Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. – vAutoannounces enhancements to Conquest, its new car inventory management solution, that provide dealers with a new way to efficiently manage their new car inventory. The enhancements include an Improved Dealer Trade Tool, New Investment Comparison and Dashboard upgrades.

At vAuto, we’re seeing that one of the biggest opportunities for dealers is hidden in plain sight—that’s better managing the capital investment tied up in new car inventory.

“We talk to dealers and evaluate market trends constantly to determine the product innovations needed to keep our inventory management solutions performing at the highest level,” said Randy Kobat, senior vice president of Inventory Software Solutions at Cox Automotive. “We’re confident these enhancements will directly solve the challenges dealers face.”

Economists are predicting on-going challenges in the new car market as sales continue to level off or decline, along with the prospect of rising interest rates.

“At vAuto, we’re seeing that one of the biggest opportunities for dealers is hidden in plain sight—that’s better managing the capital investment tied up in new car inventory. These new Conquest enhancements help dealers proactively manage their inventory as an investment by minimizing expenses and growing profits,” said Brian Finkelmeyer, senior director of new car solutions at vAuto. 

The 2020 Conquest upgrades include:

Enhanced Dealer Trade Functionality:Trading on intuition supported by insights to reduce losses and improve inventor

• Dealer trade insights are now grouped based on dealers’ own splitter for same-make dealer trades.

• Filtering is no longer based on subscribed makes, but rather on the make from which the vehicle is searched.

• Stocking action is now included. Sort by the highest positive stocking action to lowest negative stocking action.

The upgrades to the Dealer Trade functionality seamlessly integrate into Conquest and use third-party data to identify which vehicles would perform best in each dealer’s market, creating an efficient trade process and resulting in faster turning inventory.

“We know new car managers today have a lot on their plates. So, when a dealer receives an inbound request for a trade, they need to be sure they’re getting the right car back, and quickly,” said Finkelmeyer. 

In a limited study conducted by vAuto in 2018, dealers reported they averaged 22 trades per month and 17.7% of those trades were losses.²

Those losses are the reason that vAuto enhanced the trade functionality in the platform—to take out the guesswork, helping Inventory Managers, like Turner Silk, avoid losses.

“The new Dealer Trade tool in Conquest takes the hassle out of trades by having all of the information and relevant inventory available without having to manage the back and forth often associated with manufacturer-provided OEM tools. Having the necessary information readily available prevents us from taking the wrong vehicle back in exchange and keeps our inventory flowing smoothly, not to mention the overall time it saves with the transaction,” said Turner Silk, Inventory Manager at Glenn Ford Lincoln/Glenn's Freedom CDJR.

New Investment Comparison:Knowwhen you’re selling the oldest inventory with new, easy-to-interpret visuals.

• A simple bar graph compares dealers’ active inventory to their sold inventory by dollar amount and vehicle age.

• Dealers will be alerted when inventory fresh off the truck is being sold before vehicles that have been sitting on the lot, jeopardizing floor plan credits.

“We know from continued market research and conversations with our clients that dealers feel they’re doing the best they can with new cars and there’s no room to improve. We at vAuto feel differently and we’re confident that with enhancements like these and those to come, we can position dealers to out-think, not out-spend the competition,” continued Finkelmeyer.

Dashboard Upgrades:Minimize the time and effort it takes for you to check in on new vehicle inventory, identify potential issues and execute strategic adjustments.

Updates include the following: 

• New Investment Comparison 

• Per Model Summary Update 

• Need Attention Redesign 

• Stocking Actions Redesign 

• Addition of Digital Frontline Ready 

• Separation of Inventory Summary from Inventory Metrics

• Collapsible Widgets