The Data Axle alternativethat covers one industry properly
Data Axle compiles a general business database spanning every industry in the United States and Canada, classified by SIC and NAICS and backed by a large human verification operation. Dealerships arrive in it as one slice of that. Hermes Data covers automotive retail and nothing else: 27,689 rooftops in 62 states and provinces, with OEM franchise, live inventory and the parent dealer group attached to every row.
Is there a Data Axle alternative built only for car dealerships?
Hermes Data is a vertical alternative to a general business file such as Data Axle. Data Axle compiles businesses across the whole economy, classifies them with SIC and NAICS codes and business types, links them into corporate families, and verifies a great deal of it by telephone - which is exactly what you want when your market is every industry. It is a poor fit when your market is one. A dealership is not well described by an industry code: it is described by the OEM franchises it holds, the vehicles on its lot right now, and the group it trades under. Hermes Data models those directly - oem_franchises is a pipe-delimited list per rooftop, dealer_inventory_count is a live number, and every rooftop resolves to one of 1,432 parent dealer groups. Coverage is 27,689 franchised and independent rooftops, priced at 1 credit each and downloaded from the portal as a CSV.
Hermes Data vs Data Axle
| Feature | Hermes Data | Data Axle |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of the file | Automotive retail only - 27,689 rooftops, nothing else in it | Businesses across the whole United States and Canadian economy |
| How a dealership is classified | By the OEM franchises it holds, pipe-delimited per rooftop | By SIC and NAICS codes and business type, the same way as any firm |
| What sits on the row | Live vehicle count, franchise list and department lines per store | Employee counts, opening date, location detail and contacts |
| Ownership structure | Parent dealer group on every row - 1,432 groups with rosters | Corporate family linkage - headquarters, chain and ancestor records |
| Web and martech detail | Website provider, product tier and detected marketing tags | Attributes are modeled to be useful across every industry at once |
| Getting the data | Filter, preview and buy in the portal, then download the CSV | Licensing, integrations and platform delivery arranged with their team |
Where Data Axle is the stronger choice
If your market is not only car dealerships, this is not a close call - buy the general file. It reaches every industry, it carries corporate-family linkage across sectors, a large share of it is verified by people on the telephone, and it plugs into CRMs, cloud warehouses and audience platforms. Data Axle also sells consumer vehicle-ownership audiences that dealers themselves buy. We do none of those things.
One industry, modeled properly
Franchised dealerships are a large economy of their own - NADA puts them at more than $1.3 trillion in total sales across 16.2 million light-duty vehicles. A file that has to serve every industry at once cannot carry franchise, lot and group structure on the record, because those fields mean nothing to the other codes.
OEM franchise is a first-class field
Filter to Ford rooftops, to stores holding both Honda and Acura, or to any franchise combination you sell against. The field is per rooftop and pipe-delimited, so a dual and a single show up correctly instead of being flattened into one label - and the same field is free to read in the preview before you buy.
Reach the department, not the switchboard
Sales, service and parts lines are separate columns, alongside the main line. A parts supplier and a service-lane vendor are calling two different phones in the same building, and the record knows the difference.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Data Axle alternative for car dealership data?
For automotive retail specifically, Hermes Data. Data Axle maintains a general business database covering every industry, classified by SIC and NAICS and linked into corporate families. Hermes Data covers only car dealerships: 27,689 franchised and independent rooftops across 62 states and provinces, with OEM franchises, live inventory count, department phone lines, headcount, website technographics and the parent dealer group on every row. Records cost 1 credit each.
Why not just filter a general business database to auto dealers?
You can, and the name, address and headcount you get back will do real work. What an industry code cannot express is which manufacturers the store is franchised for, how many vehicles are on its lot today, or which website platform and marketing tags it runs. Those are the fields that decide who to call in this market, and they only exist in a file built for it.
How current is the dealership file?
Rooftops are tracked continuously rather than refreshed on an annual cycle, and the inventory count on each row reflects live stock. Stores open, close and change hands often enough that a stale dealership file misleads you in both directions - dead addresses and missing new rooftops.
Do I need to talk to sales to buy dealership records?
No. Sign up, filter to the rooftops you want, check the count, and export. It is 1 credit per dealer, and a $0.99 trial gives you 20 credits to try it with. High-volume buyers can ask about enterprise terms, but nothing is gated behind that conversation.
More on dealership records
Try Hermes Data for $0.99
Self-serve access to the automotive data your business runs on. The $0.99 trial gives you 20 credits to spend across Contacts, Dealers, and Dealer Groups. Then auto-upgrade to Starter ($99/mo) — or cancel any time.
Contacts, Dealers, and Dealer Groups are all self-serve on one credit wallet — spend your trial credits on any of them. Vehicle Listings is live too, on its own API subscription (separate from the credit wallet). Explore Listings.