AI visibility benchmark
Which used car dealerships AI recommends in Toronto
We asked 4 AI assistants 48 unbranded car-shopping questions across 6 Toronto-area cities, then counted which of the 77 dealerships we track got named. Measured August 2026.
| # | Dealership | Share of voice | Named in | Named first | Find | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Downtown Toyota | 16.7% | 3.2% | 0.0% | 100 | 0 |
| 2 | Yorkdale Nissan | 16.7% | 3.2% | 100.0% | 100 | 0 |
| 3 | Attrell Toyota | 13.8% | 2.6% | 100.0% | 0 | 100 |
| 4 | Mississauga Honda | 10.7% | 2.1% | 40.0% | 0 | 78 |
| 5 | Mississauga Volkswagen | 8.6% | 1.6% | 100.0% | 0 | 62 |
| 6 | Acura Downtown | 8.4% | 1.6% | 100.0% | 0 | 61 |
| 7 | Infiniti Downtown | 8.4% | 1.6% | 0.0% | 50 | 0 |
| 8 | Erin Mills Acura | 4.3% | 0.8% | 100.0% | 0 | 31 |
| 9 | Mercedes-Benz Mississauga | 4.3% | 0.8% | 0.0% | 0 | 31 |
| 10 | Carcade | 3.9% | 0.8% | 100.0% | 23 | 0 |
| 11 | Mississauga Chrysler | 2.1% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0 | 16 |
| 12 | Foster Kia | 1.0% | 0.2% | 100.0% | 0 | 7 |
| 13 | Longman's Woodbine Chrysler | 1.0% | 0.2% | 100.0% | 0 | 7 |
64 of the 77 dealerships we track in Toronto were never named in any answer:
3mdglorymotors.ca · 401 Dixie Kia · 401dixiemazda.ca · aadco.ca · acezauto.com · Acura Sherway Toronto · advancemotorsusedcars.ca · AGINCOURT HYUNDAI · Airport Kia · arminauto.com · autogather.ca · autoresale.ca · bespokeautogallery.com · carconnectiontoronto.ca · carsgaloreauto.com · coliseumauto.ca · Credit and Financial Services · dejavuautogallery.com · Dixie Mitsubishi · Dixie Toyota · dreamjourneyauto.ca · Erin Mills Mazda · etobicokefinecars.com · Formula Honda · genesisbrampton.ca · genesisetobicoke.ca · genesismississauga.ca · goodfellowsauto.com · granturismoautogroup.ca · gtacarplug.ca · hanifmotors.ca · jalalmotors.ca · maharajamotors.ca · Mercedes-Benz Markham · Mercedes-Benz Toronto Queensway · Midtown Honda · minitoronto.ca · Morningside Mitsubishi · motorsquad.ca · mvpauto.ca · New & Used Vehicles | Mississauga, ON · Nissan Downtown · North York Kia · Northwest Lexus · OANZ AUTO · ontarioqualitymotors.com · primeautocollection.ca · Scarboro Kia · scarboromazda.ca · Signature Honda · Thorncrest Ford · todaysautosales.ca · Trento Kia · vehiclefinancesolutions.ca · veroauto.ca · volkswagenunionville.ca · Volvo Cars Markham · Volvo Cars Mississauga · Waiz Motors · Yorkdale Dufferin Mazda · Yorkdale Toyota Toronto · Yorkdale Volkswagen · yorkdalefinecars.ca · zeeautocentre.com
- Downtown Toyota takes 16.7% of every mention in the market and is named in 3.2% of answers.
- The lead is contested — Downtown Toyota is named only 1.0× as often as the runner-up.
- AI named 13 of the 77 dealerships tracked here. The other 64 never came up.
- reddit.com is the single most-cited source behind these answers, appearing in 2.2% of all citations.
Named less than their neighbourhood would suggest
Share of voice is how often AI names a dealership. Share of nearby demand is how much of the market’s shopper population sits closest to it. When the first is well below the second, the shoppers are there and the answers are going elsewhere.
| Dealership | Share of voice | Share of nearby demand | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| minitoronto.ca | 0.0% | 20.5% | -20.5 |
| Acura Downtown | 8.4% | 17.7% | -9.3 |
| Yorkdale Dufferin Mazda | 0.0% | 4.4% | -4.4 |
| motorsquad.ca | 0.0% | 4.4% | -4.4 |
| zeeautocentre.com | 0.0% | 4.2% | -4.2 |
| granturismoautogroup.ca | 0.0% | 3.5% | -3.5 |
| jalalmotors.ca | 0.0% | 3.1% | -3.1 |
| acezauto.com | 0.0% | 2.9% | -2.9 |
Named more than their location warrants
| Mercedes-Benz Mississauga | 4.3% | 2.7% | +1.6 |
| AGINCOURT HYUNDAI | 0.0% | 0.8% | -0.8 |
| Foster Kia | 1.0% | 2.0% | -1.0 |
| Longman's Woodbine Chrysler | 1.0% | 2.1% | -1.0 |
| Trento Kia | 0.0% | 1.1% | -1.1 |
What AI read to answer these questions
The sources cited across every answer in this market. This is where a dealership’s effort actually moves the needle — being present and accurate on the pages AI is already reading.
| Source | Type | Share of citations |
|---|---|---|
| reddit.com | Community | 2.2% |
| cargurus.ca | Aggregator | 2.2% |
| autorama.ca | Dealer | 2.0% |
| clutch.ca | Other | 1.8% |
| google.com | Other | 1.4% |
| autoparkbrampton.ca | Dealer | 1.4% |
| autotrader.ca | Aggregator | 1.1% |
| cars.com | Aggregator | 1.1% |
| kijiji.ca | Aggregator | 1.0% |
| teamchrysler.ca | Other | 0.9% |
| trustanalytica.org | Other | 0.8% |
| approvalgenie.ca | Other | 0.8% |
How we measured this
The questions. Every dealership in this market is ranked on the same 48 questions, and no question names a dealership. A dealer only scores when AI brings them up unprompted, which is the only way the numbers stay comparable between one dealer and the next. They split by what the shopper is asking for:
- Find — Which dealership — "best used car dealership in {city}"
- Buy — Which vehicle, and where — "used SUV under $20,000 in {city}"
The engines. ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity — 183 usable answers out of 240 attempted. An answer we couldn’t read is excluded from every calculation rather than counted as a market where nobody was named; a failed check is not evidence of absence.
The three numbers, kept separate. Named in is the share of answers mentioning a dealership at all. Share of voice is that dealership’s slice of every mention in the market. Named first is how often, among the answers that named them, they were named before any other dealer. A dealership can be mentioned constantly and almost never first, and collapsing those into one rank would hide that.
City weighting. Anchor cities (Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Scarborough, Markham, Vaughan) count toward the market score in proportion to shopper demand, so a strong showing in a bigger market moves the number more. Where city-level search volume is missing or rounds to zero — which it routinely does on long-tail terms — we fall back to a floor of a quarter of the city’s population share rather than letting a real sub-market count for nothing.
Who’s in the roster. We track 77 used and independent dealerships in this market, built from dealerships we have analyzed and grown from names AI itself uses. Franchise stores’ used departments are excluded. A dealership missing from this list is a gap in our roster, not a dealership AI ignores — if yours is missing, run a scan and it enters the next refresh.
Nothing here is for sale. No position on this page can be bought, and no dealership’s ranking changes by becoming a VIN Index customer. It is a measurement of what AI assistants said.