How our DealScore works
Most marketplaces rate prices but hide the maths. We do the opposite: here is exactly how every score is calculated — because a score you can't verify is a score you shouldn't trust.
1. We compare each car to its real market
For every listing we build a cohort of genuinely comparable cars — same make, model, fuel and gearbox, within one model year — currently on sale across our ~99 European sources. We then fit a robust statistical model of price against age and mileage, and read off what this exact car should cost. The gap between that and its asking price is how far below market it is.
Crucially, we include a country adjustment. A car listed in a cheaper market isn't automatically a deal — our model separates "cheap for its own market" (a real find) from "listed in a low-price country" (just geography). The two are different questions, and we answer them separately.
2. The score means exactly what it says
The DealScore is anchored to the actual percentage below market — not a hidden weighting. Roughly:
- Exceptional 90–100 ≈ 18%+ below the car's fair market value
- Great 80–89 ≈ 12–18% below
- Good 70–79 ≈ 7–12% below
- Fair 50–69 ≈ 2–7% below
If a car has too few genuine comparables, we refuse to score it and label it a rare configuration — we would rather show nothing than fake confidence.
3. We screen out what looks too good to be true
A price far below everything else is usually not a bargain — it's a damaged car, an installment figure, an auction start price, or a scam. Our headline deals pass several checks first: damaged and salvage cars are moved to their own clearly-labelled segment; installment/auction prices are detected and set aside; and anything suspiciously cheap for a nearly-new car is held back for verification instead of shown as a "deal".
4. Odometer-fraud detection you won't find elsewhere
We re-check every listing over time. If a car's odometer ever decreases between checks, that is physically impossible — the mileage has been wound back. We flag it. Cross-border mileage fraud affects a large share of used cars in Europe; this single check has no false positives, because a real odometer never goes down.
5. What it costs to actually own it
A cheap car abroad isn't cheap if importing it costs thousands. Every deal shows an estimated landed cost for your country — transport plus the real registration taxes (Polish excise, French CO₂ malus, Dutch BPM, and so on) — as an honest range. Final duties are always set by customs at clearance; we tell you the ballpark before you fall in love with a listing.
Our pledge
Dealers cannot pay for placement. Ever. Ranking is 100% data. We never sell cars and take no fee from sellers — when you unlock a deal, we send you straight to the original listing. We make money only from optional affiliate links (like vehicle-history checks) and, later, an optional subscription. What we will never do is let money move a car up the list.
Data is refreshed every 6 hours. Every deal shows when it was last seen live, so you never chase a car that's already gone.