At CarGurus, it is in our DNA to use data to help shoppers research and buy used cars. Whether it's the pricing transparency delivered by CarGurus deal ratings, our extensive collection of user reviews, or the detailed, hands-on tests from our team of expert reviewers, we strive to deliver insights that are both easy to understand and beneficial to your car-buying experience.
We also believe in keeping things straightforward, which is why we combine these insights into an Overall CarGurus rating for any given make and model of car. Not sure whether to buy a Ford Focus or a Vauxhall Astra? An Audi Q7 or a BMW X5? That's where the Overall CarGurus rating comes in.
The Overall CarGurus rating explained
- How the Overall CarGurus rating works
- What is a good Overall CarGurus rating?
- Where you'll see the Overall CarGurus rating
- Do Overall CarGurus ratings change?
How the Overall CarGurus rating works
We know that buying the right car means more than simply finding the one that's cheapest. After all, car shopping budgets tend to vary enormously and, regardless of you spend, value is about more than just price.
The Overall CarGurus rating addresses this point head on by not only looking at the pricing of a certain model, but also how well regarded it is by both professional car testers and owners alike. Specifically, the Overall CarGurus rating takes into account these three criteria:
- CarGurus expert rating: A review score from our experts following an extensive hands-on test drive. We assess cars for practicality, driving dynamics, technology, runnning costs and more, before writing (and often filming) a detailed review, which is published on our website and on the CarGurus UK YouTube channel.
- CarGurus user rating: Using AI-backed technology, we are able to summarise sentiment across thousands of user reviews that have been submitted via our website, as well as track an average user review score per vehicle.
- Percentage of good/great deals on CarGurus: Want to know how likely it is you'll be able to get a deal on that car you want? No problem. Our data tells you what percentage of used car listings for a given make and model warrant our good or great deal ratings.
The Overall CarGurus rating is the result of a formula that balances these three components: expert rating, user rating, and percentage of good/great deals available on CarGurus. It is presented on a 0-5 scale and is intended to provide a comprehensive view of how recommendable a particular car is in today's market.
What is a good Overall CarGurus rating?
| Overall CarGurus Rating | What It Means |
|---|---|
| 0-1 | While we'd never say not to buy a particular model of car if it's what you're really after, it's probably not the best idea. |
| 1-2 | A score in this range indicates that you might be better off considering one of the model's rivals instead. |
| 2-3 | Chances are this car is left wanting in at least one area. Check out the score breakdown and see if you're happy to compromise. |
| 3-4 | A solid car. Perhaps our experts don't give it the highest rating but owners love it. Or vice versa. Or maybe it scores well from both but the deals just aren't there. |
| 4-4.5 | We are getting to some of the most recommendable cars on sale here. Expect high ratings from our experts and users, and lots of great deals listed for sale. |
| 4.6-5 | The cream of the crop: These models bowled over our experts, delight their owners, and to round it all out you'll easily be able to find a great deal on CarGurus. |
Where you'll see the Overall CarGurus rating
On used car listings
You'll find Overall CarGurus ratings integrated across used car listings and editorial stories throughout the CarGurus UK website. On used cars listings pages the rating will often feature midway down the page in the same 'tile' format as the adverts.
By clicking on the 'Learn more' link you can jump straight to the bottom of the corresponding page in order to find an expanded view of the Overall CarGurus rating as well as more details about the car presented as a summary of relevant information from our extensive content library. This includes how it compares against three of its closed rivals.
In editorial guides
We also use the Overall CarGurus rating to inform the rankings in our best cars guides. For these, our team of experts choose the top 10 models in a given category (for example, best electric SUVs), after which our systems set to work consolidating the key data points that go into each vehicle's Overall CarGurus rating and ranking them from highest to lowest.
The results are presented as a detailed guide that includes expert, user and Overall CarGurus rating, as well a list of that car's pros and cons, a quote from one of our expert reviewers, and a link to read the full review.
We believe that structuring our guides in this way provides a more holistic and data-driven take on the strongest cars within a given category.
Do Overall CarGurus ratings change?
The algorithm that generates the Overall CarGurus rating is run on a monthly basis, which in turn means that the rating for a given model of car could change accordingly. To provide transparency, whenever we feature an Overall CarGurus rating we also include details of when it was last updated. An example of what this looks like would be:
The CarGurus UK market data in this guide was last updated in January 2026. Values were accurate at time of publication and should be used as a guide only.
