vAuto Replacement

[jscole86]

What did you find was missing with the competitive sets in Max?

Disclaimer: Last time I looked was probably 7+ years ago.

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.

I haven't looked at other tools in a while, but at the time, I decided that having more listing data outweighed the cost savings, since that is the foundation of appraising and pricing. If some of these tools have caught up from a data perspective, then I should start looking again.

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

Disclaimer: Last time I looked was probably 7+ years ago.

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.

I haven't looked at other tools in a while, but at the time, I decided that having more listing data outweighed the cost savings, since that is the foundation of appraising and pricing. If some of these tools have caught up from a data perspective, then I should start looking again.

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

 

[Dan Sayer]

Last time we looked at most of the competitors, the data (competitive sets) within vAuto were untouchable. Did you find VinCue to be on par with them from a data perspective?

We did. The approach is different though. vAuto relies on a lot of data from other vAuto stores which may limit some aspects for vAuto users. VinCue sees the value of historic differently as well. We also want to pay more attention to vehicle by vehicle instead of lumping them into buckets or broad rules. You should reach out to them for a review. I honestly was paying more attention to making sure the Used teams understood the differences and if they were good, I was picking apart syndication, merchandising, and integrations. I'm just happy to eliminate Homenet as a middle-man to syndicate faster.

 

[Marc Lavoie]

Hi Bill, I could show you something we've built.

In a nutshell, per brand/model/year/trim you could access the following information:

1. Min price
2. Max price
3. Median price
4. Average
5. Days on market average
6. Days on market maximum
7. Market day supply average
8. Market day supply active
9. Sold last 45 days

On top of live boards with the information you need, we can set goals/alerts with our dealers and they get information sent to them instead based on various elements, possibilities are endless from here:


Let me know if you have more specific questions.

 

[jeffspreen]

We got tired of vAuto! and tired of all the COX Automotive BS. So we swore them off; and went off looking for new solutions. Cox Automotive touts their Data; but we are the commodity; we provide that data\life blood to their database. We are the value.

I also got tired of the vAuto philosophy changing over the years; and the platform becoming stale.

We price multiple stores; and sometimes throughout the year we may price 100s of cars at a time.

We ripped out vAuto at all 4 stores, and went to DEALERSLINK. I am so much happier with their platform. What use to take me all night to price cars with 20+ tabs open, then rinse and repeat pricing cars, now I can go into their pricing tool; price 100 cars in 1 shot. It is a game changer for your life.

Our turn has increased, we are selling more cars with smaller inventory; we've sold our inventory down drastically; turn is on fire.

Also we are saving money with the switch; and we now are not connected the COX anymore. Get off of COX. All of it.

Send me any questions if you need assistance!

Jeff Spreen
Spreen Automotive

 

[elmagito]

We had Max prior to vAuto and perhaps the only reason we left was when I called vAuto to ask a couple questions, Dale Pollak answered the phone. We were reading Velocity at the time so was a little star struck (he really is a great person). We went down that path in 2012(?) and had been with them since. Until May 1st this year when we switch over to VinCue. We probably had 5 or 6 hour-long demos with the VinCue team including Danny and decided it was time for a change in approach to pricing. Bonuses include integration with DriveCentric, buying center tools, elimination of Homenet, and a massive reduction in expense. Let me know if you want an introduction with them or you can hit up their site for a demo.

Thank you for the information. For years we were with HomeNet and last year we switched to VAuto. They promised the sky and delivered "still trying to find a word to complete my frustration with them". They just do not call you back when you have issues. It takes several days and weeks for something to be corrected. I have cancelled and we were going back to HomeNet as I was looking for a better alternative. We also have been with DriveCentric. Is there a person at Vincue that would recommend.

 

[Dan Sayer]

Thank you for the information. For years we were with HomeNet and last year we switched to VAuto. They promised the sky and delivered "still trying to find a word to complete my frustration with them". They just do not call you back when you have issues. It takes several days and weeks for something to be corrected. I have cancelled and we were going back to HomeNet as I was looking for a better alternative. We also have been with DriveCentric. Is there a person at Vincue that would recommend.

Just to be clear, Homenet is the syndication tool whereas vAuto is the IMS. Even if someone has vAuto and uses them to syndicate, the system is actually syndicating via Homenet behind the curtain. We had both because there are photo features that vAuto didn't offer as to why we had both. I've never viewed Homenet as an IMS alternative on its own. I'll PM you Danny's cell at VinCue and he'll get you started down the right demo path. VinCue would handle both syndication and be the IMS to be clear.

 

[jeffspreen]

Just as someone that did all the Demos, MAX, VinCue, vAuto, Dealerslink... I spent hours looking at them all, and I made every one of them give me a demo login so I could inspect exactly what we were going to receive.

Also to your point about Homenet; yes; many of them don't do the syndication; Dealerslink does; eliminates that expense.

Dealerslink is blazing fast, their code\site\hosting is beyond. (Im in no way affiliated with Dealerslink) Just trying to save you some time\headache.

Most of the demos we were on the presenters did a terrible job presenting their tools and you could tell they were hiding their shortcomings. It really sucks when you sign up for a vendor; log in for the first time; and realize what is missing. That's why I demand to be able to drive it myself; since this is going to be something I am going to use daily, and expect others to use daily.

If your going down this route of doing all the demos, expect more out of the presenters, and expect them to let you drive. Or take a login you can use on your own computer with demo data\appraise cars on your own. If they cant do that... Red Flag.

Jeff Spreen
Spreen Automotive

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

Just to be clear, Homenet is the syndication tool whereas vAuto is the IMS. Even if someone has vAuto and uses them to syndicate, the system is actually syndicating via Homenet behind the curtain. We had both because there are photo features that vAuto didn't offer as to why we had both. I've never viewed Homenet as an IMS alternative on its own.

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?

 

[BillKVMotorCo]

Just as someone that did all the Demos, MAX, VinCue, vAuto, Dealerslink... I spent hours looking at them all, and I made every one of them give me a demo login so I could inspect exactly what we were going to receive.

Interesting. MAX told me they couldn't do this for me.