What is Price-to-Market (PTM)?

Price-to-Market is OAV's deal-rating system. Every vehicle on app.oav.io carries one of four labels — Great Deal, Fair Price, Overpriced, or Unscored — based on how its listed price compares to a cohort of similar vehicles currently for sale in the local market, combined with the listing's days on lot and the depth of available comparable inventory. PTM is the foundation OAV uses to rank vehicles on every market page, every dealer page, and every Top Deals section.

What does Great Deal mean?

Great Deal means the vehicle is priced below the typical market range for comparable vehicles in the local market AND the supporting cohort of comparables is deep enough for a confident verdict. The label requires both conditions: a vehicle priced low with very few comparable listings is surfaced as Unscored, not Great Deal, because the cohort is too thin to support a confident below-market call.

What does Fair Price mean?

Fair Price means the vehicle is priced within the typical market range for comparable vehicles in the local market. Fair Price listings are not bargains in the same sense as Great Deal listings — they are simply correctly priced relative to the local comparable cohort. A buyer who finds a vehicle they specifically want at Fair Price is paying market rate.

What does Overpriced mean?

Overpriced means the vehicle is priced above the typical market range for comparable vehicles in the local market. The label is a transparency signal — OAV surfaces Overpriced verdicts because the consumer value-prop is honest pricing data, not just deal hunting. Dealers see their own Overpriced inventory mix on their dealer page and can re-price to move it.

What does Unscored mean?

Unscored means OAV's PTM analysis did not have enough comparable inventory in the local market to support a confident verdict. This is the graceful-degradation case: a label that is not backed by data is worse than no label at all. Unscored listings still surface on the page — the consumer sees the price, mileage, days on lot, and other data — but the deal-rating badge is withheld. Unique vehicles, rare trims, or low-volume local markets are the typical Unscored cases.

Yes. OAV's vehicle market standardization technology — which underlies PTM's ability to compare listings across millions of vehicles from different dealers, sources, and naming conventions — is protected by U.S. Pat. No. 12,236,477 (issued February 25, 2025). The methodology page describes the rating's outputs and inputs at the consumer level; the proprietary scoring math is not disclosed publicly.

Methodology

Price-to-Market (PTM)

OAV's deal-rating system. Every vehicle on app.oav.io carries one of four labels — Great Deal, Fair Price, Overpriced, or Unscored — based on how its listed price compares to the local comparable market, the listing's days on lot, and the depth of comparable inventory.

Market snapshot · July 2, 2026

The four PTM labels

Great Deal: The vehicle is priced below the typical market range for comparable vehicles in the local market AND the supporting comparable cohort is deep enough for a confident verdict. Great Deal requires both conditions — a vehicle priced low against a thin cohort is surfaced as Unscored rather than mislabeled.
Fair Price: The vehicle is priced within the typical market range for comparable vehicles in the local market. Fair Price means the vehicle is correctly priced relative to its local cohort — not a bargain in the Great Deal sense, just market-aligned.
Overpriced: The vehicle is priced above the typical market range for comparable vehicles in the local market. OAV surfaces Overpriced verdicts as a transparency signal — the consumer value-prop is honest pricing data, not just deal hunting. Dealers see their own Overpriced inventory mix on their dealer page and can re-price to move it.
Unscored: The cohort of comparable vehicles in the local market is too thin to support a confident verdict. The vehicle still appears on the page with full data (price, mileage, days on lot) — only the deal-rating badge is withheld. Unique vehicles, rare trims, and low-volume local markets are the typical Unscored cases. This is intentional graceful-degradation: a label that is not backed by data is worse than no label at all.

What inputs does PTM use?

PTM combines three primary signals:

Listed price vs local comparable range — how the asking price compares to a cohort of similar vehicles currently for sale in the local market.
Days on lot — how long the specific listing has been on the market relative to the average for comparable inventory in the local market.
Cohort depth — how many comparable vehicles support the verdict. Thin cohorts produce Unscored verdicts rather than confident calls on shaky data.

The specific scoring math, weights, and thresholds that combine these signals into the four verdict labels are proprietary. The inputs themselves are disclosed so consumers and dealers can verify the rating's basis — every PTM verdict on OAV is derived from publicly-stated factors with no opaque external signals.

Why some listings are Unscored

PTM is only as good as the comparable cohort behind the verdict. When the local market does not produce enough comparable inventory — because the vehicle is unique, the trim is rare, or the local market is low-volume — OAV surfaces Unscored rather than fabricating a confident verdict from shaky data.

The full vehicle data still appears on the listing page (price, mileage, year, days on lot, dealer, location). Only the deal-rating badge is withheld. Consumers can still make purchasing decisions; OAV simply does not put its name behind a price call that the local data cannot support.

PTM and Demand-Verified Deals are complementary

PTM tells you the listing's price posture relative to the local comparable market right now. Demand-Verified adds a second signal — recent sell-through evidence from a cohort of similar vehicles in the local market. The two signals are independent: a vehicle may be PTM Great Deal without being Demand-Verified (the velocity cohort might be too thin), and a vehicle may carry the Demand-Verified label without an explicit Great Deal badge (the price might be in the Fair Price band but local market sell-through is strong).

Full Demand-Verified methodology is at /demand-verified-deals.

Refresh cadence

PTM verdicts refresh daily alongside the inventory snapshot. Every market page and dealer page surfaces its current Market snapshot date in the page header so freshness is verifiable directly. Comparable cohorts are recomputed nightly from the latest snapshot.

PTM is deterministic — the same VIN against the same snapshot produces the same verdict. Consumers and dealers can rely on the rating being stable for the day; the verdict does not drift between page loads.

Patented vehicle market standardization

The technology that makes PTM possible — comparing listings across millions of vehicles from different dealers, sources, and naming conventions to produce confident local-market verdicts — is protected by U.S. Patent No. 12,236,477 (issued February 25, 2025). The patent covers OAV's vehicle market standardization technology, which is the layer that lets a 2022 Honda Civic Sport at one dealer be reliably compared to the same generation and configuration at another dealer hundreds of miles away.

The methodology described on this page covers the rating's consumer-facing outputs and the abstract inputs that drive them. The proprietary scoring math, comparable-cohort assembly logic, and standardization weights are not disclosed publicly. Powered by OAV's patented vehicle market standardization technology (U.S. Pat. No. 12,236,477).

Frequently asked questions

What is Price-to-Market (PTM)?: Price-to-Market is OAV's deal-rating system. Every vehicle on app.oav.io carries one of four labels — Great Deal, Fair Price, Overpriced, or Unscored — based on how its listed price compares to a cohort of similar vehicles currently for sale in the local market, combined with the listing's days on lot and the depth of available comparable inventory. PTM is the foundation OAV uses to rank vehicles on every market page, every dealer page, and every Top Deals section.
What does Great Deal mean?: Great Deal means the vehicle is priced below the typical market range for comparable vehicles in the local market AND the supporting cohort of comparables is deep enough for a confident verdict. The label requires both conditions: a vehicle priced low with very few comparable listings is surfaced as Unscored, not Great Deal, because the cohort is too thin to support a confident below-market call.
What does Fair Price mean?: Fair Price means the vehicle is priced within the typical market range for comparable vehicles in the local market. Fair Price listings are not bargains in the same sense as Great Deal listings — they are simply correctly priced relative to the local comparable cohort. A buyer who finds a vehicle they specifically want at Fair Price is paying market rate.
What does Overpriced mean?: Overpriced means the vehicle is priced above the typical market range for comparable vehicles in the local market. The label is a transparency signal — OAV surfaces Overpriced verdicts because the consumer value-prop is honest pricing data, not just deal hunting. Dealers see their own Overpriced inventory mix on their dealer page and can re-price to move it.
What does Unscored mean?: Unscored means OAV's PTM analysis did not have enough comparable inventory in the local market to support a confident verdict. This is the graceful-degradation case: a label that is not backed by data is worse than no label at all. Unscored listings still surface on the page — the consumer sees the price, mileage, days on lot, and other data — but the deal-rating badge is withheld. Unique vehicles, rare trims, or low-volume local markets are the typical Unscored cases.
What inputs does PTM use?: PTM uses three primary signals: (1) the listed price compared to the local comparable cohort's price range, (2) the listing's days on lot relative to the market average for comparable inventory, and (3) the depth of the comparable cohort itself (how many similar vehicles support the verdict). Specific weights, thresholds, and scoring details are proprietary, but the inputs themselves are disclosed so consumers and dealers can verify the rating's basis.
Is PTM the same as Demand-Verified?: No. PTM is the foundation; Demand-Verified is a higher-trust layer above PTM. PTM tells you the listing's price posture relative to the local comparable market (Great Deal / Fair Price / Overpriced / Unscored). Demand-Verified adds a second signal — recent sell-through evidence from a cohort of similar vehicles in the local market. A listing can be PTM Great Deal without being Demand-Verified (the velocity cohort might be too thin), and vice versa. See /demand-verified-deals for the full velocity-side methodology.
How often is PTM data refreshed?: PTM verdicts refresh daily alongside the inventory snapshot. Every market page and dealer page surfaces its current Market snapshot date so freshness is verifiable directly. Comparable cohorts are recomputed nightly from the latest inventory snapshot. PTM is deterministic — the same VIN against the same snapshot produces the same verdict, so consumers and dealers can rely on the rating being stable for the day.
Is PTM patented?: Yes. OAV's vehicle market standardization technology — which underlies PTM's ability to compare listings across millions of vehicles from different dealers, sources, and naming conventions — is protected by U.S. Pat. No. 12,236,477 (issued February 25, 2025). The methodology page describes the rating's outputs and inputs at the consumer level; the proprietary scoring math is not disclosed publicly.

Example market pages

Every market answer page on OAV uses PTM to rank vehicles. Top Deals sections surface the strongest Great Deal verdicts in the local cohort; full inventory grids show every PTM label including Fair Price and Overpriced for transparency.