Sell privately. Buy with a dealer's word behind it.

Whipmark is a private car marketplace for the Greater Toronto Area. Your car stays with you until a real buyer commits. A local licensed dealer inspects it and holds it for two to three days. Payment sits in escrow until the buyer confirms. No dealer markup, no stranger's driveway, no leap of faith.

  1. 1 List Full vehicle details, photos, and documents. Free to list.
  2. 2 Buyer commits A refundable deposit signals real interest.
  3. 3 Dealer verifies Safety inspection at a licensed local dealer, 2–3 days.
  4. 4 Escrow funds Full payment held by a third party, not by the seller.
  5. 5 Keys change hands Ownership transfers at the dealer. Everyone gets paid.

Both sides protected, the whole way through

Private car sales fail on trust. The buyer can't verify the car; the seller can't verify the money. Whipmark puts a licensed dealer and an escrow account between the two — so neither side has to take the other's word for anything.

A dealer inspects every car

Before any money moves, the vehicle is safety-inspected at a licensed local dealership. The buyer sees the report before deciding. If the car isn't what was described, the buyer walks away with their deposit back.

Payment held in escrow

The buyer's payment goes to an established third-party escrow service — never directly to the seller, never to us. It's released only when the buyer confirms after inspection. If the deal doesn't close, the money comes back.

Ownership transfer, handled

The UVIP, lien check, safety certificate, and transfer paperwork are handled through the dealer — the same process they run every day. The buyer can drive away registered and plated.

For dealers: a revenue stream with no inventory

Every week, sellers you turn away and buyers who don't find a match on your lot walk out the door. Whipmark turns that lost traffic into fee income — using the inspection bay and paperwork expertise you already have.

  • You never own the car. The seller keeps it until a verified buyer commits. You hold it for two to three days.
  • You do what you already do. UVIP, safety inspection, transfer paperwork — your everyday work, on cars that were never going to be your inventory.
  • Nothing to lose on a dead deal. You're paid when a sale closes. If it doesn't, you've committed a bay for a couple of days and nothing else.
  • Start with one deal. We bring the seller and the buyer. You inspect. If it works, we keep going.
2%
handling fee on every closed sale, paid by the seller

On a $15,000 car, that's $300 for inspection and paperwork you're already equipped to do — with zero capital tied up and zero inventory risk.

Run a pilot deal with us

The model, in plain numbers

Whipmark charges the seller, not the buyer. The buyer pays exactly the advertised price — the only additions are provincial tax and registration, paid directly to Ontario, not to us.

A $15,000 sale, settled

LineAmount
Buyer pays (advertised price)$15,000
Platform commission (5%)−$750
Dealer handling fee (2%)−$300
Inspection & document costs (fixed)−$120
Seller receives$13,830

Fees are charged only when a deal closes. A listing that doesn't sell costs the seller nothing.

The market we're starting in

MeasureEstimate
Light-duty vehicles registered in Canada24.5M
Used-vehicle transactions per year, Canada2.0–2.5M
Private-party transactions per year, GTA114K–163K

Fleet figure from Statistics Canada (2024). Transaction volumes are estimates derived from industry turnover rates and private-party benchmarks — shown as ranges because that's what they are.

Where Whipmark is today

We're early, and we'd rather say so plainly. Here's the current state of things.

Talk to us

Selling a car and want dealer-grade protection without the trade-in haircut? Running a dealership and curious what a pilot deal looks like? Or working on financing and partnerships? One address reaches us for all of it.

hello@whipmark.ca