Drew,
If every dealer had a good CRM system, analytics that tracked form conversions by referrers on their website, and incentivized their staff to interview for the proper ad source this whole article would be pointless. That is where this all came from.
If we want to start pointing fingers...
Yes, it is really the dealer's lack of awareness that he should be looking at this stuff that creates this situation. Yes, it is the vendor's faulty providing of the right tracking metrics that creates this situation. Yes, it is Autotrader & Cars.com's pricing and non-transparency that has added to this situation.
However...
It sounds like Autotrader is finally adding "BOB" (Big Orange Button) to help alleviate some of this. I bet Cars.com will not be far behind.