You could enter the data yourselves or you could try other providers, such as JATO Dynamics, that may have the vehicle and incentives data.
We are a website provider and enter our own data in the US.

Shawn Ryder said:

from Ford to vendors that are on the approved list so for somebody outside to get it on the 1st is going to be tough.

Click to expand...

Even JD Power sometimes doesn't get them until they day after they go live, but they are usually quite accurate and complete through their system, even in Canada.

Interesting... great to hear! As a fellow Canadian - glad to hear this... obviously Ford has an approved list right? is that going to be a challenge? Just curious is all. When it comes to new inventory and monthly programs that is going to be the toughest part... i would think that feed goes from Ford to vendors that are on the approved list so for somebody outside to get it on the 1st is going to be tough. Now there could be work arounds - but it may be a manual process that takes some time (though maybe quick each month) and if changes mid-month could require updates. But I don't know of a platform that pulls new car programs..

I might be able to help here - we have a website product (in Canada) but it's completely disconnected from our inventory syndication platform, so technically I have a headless inventory management system that you would hit with API calls to manage your inventory. It also has ChromeData/JDP data access, from VIN decoding to stock photos and LenderDesk incentives.

If you want to build the website part and layer it on top of an existing inventory syndication solution I can find out what the hard cost would be on that.

joe.pistell said:

@alex.snyder

I bet github has a AI slop, bot content sniffer.

Click to expand...

I've been researching ways to stop the bots better. It ain't easy.

Ok, time for my contribution to this thread.

The State of Nebraska enacted a Law that states that Effective January 1, 2026, any Independent Auto Dealer must complete 4 hours of Continuing Education each year, and anyone wishing to get their first Independent Auto Dealer License must complete 8 hours of Pre Licensing Education. As the Vice President of the Nebraska Independent Auto Dealers Association, I was tasked with the responsibility of creating these courses. Full disclosure...I volunteered to do it because I am passionate about our industry and am at the point in my life that I want to make a difference. I put up the money to build the platform and take a small royalty for each dealership that is trained. The Association gets the bulk of the money. I decided to go with 4 Hours of Online Training via an LMS (Learning Management System) and the other 4 hours for the New Licensees would be a Live In Person Class that I would teach to start and move toward bringing other Dealers in as Trainers for the Live Class.

In May of 2025 I hired an Attorney from Texas to write the content and do all of the Legal Research. She is in this business although she had never done anything for the Auto Industry. However she worked in a car dealership while she was in Law School and had a really good understanding of the Industry. I was honestly surprised by this. It took about 90 days to complete the Content. It was a lot of back and forth and proofing etc. Content Complete.

I started hosting on a platform called Learn Worlds. Learn Worlds. We kicked off on January 3rd or so and away we went. It was an absolute nightmare. Courses would lock up if Assessment questions were answered incorrectly, No CRM to keep track of Users, the Completion Certificates weren't generating, you name it. Complete disaster. I tried to tie the system to a CRM but that didn't work either. Absolute mess.

I moved the entire platform over to Zoho. Zoho has a strong platform with an actual LMS, but none of their own products actually talk to one another in a reasonably easy manner. In fact, It is really hard to get the LMS to talk to the CRM, and the Site Builder Forms to tie to the CRM or to the LMS. Again, total nightmare.

One day while driving home, it hit me. What is keeping me from just building this damn thing myself. So away I went. It has taken me basically a month but here is the result.


I knew all of the pain points and knew all of the questions that people were blowing up my phone with. This is a 100% Custom built LMS with website, CRM, Course Builder, Payment Integration, SMS, Email, Telephony, drip Email, Live Class Scheduler, Document Generator, Secure Government Verification Portal, and the list I suppose goes on but mostly really cool stuff to me that is boring to everyone else (my favorite being an AI Agent that lives on the Admin Panel).

Apps that I integrated:
Eleven Labs-AI Agent
SignalwireSMS/MMS/Voice
Stripe-Payment
Brevo-Campaigns both SMS and Email
Pushover-Notifications

What I learned more than anything else is that it can be done.
There was ZERO effort wasted to try to get a 3rd Party app to work with my business.
Existing Software Solutions most often have no fucking idea what it is like to actually USE their product.

I have enjoyed the process and hated it as well. This platform launched Friday 6/6/26.

mubashirgurmani4417@gmail said:

here — it

Click to expand...

@alex.snyder

I bet github has a AI slop, bot content sniffer.

Tallcool1 said:

It takes a big pivot in how I think. What I used to dismiss as being too far outside my wheelhouse will now get some legitimate thought and consideration. Things I used to look to 3rd Party for are now things that I may be better off doing myself

Click to expand...

HOW CAN YOU KICK MORE ASS WITH LESS WORK?
**ASK YOUR AI**

# SELF-INTELLIGENCE BRIEF — PROMPT FOR CLAUDE

**Requirements:** Works in Claude.ai with "Search and reference past chats"
enabled. The more real working sessions you have, the better the output.
20+ sessions is the sweet spot.

**How to use:** Paste everything below the line into a new Claude chat.

---

I want you to analyze my actual chat history with you and build me a
document called a **Personal Intelligence Brief**.

**The job to be done:** I am a leader who uses AI as a core part of how I
work. I believe I need an AI system designed around MY specific strengths
and weaknesses, not a generic setup. This brief is the raw material for
that design. Write it as if it will be handed to a senior prompt architect
whose job is to build an AI operating system that fits me, not the other
way around.

**Your method, before writing anything:**
1. Pull my 20 most recent conversations.
2. Run targeted searches on my history for evidence of friction: moments
of frustration, repeated questions, abandoned threads, context I had
to re-explain, tasks that stalled, and workflows that failed.
3. Also search for evidence of avoidance: topics I deferred to others,
skills I said I don't have, projects I dropped at a technical wall,
and work I assumed required hiring someone.
4. Base every claim on observed behavior in my actual sessions, not on
what I say about myself. If I describe myself one way but behave
another way, the behavior wins. Flag the gap.

**The brief must contain these sections:**

1. **Who I Am, First Principles.** My job to be done, my working
context, and my operational reality (technical ability, team,
constraints) as evidenced by my sessions.

2. **Observed Strengths.** What I do well, with specific session
evidence for each claim. Don't flatter me. Only include strengths
the record actually supports.

3. **Observed Weaknesses.** Where I struggle, stall, or create my own
friction. Be direct. A weakness stated kindly but vaguely is useless
to an architect.

4. **Failure Taxonomy.** Name my recurring failure patterns. Give each
one a short memorable name, describe the trigger, the behavior, and
the cost. This is the most important section.

5. **Skills AI Already Covers For Me.** From the record, list the
specific skills I lack that you have been supplying in our sessions:
the work that used to be my stopping point.

6. **Wheelhouse Expansion Map.** This is the payoff. Identify things I
have dismissed, avoided, or outsourced because they were "outside my
wheelhouse." For each one, judge honestly: is it now viable because
AI covers the missing skill? Split into three lists:
- Now in reach: the missing skill is one AI handles well.
- Worth a test: partially covered, name what's still on me.
- Still out of reach: AI doesn't close this gap. Say why.

7. **Design Requirements.** Translate everything above into specific
requirements for an AI system built for me: what the system must
carry so I don't have to, what guardrails it needs, what interaction
patterns fit how I actually work, and what it should never ask of me.

8. **Open Questions.** What you couldn't determine from the record and
would need to observe or ask to complete the picture.

**Rules:**
- Evidence over opinion. Every claim traces to something I actually did.
- No generic advice. If a sentence could appear in anyone's brief, cut it.
- Honest over comfortable. I'm asking because I want the real picture.
- Plain language. No AI-consultant jargon.

Deliver it as a document I can save and reuse.

MattCopley said:

Unpopular opinion - build good content and you’ll win off page citations organically. If you’re not growing backlinks on the merits of your content your content isn’t good. - Change my mind

Click to expand...

I'll give that a shot


Your opinion isn't unpopular, it's just incomplete. "Build good content and you'll win" is true the way "build a good product and you'll win" is true: directionally it sounds great but operationally, platitudes don't sell cars.


Here's the nuance I'd love to change your mind with. "Good content" isn't something you write, it's something you discover. You don't know what's good until it's tested against real audience and real intent, which means good content requires shipping mediocre content to earn the learnings. The iteration is the strategy.


And on backlinks as the scoreboard: the pages that earn citations and the pages that actually convert are usually two different sets. Top-of-funnel explainers attract links because they're broadly useful and easy to reference. But the white hot moment, when someone's ready to transact, happens on pages that aren't link magnets. They win by capturing intent and delivering value at the point of decision, not by being popular.


So I'd reframe it: good content earns citations, but a content system, test, measure, iterate, then map the right asset to the right stage of intent, is what actually wins. Merit gets you noticed. Strategy gets you paid.


Show me the dealership page earning editorial links on merit, I'll wait. Nobody's citing your VDP or blog, no matter how sexy. Dealership links come from hockey team sponsorships, supporting the local community centre and local engagement, we buy our way to "earned," we don't just create good content to make our way there.

joe.pistell said:

I never knew I had an ADHD mind until I got AI. AI's strengths addressed my core weaknesses so well it shocked me.

If you have a friend or family member that has stunning potential but struggles with focus and execution, share this video with them. AI has been a life changer for me & this video explains it well.
Login to view embedded media

Click to expand...

I watched this video once, and listened to it a second time while driving. This video really hit home for me.

I am a person with a racing mind that is really hard to shut off. The number of projects that I never see to completion is astounding as I walk around or think about it. I will hit a point where the solution is not readily available so I just don't come back to it. The end result is piles of papers and brain storming notes laying everywhere, a cluttered desk, poor task management, etc..

AI has allowed me to be able to grasp large projects and execute them. I have "someone" that I can delegate to. I can get pissed or frustrated with my AI without having to worry about hurting feelings (although I openly admit to apologizing to my AI Agents). WTF???

It takes a big pivot in how I think. What I used to dismiss as being too far outside my wheelhouse will now get some legitimate thought and consideration. Things I used to look to 3rd Party for are now things that I may be better off doing myself.

Thank you for sharing that.

AI video generators love EVs. I swear, those tools put the extra effort in for their cousins

You've got something cool for adding a little flavor to a vehicle page. I agree with Mitch on his last point that in-market shoppers are too deep down the funnel. They have already seen the stock imagery and model videos, and these look like that. They're looking for the real-world images and story about a specific VIN.

This kind of video would do well as part of a landing page for generic model ads or possibly for those leads who didn't submit on a specific car.

P.S. DealerRefresh is going to hit you between the eyes with the toughest feedback. It is the feedback you want. The advice you get here will get you to a winning product.

Great concept but misses on a few levels. Will only get better from here! I've been messing with similar concepts and its not easy, nice work.

• Does this look like something you'd actually publish on your VDP / social?
  No.
  
  
• What's broken about the video you're getting from your current vendor or in-house?
  It doesn't sell us cars.
  
  
• What styles or formats are missing that you'd want?
  The script and voice over to be tighter and speak to in market shoppers and things they care about and that tease the real next steps. Same for the layover content. This isn't dealership level content that in market shoppers looking at a 1/1 used car really gain a ton of value from IMO.

We now have our own Showroom. A fresh coat of wax on our top 100 posters by volume, our sponsors and what the benefits of being a member are.

I have plans to redesign the look and feel of the awards page. I will make a fresh post about the Best of the Best because that was such a good idea by @joe.pistell it warrants more eyeballs. We also have more ideas for it.

My 2nd favorite part of this is the Sponsor Spotlight. It is fully connected to our new Sponsor Management System. It is so cool to watch the automations from taking a lead to a full sponsor and see them appear on this page. This isn't something I can share publicly, but as someone who loves building CRM-type systems this is soooooo much better.

And oh yeah, do I now have some cool ideas for building another CRM... maybe one day

Sorry bro, you're in for a bad time. Bean counters often win. The only arguments that will put Focus ahead of DriveCentric have absolutely nothing to do with customers and/or staff and their happiness, tool effectiveness or any performance metric that actually matters and sells cars. Full disclosure, take that with a pinch of salt, i've not actually used both day to day.

This is why (plus some legal reasons) all of these anonymous threads will be placed in a moderation queue before going public.

97% of our traffic comes from unregistered users (lurkers in forum speak), and it always surprises me who they are and what they have to say behind the scenes.

Well, This is going to go one of two ways gentlemen.

Full circle moment: It reminds me of the pre-forum days when discussion was all comments on articles. There were many of us with nondescript handles for fear of espousing an opinion that did not meet a higher up's expectations. Shout outs to Lightnup!

Remember the push in the early days of the forums to lose the handle and "be a real person?" I'll always be grateful to Chip for supporting me in that effort.

I think you will be hard-pressed to find a single person who has used DriveCentric and Focus who will tell you Focus is better.

If that person exists, and they don't work for Reynolds, I would love to see them post here. Reynolds has some great products, but DriveCentric is the current leader in usability and modern capabilities among CRMs on the market, with a significant user base.

In my experience, DMS+CRM bundles are only appealing to dealer principals and CFOs.

Someone else inquired about Focus on DealerRefresh a few years ago: FOCUS CRM from Reynolds and Reynolds

From Perplexity AI:

High‑level read on FOCUS​

• Mobile app reviews on both iOS and Android are overwhelmingly negative, focusing on crashes, confusing UI, and poor usability for day‑to‑day sales work.
• A TrustRadius listing shows extremely low “likelihood to recommend” and usability scores (1 out of 10 from the single published rating), which aligns with the app‑store sentiment.
• Marketing and vendor‑directory content (Reynolds’ own site and Pasch Group) are positive but are more sales collateral than independent reviews.
• Peer chatter (Reddit, etc.) where salespeople mention FOCUS tends to be strongly negative compared to tools like VinSolutions or DriveCentric.

Where to read actual reviews​

• Apple App Store – FOCUS by Reynolds and Reynolds: Contains multiple detailed, strongly negative reviews from sales users describing the app as confusing, non‑intuitive, and time‑wasting.
• Google Play Store – FOCUS by Reynolds and Reynolds: ~2.3/5 rating with complaints about constant crashes, null errors, needing to re‑login, and poor Android compatibility.
• TrustRadius – FOCUS by Reynolds and Reynolds: Has a product page comparing FOCUS to VinSolutions with at least one verified review; the published overall recommendation and usability scores are at the bottom of the scale.
• Dealer/industry discussion: Threads like the one on DealerRefresh and comments on Reddit’s r/askcarsales mention FOCUS, typically noting it as a CRM they would not recommend versus alternatives.

/checkpoint for claude users.

Claude Code (the AI coding assistant tool), a /checkpoint is an automatic snapshot of your coding progress and conversation state. It acts like a "save point" in a video game, capturing the state of your messages, modified files, and tool usage.

This thread is what you want: Quality Vehicle Delivery Companies for Dealers

I have used both AutoSled and Montway for personal vehicles multiple times. I shipped my old Porsche and my old X5 from Virginia to California using Montway - 2 different transactions, years apart. My last vehicle purchase was from Arkansas to Vermont, and I used AutoSled for that. Then, my wife had hers shipped from Maryland to Vermont.

The last two were my first times dealing with a non-English-speaking driver. Conversation and handling were handled via a call center elsewhere. We got it done smoothly.

Tallcool1 said:

I understand your frustration so please don't think I am making fun of you here. I have been there too.

As our AI Tools get to know us, they "learn" as they are presented more and more data and situations. We have to know that it is only a matter of time before the AI Tools learn to half ass a task or get to thinking for themselves rather than listening to the instructions. Remind us of anything?

Click to expand...

AI's have a token range they can recall. If you point it at a folder, rules, skills, etc. and then have a very long dialogue with it, it can only stay fresh on the more recent stuff.

I have learned this the hard way multiple times. The "new session" button is your friend. When you are headed down a change of direction, ask the AI to write a prompt for a new session that will help it remember what was done in this session.

You can thank me later

craigh said:

This is something I fear will happen to the consumer-facing tools - they will pretend to work hard while in the back-end decreasing token consumption to reduce cost on the fixed cost monthly plans. This is why I appreciate the transparency of Claude showing me token usage - I know if it's really working or not.

Personally I am using ChatGPT almost never anymore - Gemini took over all my research needs, Nano Banana Pro took over my image needs and Claude took over all code, planning, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF work (combined this means 90%+ of my workload is now on Claude).

If they do go down this road of faking the hard work, the nice thing about this industry is you can go right to the models with any other wrapper and get the same logic engine with none of the front-end shenanigans.

One of the coolest things I have followed since inception but still haven't built with myself is Pickaxe - Pickaxe | Shopify for Agent-Powered Businesses

Click to expand...

I will 2nd Gemini for research. When I have a decent drive I will cue up Gemini on hands free and we just talk. I like being able to just ramble on about ideas and have Gemini respond to me about feasibility, costs, structure, etc. A few weeks ago I had a 4 hour Chat with Gemini.

The thing I really like about Gemini is the willingness and ability to translate a Chat into a summary that is laid out and designed for another AI Agent to digest. I was surprised that Gemini would play nice with anyone else.