The shortlist is built in chat, not on the forecourt.
Model comparisons, running costs, resale value, service intervals and which dealer to trust — all of it now happens inside an AI answer before a test drive is booked. CiteRank AI shows how the 8 major engines answer for your models, trims and dealer network.
Vertical benches currently run 4 engines; full tracking covers all 8.
Specs are public, your framing is not.
Engines can find spec tables anywhere. What they rarely find is a machine-readable, current source from the brand or dealer explaining fit, cost of ownership and availability.
'Which SUV is better for city driving' resolves to review sites and forums, rarely to the manufacturer.
Engines quote last year's on-road prices, offers and variant lineups long after they changed.
'What does a 40,000 km service cost' is answered by forums because dealers never publish it.
One dealer in the group is cited; the rest are invisible because their entities are inconsistent.
Old recall and complaint threads outweigh current quality data in the engine's summary.
Range, charging and battery-warranty prompts move fast and go stale faster than the site updates.
Which brands the engines name for buying prompts.
A sample of the automotive prompt graph replayed across engines, by model class and intent.
| Category prompt | ChatGPT | Gemini | Perplexity | Claude | Answer concentration | You cited? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best compact SUV for city driving | Brand A, Brand B, Review site | Brand A, Brand B, Review site | Brand A, Brand B, Review site | Brand A, Brand B, Review site | 3 of 18 | — |
| Cheapest car to maintain over five years | Review site, Brand C, Forum | Review site, Brand C, Forum | Review site, Brand C, Forum | Review site, Brand C, Forum | 4 of 16 | |
| Best EV under a mid-range budget | Brand B, Brand D, Review site | Brand B, Brand D, Review site | Brand B, Brand D, Review site | Brand B, Brand D, Review site | 3 of 14 | — |
| Trusted service centre near me | Maps, Dealer A, Forum | Maps, Dealer A, Forum | Maps, Dealer A, Forum | Maps, Dealer A, Forum | 5 of 26 | — |
Illustrative modelled data — not live client results. Names anonymised.
A regional dealer group, modelled end to end.
A dealer group with eleven outlets was cited only for its main showroom, and model answers pointed to review sites. We rebuilt outlet entities and published the cost and availability data engines were missing.
- AutoDealer, Vehicle and Service schema published across outlets and model pages
- Per-outlet pages normalised with hours, services, brands carried and contact points
- Transparent service-cost and package pages published for common intervals
- Model pages rewritten as question-led answers on fit, running cost and ownership
- Weekly replays across model and location prompts to attribute each citation change
Illustrative modelled data — not live client results. Names anonymised.
Model and outlet visibility in one view.
Visibility trend and share of voice, loaded with an automotive-shaped dataset.
AI Visibility — Share of Voice over time
12-week trend, weighted across the tracked LLMs.
Tip: tab into the chart to focus a weekly data point, then use the left and right arrow keys to step through weeks. Press Escape to exit.
AI recommendation share — you vs competitors
Per-engine Share of Voice across the last 30 days of replays. Hover or focus a bar for the breakdown.
Illustrative modelled data — not live client results. Names anonymised.
Questions from automotive teams.
Can we track visibility per dealership?
Yes. Prompt graphs are built per location, so each outlet gets its own visibility and share-of-voice reporting rather than a blended group number.
How do we stop engines quoting old prices?
By publishing current pricing and variant data in a structured, dated format and fixing the third-party sources engines rely on. We track the correction week by week.
Do you track model-level prompts separately?
Yes. Every model and trim can have its own prompt set, so you can see exactly which vehicles are recommended and which are absent from answers.
How many prompts does an automotive brand need?
Most brands start with 300 to 600 prompts across models, running costs, comparisons and service intent, then expand with each launch.
What actually moves automotive citations?
Current, structured pricing and ownership-cost content moves the most, followed by consistent outlet entities and question-led model pages engines can quote.
See which brands AI names when buyers ask.
Run a free audit and get the model-by-model breakdown of where you are cited and where you are absent.