Considering there are more than 129,000 used car dealers in the United States alone, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting a used car dealership is no easy task.
Picking the right name gives potential customers an idea about what your business does, creates a good first impression, and helps you stand out from the competition.
What used car dealer names are you allowed to use? How do you come up with something that represents your brand best? And what about business name best practices?
Learn more about the car dealership industry
Guidelines for Naming Your Used Car Dealership
If you’re struggling with coming up with business name ideas for your car dealership, one of the best things to do during the naming process is to start brainstorming. As you go through the tips outlined below, make a list of words, phrases, and terms associated with your business.
From there, you can narrow down the list and cross off ideas you don’t like.
Once you have several top considerations, we’ll walk you through how to make sure you’re allowed to use them. This last step helps you narrow down your list even more so you can make a final decision.
1. Consider the Vehicles You Plan to Offer
A used car dealer can offer several types of vehicles, so it could be worth considering the products you plan to offer when picking a name. Maybe you want to focus on a wide range of vehicles, high-end vehicles, a particular vehicle manufacturer, or easy financing.
Add the different types of services you want to offer to your brainstorming list.
Remember to avoid anything limiting your business’s future growth if you decide to go in another direction down the road.
2. Location-Specific Terms
Many used car dealers are specific to a geographic service area. So, if that’s true for your business, consider adding a location-specific term to your business name.
You can consider things like:
- City nicknames
- Neighborhoods
- Regions or states
- And descriptive terms
However, consider what happens if you expand outside your intended service area. Does the name become limiting? If so, it’s best to avoid it if you plan to expand or change directions later.
3. Avoid Business Names That Are Hard to Pronounce or Spell
Despite the technological advances in voice search, assistants like Siri and Alexa struggle to understand slang and other confusing words.
This could limit how often your business shows up in voice (and text-based) searches if your name is hard to spell, pronounce, or hear. Because of that, it’s important to avoid complicated words, industry jargon, and using numbers in place of letters. While having a unique used car dealer name is good, being too unique may not be so good.
Keep your business name as simple and easy to remember as possible so potential customers can easily find you.
4. Consider Alliterations and Rhyming Words
Alliterations and rhymes are catchy and easy to remember. Because of that, they make for great business names.
That said, it’s not always easy to come up with them. Start by choosing a few of your favorite words from your master brainstorming list.
Then, you can Google “words that start with C” to come up with a name like Clean Cars or A for Affordable Autos or whatever letter you’re using to create an alliteration. Alternatively, you can search “words that rhyme with _____,” like Deals on Wheels.
It can be time-consuming, but it’s an excellent place to start.
And don’t forget to add any exciting finds to your brainstorm list while you’re at it. Try not to overthink the names you come up with. Just write them all down, as some of the more interesting ones may spark better ideas later.
5. Steer Clear of Initials or Obscure Acronyms
Initials and unusual acronyms are hard to remember, so they typically don’t make great business names. They can also be challenging to pronounce and confusing for voice search as well.
Furthermore, there are 325 different two-letter combination possibilities in the English language. And the odds of your customers remembering the specific letters you chose are pretty small.
6. Imagery Words
Another consideration when brainstorming brand name ideas is whether there are industry-related words that could also lend themselves to be used in a logo. For instance, a used car dealer could use an image of a car or car keys and focus the name around the image.
Related: How to create a logo for your business.
7. Try the Owner’s Name
If you’ve made it this far and are still struggling to find the best name, you can always consider using the business owner’s name. Doing so works well if the owner also plans to be the face behind the business.
Something to keep in mind is that using the owner’s name as the business name can make it more challenging to sell the business in the future.
List of Catchy Used Car Dealership Names
Here is a list of name suggestions based on existing used car dealership businesses that may help give you some inspiration. While many of these names may be available for you to use, be sure to check first to be sure they can be used.
Tips on how to check business name availability are after the list of names!
- 3725 Auto Mall
- 4 Wheel Drive
- A2Z Auto Sales
- Above The Rest Auto
- Ace Motor Co
- Allen Samuels Auto Group
- American Import Auto Group
- America’s Car World
- Apollo Auto Mall
- Asbury Auto
- Atlantic Automall
- Auto Barn
- Auto Center Of Miami
- Auto Haus USA
- Auto Mall
- Auto Plaza World
- Auto Trader Company
- Auto Works
- Bay Auto Group
- Best Auto
- Big Mike’s Auto
- Big Reds Auto Wholesale
- Bingo Auto Sales
- Border Auto
- Buy Your Ride
- Capital Motor Cars
- Car Cabana
- Car Connection
- Car Express
- Car Masters
- Car Trade
- Carsmart
- Carz One
- Cash Ville Auto Showroom
- Champion Auto Sales
- Charming Car Services
- Cherry Auto Group
- Chicago Auto Outlet
- City Motors Miami
- Coastal Auto Co
- Columbus Auto Mall
- Corvette Corral Daytona
- Danny Boy’s Store & Auto Sales
- Destined Motor Sports
- Divinci Motors
- Divine Auto Mall
- Dream Wheels Auto Sales
- Economic Cars
- Eighty Second Auto Mall
- Elite Sales
- Excel Auto Studio
- Exclusive Motors
- Executive Automotive Group
- Fairlight Motorcars
- Family Auto Finance
- Fast Car Automotive
- Firehouse Classic Cars
- First Choice Motor
- Fletcher’s Garage and Auto Sales
- Florida Traders Pre-Owned
- Foreign Cars Wilmington
- Freedom Auto Group
- Gary’s Discount Motors
- Golden State Motorz
- Gordito’s Auto Sales
- Gran Turismo Motors
- Great Lakes Motor Corp
- Greenway Automotive
- Hammond Auto Sales
- Harper Motorsports
- Heartland Truck Center
- High Class Auto Imports
- Hoffman Auto Group
- Just Jeeps
- K & J Autoplex
- Killer Jeeps
- Legit Auto Sales
- Lobos Wild Ride
- Lovely Auto
- Low Cost Auto Sales
- Loyal Auto
- Lucky’s Auto Credit
- Magic Auto Center Canoga
- Maplewood Motor Co
- Modern Automotive
- Modi Auto Exotics
- Moore Pre-Owned
- Motor Parkway
- Motorzone Auto Sales
- National Motors
- New Wave Auto
- Next Ride
- No Problem Auto
- North Florida Auto Brokers
- Northern Boulevard Automall
- Old City Motors
- Open Road Auto Group
- Pacific Auto Sales
- Paisano Auto Group
- Pat Corbitt & Sons
- Precision Auto Sales
- Premium Cars Of Miami
- Prestige Auto Sales
- Prime Motors
- Pro Auto Brokers
- Revolution Auto Group
- Ride Away Auto Sales
- Rides Unlimited Chicago
- Riley’s Highway 47 Auto Sales
- Rivera Auto Sales
- Royal Motors
- Select Motors
- Shield Auto Sales
- Sign & Drive Of Raleigh Auto
- Spartan Motors
- Springfield Automotive Center
- Stateline Auto Dealership
- Stream Auto Outlet
- Sunshine Auto Mall
- Supreme Motor World
- Top Knotch Auto Sales
- Top Tier Motorcars
- Turbo Auto Sales
- United Auto Mall
- Universal Auto Group
- Universal Motors Group
- Used Car Station
- Victory Lane Motors
- Wheel City Auto
- Wheeler Dealer Enterprises
- World Class Exotics
- World Motors
Is Your Used Car Dealership Name Available?
At this point, you should have several top considerations to choose from. And the best way to narrow it down further is to check each one for availability.
This step is helpful because using a name that someone else is using could be very costly, time-consuming to rebrand your business, and possibly embarrassing. There are several places to look to check whether a name is available to use, so let’s walk through each one.
Can the business name be registered in your state?
If you plan to use a specific business name, you may be required by the state to verify it’s available to use.
Related: How to check business name availability in your state
Is your name already trademarked?
When searching for a name for your new business, you should check that your new name isn’t trademarked by someone else. If it is, you may not be allowed to use it legally.
Thankfully, the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) makes trademark searching a breeze through their Trademark Database.
A name isn’t necessarily available if it doesn’t appear in this search. Every business has some limited protection through a common law trademark. This means another business can’t open up down the street with the same name, as this creates confusion for customers. Also, check local competitors by doing a Google search and looking through the Yellow Pages.
If your name is available and you want to protect it from being used by anyone else, you can register it with the USPTO.
Related: How to check for a trademark
Hopefully, you now have some good name ideas for naming your used car dealer. Once you have narrowed down this list to just a few and researched that they are all available, start asking friends, family, and potential customers for their thoughts to get feedback, and then pick your perfect used car dealership name!
