Car dealer video ad: a Total Price line after FTC's Greenway deal

If you run walkaround video ads for a car lot, put one line on screen for the whole clip: the Total Price, and nothing bigger. The FTC's October 8, 2026 settlement with Greenway Auto Group says its price advertisements must prominently include the actual price a consumer must pay for a vehicle, excluding only charges the government requires. On Sume, a captions job with one authored cue burns that line into an existing clip for a flat $0.20.

Read the scope before you change anything. The FTC calls the settlement a proposed order that becomes binding on Greenway once a district court judge approves and signs it. It is not a rule for every dealer, and this post is not legal advice. It is a clear statement of what the agency treated as a fair price ad, which is a good reason to check what your own clips say.

What the FTC said on October 8, 2026

The FTC's complaint alleged that Greenway advertised prices thousands of dollars below what it charged, and that it charged consumers more than $3,350, on average, over the advertised price in over 92% of transactions. The fees named were administrative, dealer, delivery and processing fees.

Under the proposed order, whenever Greenway advertises an amount a consumer may pay, it must clearly and conspicuously disclose the "Total Price" as the most prominently displayed price. The order also bars misrepresenting whether charges, fees, taxes, products or services are optional or required, and whether any type of or source for financing is required.

How do I burn a Total Price line into a lot clip?

Silent walkaround footage has no speech, so speech-to-captions would fail with caption_no_speech. Send authored cues instead, each with text, start and end in seconds, which skips transcription and burns your wording exactly. The input must be a public HTTPS video URL Sume can fetch; the job returns a captioned MP4.

Use one cue that spans the clip, so the price never leaves the frame. Keep the text to one short phrase, such as "Total Price $24,995 + gov't taxes and fees" (43 characters). Raise the size with design.typography.font_size_ratio (0.01 to 0.4) and pick the position with design.placement.anchor_ratio (0.05 to 0.95).

{
  "video_url": "https://cdn.example-dealer.com/lot/stock-4821.mp4",
  "style": "slam",
  "cues": [
    {
      "text": "Total Price $24,995 + gov't taxes and fees",
      "start": 0,
      "end": 14
    }
  ],
  "design": {
    "typography": { "font_size_ratio": 0.07 },
    "placement": { "anchor_ratio": 0.82 }
  }
}

What does it cost across a lot?

Each accepted caption job reserves a flat $0.20 for a video up to 60 seconds, per Sume's rate card, so a 40-vehicle lot is $8.00 for one pass. A price change means a new job with new cues, another $0.20 for that unit. Send an Idempotency-Key per stock number so a retry after a timeout does not charge twice.

Nothing here edits the footage or checks your numbers. The Total Price in the cue comes from your pricing sheet, and the caption is only as honest as that sheet. Sume burns exactly the words you send; it does not decide which fees the government requires.

• Per clip: one captions job, $0.20, up to 60 seconds.
• Per lot of 40: $8.00.
• Price change on one unit: a new job, $0.20.
• Your own hosting: the clip must be a public HTTPS URL, not a signed or private one.

Check before you post

Watch the finished clip on a phone with the sound off. The Total Price should be the first number a viewer reads and the largest, with any monthly payment smaller or absent. Poll the job with the steps on Jobs and results and keep the job id beside the stock number, so you can show which wording ran on which day. For the rest of the year-end workflow, see Car dealer year-end event.