vAuto Replacement

[jeffspreen]

Maxdigital could not provide a demo link. But to be honest he had a struggle using/showing it to us. Blamed his internet connection.

I’d say the MAX demo was one of the worst ones. Theg had many issues getting through the whole thing. Reports were like very blah. Just spits out white excel spreadsheets. They have signed up many large dealer groups (maybe they got some volume discount). I’d think that would be a rough go if you signed up for that one. He actually apologized to me via email because he said it wasn’t his best demo.

I still tried to judge it based on what was there. Not much IMO.. I saw enough.

Then with VINCUE there is a ton of information but the layout is super busy and missing some crucial pricing elements to make decisions.

But my big thing was reports and being able to price fast and efficiently. If you price your inventory once a week or whatever the case. A lot of these websites are built on some janky code base. So the demo does not do you justice. It’s like me showing you pictures of a car but not letting you drive it.

VAuto was fine before we switched to Dealerslink; I did sacrifice a couple things. But I wanted to ditch COX automotive solutions. They think they have all the “data”; but at the end of the day we own our data; it’s our commodity to control. What we gained was speed and my ability to price 100 cars in one click if I wanted to. Nobody has that. VAuto I would have to open up 20 tabs and wait. Price them all, close them out, one by one. Now I got more of my time back.

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

Maxdigital could not provide a demo link. But to be honest he had a struggle using/showing it to us. Blamed his internet connection.

I’d say the MAX demo was one of the worst ones. Theg had many issues getting through the whole thing. Reports were like very blah. Just spits out white excel spreadsheets. They have signed up many large dealer groups (maybe they got some volume discount). I’d think that would be a rough go if you signed up for that one. He actually apologized to me via email because he said it wasn’t his best demo.

I still tried to judge it based on what was there. Not much IMO.. I saw enough.

How recent was your demo with MAX?

 

[jeffspreen]

October 2023

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

October 2023

Thanks. Was just interested in if it was before the acquisition by ACV. That helps.

 

[Dan Sayer]

I was aware of this, so I was looking at, if I stayed with vAuto, switching to them as the inventory provider since it would save me some money. What do you feel vAuto is missing that Homenet has?

Bill, Homenet has additional photo and overlay features including automation of overlays. Specials callouts by stock number or model/trim, unique feature callouts, etc. Homenet also had Snaplot which is what we were using for all vehicle photos on iPhones, and maybe vAuto users have that tool as well? I don't know what vAuto has for a photo tool app.

 

[Matteon]

I requested information about Acvmax, but we haven't received any response yet. We've used vAuto before, but it's become too expensive and mostly takes sales data from their internal dealers for rBook. They try to charge for too many add-ons and extras that are outdated.

 

[Jon Singo]

I probably did 50 to 75 appraisals side by side to see how many vehicles were listed in vAuto versus the other tools - since this is the data used in pricing your vehicles. I set the filters identical, set the radius the same - check them at 100 miles, 200 miles, etc. Almost every time, there were 10 to 15 vehicles in the smaller radius that didn't show up, but they did show up in vAuto. That 10 to 15 number became much larger the further you went out.

This is HUGE. I have long theorized that VAuto was hiding/not showing all vehicles listed or recently sold. The data they provide doesn't make much sense vs what I see on a daily basis in the wholesale market.

I'm going to have to demo them now even though I don't exactly have a great opinion of ACV in general.

Ideally, I want an inventory solution that lets me see ALL comps with less dealer optioning (dealers make mistakes), and also allows me to compare a year up/down on similar trims and models.

 

[Tallcool1]

We have been on vAuto for years. We are real close to making the switch to dealerslink. After 3+ hours of demos I would say it is worth a look.

I have been with Dealers Link for

Makes sense. They did mention that they used dealer sites instead of the 3rd party sites. That is probably why.

I am not with VinCue. I was before they sold and then it became more expensive than I could justify.

I don't know that this is the same today. When I was with them, whenever I noticed vehicles missing from a competitive set I could call VinCue and ask them to add that dealership. It took about 30 days of really paying attention and requesting dealerships to be added. Once that was complete, I had what I considered to be a pretty solid data set.

Another thing that VinCue did was track competitors market penetration. Of course they were doing it based upon the dealer's website, but we could see how many vehicles our competitors were removing from their websites on a daily basis. I believe we could even see what vehicles they were.

 

[CarData Support]

Yesterday I demoed ACV MAX (formerly Max Digital). Seemed like a decent vAuto replacement. Wondering if anyone is on it/has tried it or if anyone has experienced/demoed a similar product that they were intrigued by.

Our only experience is on the export side of things & I can say MaxDigital has a tough time after the initial photographs hit their system. For example if you change an overlay & it's not directly in MaxDigital & relying on a 3rd party photo source like HomeNet that update may not happen without a phone call to MaxDigital. For whatever reason their system just doesn't recognize the new/updated Image URL's from 3rd party sources.

 

[A Kappler]

I was aware of this, so I was looking at, if I stayed with vAuto, switching to them as the inventory provider since it would save me some money. What do you feel vAuto is missing that Homenet has?

Well I’ve been waiting for vAuto to offer conversions for any specific reason I need. Their photo overlay is just one reason that I would need a conversion built out. The frustration I have with vAuto is the appraisal photos that they will only share with Homenet if you pay for their syndication but in true Cox fashion I’m sure that will be a nightmare trying to reign in. Homenet does have its limitations but I have not seen anything that can compare to it, I use vAuto specifically for pricing and Homenet for syndication/merchandising purposes. Just my 2 cents.