Carcenzus terms of use

Last updated: November 12, 2026 · Version: terms@2026-11-12, the version the app records when you accept

The short version

• Carcenzus shows prices that buyers paid, from their bills of sale. They aren't offers, and the all-in price and the payment by the math are estimates.
• Post only what you really paid, from your own bill of sale, and nobody's personal details.
• Other people see your username, never your name.
• Follow the community rules. Reviewers remove what breaks them, and repeated or serious breaks lead to a suspension. You can always ask us to look again.
• Carcenzus is free, and no dealer or carmaker pays to change a price, a median or a pick.
• Carcenzus isn't financial, legal or mechanical advice.

1. These terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Carcenzus ("we" or "us"). They cover the Carcenzus app and carcenzus.com. Our privacy policy explains how we handle personal information.

By using Carcenzus, you agree to these terms. When you create an account, the app asks you to accept them and records the version you accepted.

2. Who can use Carcenzus

• You must be 18 or older to create an account.
• You don't need an account to browse the feed, the cars and their prices, or to get picks.
• An account is for one person. Don't share it, or sign in for someone else.
• Carcenzus is built for Canada: its prices, taxes and fee rules are Canadian.

3. What Carcenzus is, and isn't

Prices that buyers paid. Every price on the feed comes from a buyer's bill of sale. A new post shows as In review until a reviewer has matched its bill; a reviewer can't check everything, and a post In review hasn't been checked yet. We show a median price paid only once there are 3 prices paid.

Not an offer. A price someone paid isn't an offer from a dealer or from us. Dealers set their own prices, and yours may differ.

Estimates are labelled. The all-in price adds freight & PDI, typical fees and your area's sales taxes to a price, as we understand the rules on the date shown. The payment by the math is worked out from a rate, a term and an amount. Check the final price with the dealer, and a rebate with the government program, before you rely on it.

Line marks are information. On a post or a quote check, a line marked Required, Negotiable or Add-on is marked by the province's fee rules as we read them, with their date. Where a province's rules aren't signed yet, the app says so. A mark isn't a statement that the dealer did anything wrong.

A quote check is yours alone. It reads your dealer quote and shows you what the app found. It's guidance for your own decision, and only you see it.

Picks are suggestions. They come only from cars that fit your answers, with reasons checked against the cars' sourced specs. They aren't an endorsement of a car or a dealer.

Carmakers' figures are restated, with their source. MSRPs, freight & PDI, specs and finance offers come from carmakers' published sources, or from dated dealer or press figures marked as estimates. We restate them in our own words, with the source and the date we checked. Carmakers change them, so confirm with the carmaker or the dealer.

Not advice. Carcenzus doesn't give financial, legal, tax or mechanical advice, and doesn't recommend any dealer or lender.

Independent. Carcenzus isn't affiliated with, endorsed by or paid by any dealer or carmaker. Car brands and model names belong to their owners; we use them only to say which car a figure is about. No one can pay to change a median, a price report, a pick or their place in a list. If we ever show a paid placement, it will be labelled "Ad".

4. Your account and your username

• Sign in with Apple, Google, or a Canadian mobile number and the 6-digit code we text to it. Each sign-in method makes a separate account, and we don't merge them.
• Your account comes with a member and a made-up username. You can change the username once every 30 days: 3 to 20 letters, digits or underscores, nobody else's, and not offensive. It can't include "carcenzus", "official", "reviewer", "team" or "support".
• Keep your phone and your Apple or Google account secure. Tell us right away if you think someone else used your Carcenzus account.
• Use one account. Don't use other accounts to get around a limit, a removal or a suspension.
• You can delete your account at any time in Profile.

5. Posting what you paid

Post only your own, real price paid:

• from your own bill of sale for a car you bought, with a photo of the bill as proof;
• with each line as the bill states it. You check what we read before you post.

Don't post:

• a dealer quote, an estimate, or anything made up, changed, or copied from someone else's deal;
• other people's personal information;
• prices from a dealership you work for, own or represent. Dealers and their staff can't post as buyers.

The photo of your bill

• Before you take it, cover your name and address, and anything else that identifies you, such as your phone number, VIN, licence plate, driver's licence number or signature. Leave the prices readable.
• Only our reviewers see it. It's never published, and we delete it a year after the reviewer's decision.

What's shown. Your username, the car, the date on the bill, the final price paid and its extra charges always show. You choose whether the dealership, your city and your payment show too. Never shown: your name, trade-in, down payment, VIN or the photo of your bill. Others can comment on your post and mark it Helpful.

Limits. To keep prices honest, an account can post 3 prices a day and one price paid per car.

What you let us do with it. You keep any rights you have in what you post. You give Carcenzus a free, non-exclusive licence, for as long as it's on Carcenzus, to store it, review it, publish it with your username in the app and on carcenzus.com, let others share links to it, and use it in medians and other statistics. The licence ends when you delete it, or your account, except for copies in backups until they're replaced. You confirm that you're allowed to post it.

6. Comments, Helpful and car ratings

• Anyone signed in may comment on a post or a car, and reply to a comment. Comments show your username.
• Up to 20 comments and replies a day, and the same words once a day. Links, phone numbers and email addresses can't be posted, and some words are refused.
• You can delete your comment, but not edit it. If others replied to it, it stays as "Comment deleted" with their replies under it.
• Mark a post or a comment Helpful once. You can't mark your own.
• Only a verified owner of a model may rate it, once, and change the rating later. Nobody sees one owner's rating: only the averages show, once 3 owners have rated.

7. Cars you own and ownership proof

• Add up to 3 cars you own or used to own. A car shows on your member page only once it's verified, and then your comments about its model carry a Verified owner badge.
• Prove it with a photo of your own registration, insurance slip or bill of sale for that car. Cover your name, address, licence and policy numbers and signature first. A dealer quote is never proof.
• With your permission, Claude reads the photo and our code checks that it matches the car you added. Without it, the car can't be verified in the app. A verified price report also makes you a verified owner of its car.
• If you send a photo of your car, it shows on your member page once approved. A photo with a readable licence plate or someone's face is turned down.
• Send only your own documents and your own car. False or someone else's proof is removed, with the badge and the ratings it allowed, and counts toward a suspension.

8. Community rules

Reviewers remove a price report, comment, reply or username that has:

• a false, made-up or changed price, or a bill that isn't the poster's;
• a dealer or a salesperson posing as a buyer;
• hate, threats or harassment;
• anyone's personal details, such as a name, phone number, address, VIN or plate;
• spam, selling, or links;
• pretending to be someone else, or an offensive username;
• sexual content, or anything illegal.

9. Reports, removals, suspensions and appeals

• Report. Anyone, signed in or not, can report a price, a comment or a member from its ••• menu, with a reason and an optional note. You stop seeing it at once. Reviewers decide within 24 hours, weekends included, and the author never learns who reported it. Once three different people report the same thing, it's hidden from everyone until a reviewer decides.
• Hide this person. It keeps a member's posts and comments off your screens. They aren't told. Undo it in Profile → Hidden people.
• Removal. What breaks the community rules is removed for everyone, and its author is told what and why. A bill of sale that doesn't match its post is rejected, and that counts as a removal too. A removed username goes back to a made-up one.
• Suspension. The first removal is a warning. A third within 90 days pauses posting, commenting and rating for 7 days. Another after that, or one for threats, hate, posting personal details or a dealer posing as a buyer, is a suspension for good: everything the member posted is hidden, their ratings stop counting, and their badges go. A suspended account can still sign in to read its notices, ask us to look again, check quotes privately and delete itself.
• No coming straight back. After a suspension for good, the same Apple account, Google account or phone number can't create a new account for a year. We keep only a scrambled copy of it for that.
• Appeals. Every removal and suspension can be appealed once with "Ask us to look again", with an optional note. The reviewer who didn't decide it answers within 7 days. If we were wrong, what we removed comes back and the removal stops counting.
• For anything urgent, write to support@carcenzus.com.

10. Dealerships

• A post names the dealership unless its poster hides it. The dealership's city always shows. The list of dealerships comes from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors.
• A dealership that thinks a post about it is wrong can write to support@carcenzus.com. A reviewer checks the bill of sale again within 2 business days: if it matches, the post stays; if it's still In review, the dealership's name is hidden until it's verified; if it doesn't match, it's rejected.
• We never tell a dealership who posted, unless a court orders it.

11. Using Carcenzus fairly

Don't:

• copy, scrape or download prices in bulk, or use Carcenzus's data for a competing service or to set a dealership's prices, without our written permission;
• try to find out who a member is, or contact them outside Carcenzus;
• get around limits, a removal or a suspension;
• request sign-in codes for a number that isn't yours;
• interfere with Carcenzus, test its security without our permission, or reverse-engineer the app, except where the law allows it;
• use Carcenzus to break the law or to harass anyone.

12. Our content

The app, its design and text, the Carcenzus name and logo, and the way we organize the data belong to Carcenzus or to those who license them to us. Car illustrations are used under their licences. You may use Carcenzus for your own personal purposes, and share its links.

13. If Carcenzus or these terms change

• Carcenzus is new. We may add, change or remove features, or stop offering Carcenzus, with notice in the app where we can.
• If we change these terms in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app at least 30 days before the change takes effect, and ask you to accept the new version. If you don't agree, you can stop using Carcenzus and delete your account; the current terms apply until then.
• The current terms are always at carcenzus.com/terms.

14. Ending

• You can stop using Carcenzus and delete your account at any time.
• We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, as section 9 describes. We tell you why.
• The licence in section 5 lasts until your content is deleted. Sections 15 to 18 continue after an account ends.

15. No promises about accuracy

We work hard on accuracy, but prices come from people, what AI reads can be wrong, estimates rest on assumptions, and sources change. Carcenzus is provided "as is": we don't promise that it will be accurate, complete, up to date or always available.

16. Limits on our responsibility

• As far as the law allows, we aren't responsible for indirect losses from using Carcenzus or relying on it, such as paying more for a car, savings you missed, or a rebate you didn't get.
• As far as the law allows, our total responsibility to you is limited to C$100.
• Dealers, carmakers and lenders are responsible for what they sell you. We aren't part of your deal.
• Members are responsible for what they post. We aren't responsible for a member's post or comment, but we remove what breaks these terms when we learn of it.

17. Your rights under consumer law

Nothing in these terms limits rights that consumer protection laws give you and that can't be waived. If you live in Québec, in particular:

• sections 15 and 16 don't apply where Québec law forbids them, including for bodily or moral injury, or for injury caused by intentional or gross fault;
• you keep the protection of the Consumer Protection Act and the Civil Code of Québec.

18. Law and disputes

• These terms are governed by the laws of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada that apply there.
• If you live in another province or territory, you may bring a claim in its courts, and its consumer protection laws still apply to you.
• Please write to us first. Most problems can be fixed by email.

19. Apple

These terms are between you and Carcenzus, not Apple.

• Apple isn't responsible for Carcenzus or its content, maintenance or support.
• As far as the law allows, Apple has no warranty obligation for Carcenzus.
• Claims about Carcenzus, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, consumer protection, privacy and intellectual property claims, are for Carcenzus to handle, not Apple.
• You may use the app only on Apple devices you own or control, as Apple's usage rules allow, and you must follow your phone carrier's terms when you use it.
• You confirm that you're not in a country under a US government embargo, and not on a US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and can enforce them against you.

20. General

• If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies.
• These terms and the privacy policy are the whole agreement between you and us about Carcenzus.
• We may transfer these terms to a company that takes over Carcenzus, such as a new company for it, and we'll tell you if we do. You can't transfer yours.
• If we don't enforce a term right away, we can still enforce it later.
• These terms are written in English.

21. Contact

Carcenzus support@carcenzus.com