answers

Named a local dealership57%
Cited a marketplace61%

Gemini72 answers

Named a local dealership35%
Cited a marketplace57%

Perplexity72 answers

Named a local dealership32%
Cited a marketplace71%

Get ahead before the rest of Montréal does.

Most of these answers don’t name a Montréal dealer yet. VIN Index turns your inventory into pages AI can read, quote and cite — prices, payments and the facts buyers ask about — and sends every enquiry straight to you.

See where you rankHow it works
How we measured this

One saved sample: 12 questions asked in each of Montréal-Nord, Mont-Royal, Montréal, Saint-Laurent, Saint-Léonard, Anjou, answered by ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity with web search on October 20, 2026. Five monthly-payment, five cash-budget and two dealer-discovery questions per location, asked in French. No question names a dealership. Answers in the consumer apps can differ, and a new sample can differ from this one.

Every answer figure uses the same 216 successful answers. “Name a local dealership” means the answer text names one of the 131 dealerships we track in this area, identified from their own websites; that list is not every dealer in the area. “Cite a marketplace” means the answer’s sources include a listing marketplace or national online retailer.

These counts describe what the answers said. They are not shopper traffic, sales, or a dealership’s position within an answer, and they do not show why any dealership was or wasn’t named. Differences between individual areas rest on 36 answers each and are not reported.