5 Top Car Listing WordPress Plugins: How to Choose + Reviews

If you want to create a car dealership website or a vehicle marketplace, choosing the right WordPress plugin is crucial. A good car listing plugin for WordPress helps you display vehicles attractively, manage inventory efficiently, and improve searchability. But with so many options available, which one should you choose?

One research on auto dealership websites shows that 71.5% of consumer purchase decisions are influenced by online information. The credibility, quality, and availability of information play crucial roles in a buyer’s decision-making process. This means that having a well-organized and functional car listing website will increase customer trust and drive sales.

In this article, we reviewed the 5 best free and premium car listing plugins for WordPress to help you make an informed decision.

How to Choose the Right Car Listing Plugin

Before choosing a car listing plugin, you need to look for these essential features. With them, you will be able to build a proper dealership website. Let’s check them out:

• Inventory management tools. The most important feature of any car listing plugin is the ability to create and manage listings. A good plugin should let you edit listings and see changes right away.

• Custom fields. Custom fields are necessary for adding important vehicle details like make, model, year, engine type, mileage, and more. Your users must be able to see the full specifications of the cars they are interested in.

• Search filters. Users should be able to filter listings by price, location, and features. So they can quickly find the cars they want.

• Form for adding listings. If you want guest users to post their own car listings, your website needs a form where they can submit them.

• Seller contact forms. Contact forms are essential if you want to generate leads and increase car sales. Make sure your site includes easy-to-use contact forms so potential buyers can reach sellers to ask for prices or other questions.

• User registration. To upload a listing, users should be required to sign up or log in. You can collect their contact details and send them promotions, special offers, and updates.

• Reviews & ratings. Visitors and buyers should be able to rate dealers and leave reviews. This helps other buyers choose the best deals and encourages dealers to offer better service.

Beyond these essential features, there are additional factors to consider when choosing the right car listing plugin. While not mandatory, they can improve your website’s performance and user experience.

Look for a plugin that is regularly maintained and comes with reliable customer support so you can get assistance whenever needed.

Detailed documentation and tutorials can help you understand the product and learn how to use its features effectively. Frequent updates and improvements are also important as they ensure your website stays up-to-date and continues to improve over time.

1. Motors 

Motors is a powerful and feature-rich car listing plugin designed specifically for auto dealerships, classified websites, and car rental businesses. 

With Motors, you can add as many car listings as you want. Each listing can include detailed information about a vehicle like:

• Vehicle make, model, and year

• Condition (new or used)

• Mileage and fuel type

• Body type and color

• Engine specifications

Buyers will see everything they need to know in a well-structured format. This makes it easier for them to compare and choose.

The plugin lets you showcase not only cars but also motorcycles, trucks, boats, aircraft, caravans–any type of vehicle for sale. It is fast to set up with the 8-step installation wizard and does not require you to know coding. 

You can save time creating a car listing from scratch with ready templates. It means you will be able to choose the template you like from the templates library in the plugin and edit it. These templates are customizable, so you will be able to change the design, remove certain elements, or add new ones. 

Motors supports uploading high-quality images and videos for your listings. Customers want to see every angle of a vehicle before making a decision—not just the exterior but also the interior. Including multiple photos and videos in a listing helps build trust and gives buyers a better understanding of the vehicle’s condition.

Additionally, to submit a listing, users need to sign up, which means you can collect their contact details for your email list. This is valuable for future marketing campaigns, such as promotions or seasonal sales, which lets you reach a wider audience.

You can also engage customers with a built-in test drive request feature. There are extra tools that can make your website better than your competitors’. For example, saved searches that let users get updates on relevant car listings.

The plugin has a built-in listing submission form, allowing users to submit their own vehicle listings. Private sellers can fill in the details, upload photos, and submit their listings directly through your website. This feature is a great way to increase traffic and attract more buyers since private sellers help bring in additional visitors.

Another great feature to make your dealership site more attractive is a loan calculator. By adding a loan calculator to a car listing, you can help buyers estimate monthly payments and financing options.

Everything is managed from the centralized WordPress dashboard. Motors allows you to assign employees a role of listing manager so they can access and edit the inventory. 

Features:

• Listings management. You can add, edit, and manage vehicle listings with ease.
• Professional website design. It attracts new customers, and you can customize it with widgets and options to match your brand.
• Advanced search filters. Users can filter listings by custom fields, keywords, features, and location.
• Mobile-friendly. It is designed to look and work well on multiple devices, like mobile phones.
• Monetization tools. Charge fees for featured listings and run paid advertisements.
• Lead generation features. Includes seller contact forms, loan calculators, saved searches, and comparison tools.
• Free starter theme. It comes with a fully compatible skin you can use as a theme for your website. 

Pros:

• Unlimited number of listings
• Custom fields for vehicles
• Listing submission form
• Advanced search filters
• Test drive request
• Loan calculator feature

Cons:

• It is free to download and use, but advanced features like loan calculators and VIN decoders require the Pro version

Rating on WordPress: 4.3/5

Reviews:

‘I had some trouble to finish my website with all the customization it needed. The support team has been always super helpful and fast to solve my problems or giving me the right advice to solve it, even when the problem was for example google api and not their plugin/theme. They deserve 5 stars.’

‘This company is a very professional operation, they have created an attractive and complex system which comes together as an online selling machine. It takes a little time to understand how it works, but Boy, it sure is worth it. Worth a hundred stars to me. Thank you Stylemix !’

Price: Free version available, Pro is $49

Whether you run a small dealership or an automotive marketplace, Motors can easily be tailored to your business. You can explore the Motors demo for free and try out the features you’re interested in.

2. Auto Listings 

Auto Listings is a lightweight plugin for showcasing vehicles on WordPress websites. You can create and manage car listings using a simple interface. 

The setup process of the plugin is straightforward, and you can do it with predefined fields for your listings. There is an option to add car listings with details like make, model, year, and a media gallery with photos and videos. The plugin is compatible with any car dealership or a regular theme, so you don’t have to worry if you already have one installed on your WordPress site.

Customers searching for a vehicle on your website can contact you through forms and ask for the price. Moreover, it has an option to ask for price negotiation. It might encourage more people to visit your dealership website.

Pros:

• Quick setup with ready-to-use fields
• Responsive design for mobile-friendly browsing.
• Basic search filters for browsing

Cons:

• Limited customization options
• No integrations with payment gateways 
• Most advanced features require the Pro version

Rating on WordPress: 4.3/5

Reviews:

‘I had a little problem translating the plugin. I contacted customer service who responded immediately, giving me support and the right advice. The problem was solved brilliantly.’

Price: Free, extensions available for $69 each 

3. Directorist

Directorist is a versatile directory plugin that supports car listings along with other types of directories. Building a website for your dealership is fast with this tool because it has predesigned templates and pages.

There are core features to create car listings, and it comes as a directory builder which lets you import your listings with custom fields from CSV files. You do not need to learn coding or any special skills to design your own directory website. 

Listings can be submitted from both the front and back end. Directorist is compatible with WooCommerce, meaning you can accept payments. Plus, your car listings will look good on all devices, including mobile. It is important because most customers are searching for vehicles on their phones.

Pros:

• The plugin is beginner-friendly 
• Integrated payment options for paid listings
• Built-in search and filter functionality

Cons:

• Not exclusively built for car listings and requires additional setup
• Lacks specialized dealership features like loan calculators

Rating on WordPress: 4.7/5

Reviews: 

‘Customer service has gone above and beyond to make sure this plugin works the way our client needs it to work for our restaurant directory! I highly recommend giving directorist a try.’

‘Directorist is a very good plugin and with its accessory plugins it is possible to create one or more high-quality directories on a site. The few problems that may arise are quickly resolved by the support which is of high quality. Almost all the functions that one may need are present. I recommend it.’

Price: Free version available, pro starts at $71 

4. Car Dealer 

Car Dealer is a free WordPress plugin for auto dealerships that need a simple way to list vehicles. The plugin has all the features to create, edit, and manage car listings. 

There are premade templates for listings, which makes it easy to get started. You can add custom fields for vehicles, such as mileage, fuel, make, and more. With custom fields, visitors and buyers can clearly see the features of the cars they want to buy.

You can make changes to your car listings and check them in real time with the built-in editor. It lets you create the design for your dealership website exactly how you imagine it. Car Dealer also includes tools for selling vehicles online with a currency manager, a range slider for price, and a call-to-action contact form. 

Pros:

• Simple interface for managing car listings
• Contact form for buyer inquiries
• Supports multiple languages

Cons:

• Not optimized for mobile devices
• Out of date design
• Slower loading speed with large inventories

Rating on WordPress: 4.4/5

Reviews:

‘Great job guys, easy to use, and works as it should. Cheers’

‘Thank you for diligence in assisting with the issue with my site. And guiding me to fix some other issues.’

Price: Free version available with Premium version at $59

5. Classified Listing

Classified Listing is a business directory and classified ads plugin that can also be used for car listings. 

The plugin has a radius search feature that lets users search for vehicles near them. It also supports not only one but multiple payment methods, including PayPal, Stripe, WooCommerce, and more.

You can control your website, edit listings, and track transactions from your admin dashboard.

Pros:

• Supports multiple listing types ,including vehicles
• Custom fields and filters
• The radius search feature
• Integrates with payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and others

Cons:

• Not specifically optimized for car dealerships
• Requires configuration to tailor it for car listings
• Advanced tools only available in the Pro version

Rating on WordPress: 4.8/5

Reviews:

‘I’ve tried several classified and directory wordpress plugins, some I’ve paid for to enhance the usability but none have come close to the ease of use and layout you get with Classified Listing by Radius Theme. I have also been able to drop a few other plugins required by some of the other classified plugins for things like login, (really this should be standard). Another didn’t come with business hours for the business directory, again should be standard, especially when paying for the full plugin and of course there’s the price, again not just because it’s the cheapest, actually took me a while to get here but this is the cheapest on the market and that includes places like Envato. Yes I’ve searched and now I feel more confident about taking my classified website forward. Thanks. Also want to say about the customer dashboard, again first class to include it and stands alone from the wordpress environment, which means again less plugins to hide wordpress header bar and gives a more professional approach for clients when logging in.’

‘This plugin is absolutely great for creating a classified ads site. It adapts to many situations. The support is excellent too!’

Price: Free version available, Pro starts at $103

Conclusion

Choosing the right car listing plugin is essential for building a successful dealership website. Think about your goals, budget, and the key features you need to manage and showcase your vehicle inventory effectively.

When selecting a car listing plugin, focus on ease of use, design, and functionality. Also, check if it receives regular updates, offers useful resources like tutorials and documentation, and has reliable customer support. A well-maintained plugin ensures your website runs smoothly without issues.

Motors stands out as the best choice, offering a complete solution with powerful features, customization options, and strong support. However, exploring free versions of other plugins can help you find the right fit for your specific needs.

Start with Motors today and create a professional car listing website!