vAuto Announces Enhanced Dealer Trade Functionality to Conquest

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill., April 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- vAuto announced an insights-driven upgrade to dealer trading in the Conquest^® platform, building on the long legacy of market leading metrics for inventory management developed by vAuto. 

The enhanced dealer trade functionality seamlessly integrates, at no additional cost, into Conquest. Using third-party data, Conquest's Dealer Trade creates an efficient trade process that identifies which competitors' vehicles would perform best in their respective markets, resulting in faster-turning inventory. In today's margin-compressed environment, every piece of inventory must be evaluated on its potential marketability and profitability. Obtaining a clear, objective assessment on inbound trades was difficult and time-consuming until now.

"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 Brian Finkelmeyer, vAuto's Senior Director of Conquest. "Conquest's Dealer Trade gives our clients new solutions to be more competitive and efficient—whether they're trading or proactively playing offense to improve their inventory," continued Finkelmeyer.

An independent research study conducted by vAuto determined dealers are making 22 trades per month on average and 17.7 percent of those trades are a loss, according to dealer self-reported data.¹

"We talk to dealers and evaluate market trends constantly to determine the product enhancements 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. "New vehicle trading is an important part of the business and ordering restrictions can make it challenging to get the exact inventory needed for a market. And that's what Conquest helps solve for, enabling dealers to make trading decisions on insights, not gut, to reduce losses and improve their inventory," Kobat continued.

Conquest takes out the guesswork, helping dealers solve the loss issue by employing an algorithm comprised of propriety data from vAuto, along with additional data from Cox Automotive, while also leveraging support from vAuto's Performance Management team. Conquest's trading tool saves dealers the time of hunting through websites and OEM platforms—even if the dealer making the request is not a Conquest user.

"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.

vAuto is currently developing additional enhancements for Conquest, including improved marketing integrations and new metrics, which are expected to launch in 2019.

For more information on Dealer Trade, visit vAuto.com/WinTrades or call 888-536-4086.

¹  vAuto Fall 2018 Dealer Trades Study November 6, 2018 (page 8)

About vAuto
vAuto^® provides innovative technology, tools and business intelligence to thousands of dealerships across the United States and Canada, helping them compete more effectively and increase new/used vehicle sales volumes and profits. Founded in 2005, vAuto revolutionized dealers' used vehicle operations with the groundbreaking Provision^® suite of tools. Leveraging The Velocity Method of Management^®, pioneered by vAuto founder, Dale Pollak, Provision helped dealers adopt a more transparent and turn-focused approach to used vehicle acquisition, appraising, pricing and merchandising based on real-time, local market supply-and-demand data. In 2018, vAuto released the Provision ProfitTime metric and methodology to help dealers maximize inventory turn and gross profit based on the investment value or profit potential of each vehicle. The same year, the company expanded its integrations with Cox Automotive's HomeNet unit and acquired iRecon, an online reconditioning workflow platform. The moves extend vAuto's efficiency-focused used vehicle management solutions into vehicle merchandising and reconditioning.

vAuto's solutions also include Conquest, a new vehicle inventory management and pricing system, and Stockwave, which enables dealers to efficiently find and purchase vehicles from leading wholesale sources via a single platform.

Headquartered near Chicago, Illinois, vAuto is a Cox Automotive™ brand.

About Cox Automotive
Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using cars easier for everyone. The global company's 34,000 plus team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with revenues exceeding $20 billion. coxautoinc.com­­­­.

SOURCE vAuto

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