Vehicle Information Database

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Modern used car dealership operation has become so complex that it would be unthinkable to do all the lot Dealership management software tasks with pen and paper - unless you are selling 2-3 cars a month! With the help of automation software, you can run the used car lot operation more smoothly, and manage larger volume of cars with more profit.
Used car dealership Craigslist posting software dealer software can be bought off the shelf, or it can be custom made by software developers. Major dealer software vendors are like Frazer, Cobalt, Reynolds and Reynolds, ADP, Dealerskins, DealerTrax and Gemini Systems. Custom made software is much more expensive but you get exactly what you want. Most of the independent car dealers can purchase the software with minimal configuration to do the job fairly well. This article gives you an idea of lot management software general features and serves as a software buying guide.

The auto dealer software shall have car inventory management capability. It keeps a list of the ...
... cars you have bought at wholesale auction market, or from trade-ins. Some sophisticated software packages link to vehicle information database, or built-in VIN decoder, and based on the VIN along, it can tell you a lot of information, like year, make, model, equipment options etc. about the vehicle. It also raises flags on those cars that have been declared total loss by insurance company

The software shall be able to take barcode scanner as VIN input without doing so manually. Ask if the barcode scanner is WiFi or Bluetooth wireless, or if the software can fetch the stored scanned VIN or part barcode from the device. Accurate VIN code entry is the first step to manage inventory effectively.

It shoule be able to print out window windshield stickers for each vehicles. As required by state law, each vehicle shall have "No Warranty As-IS" disclosure sheet on the vehicle if there is no warranty with the vehicle being sold. The buyer's guide window sticker shall be generated automatically with a simple click and print. It should also generate sales contract, or purchase order when the vehicle is sold. And if it is an installment sale, it should generate the installment payment contract and keeps track of the monthly or bi-weekly loan payments for the entire life of the loan.

Do a lot of testing with the new software package. Get a feel of how easy to do the administration work, and how easy to edit vehicle, to submit photos, and to stamp those vehicles as sold or as specially discounted. Ask about the capability to feature certain vehicles on the front page of the car dealership website. For those vehicles that you want to have deep discount, or that you want to use as an incentive to draw more visitors, they should be displayed on the front page with special eye catching markings, icons. These should be built in to the package with a couple of clicks.

Multi media, pictures, videos and Adobe Macromedia Flash handling capability are in a single car dealership website of management. Test software package with different media type and size. Make sure the software can process large pictures gracefully without crashing. The pictures shall be properly compressed and resized that suit fast car dealership web advertising displaying without degrading picture quality.

Stress test. Ask for a demo to handle hundreds of vehicles without slowing the system down to a crawl. Dealer software is a major investment. Make sure you get the right package the first time. When adding and deleting many vehicles, check to make sure the system still works as it should. Does the picture still show up properly, and does the system show any sign of "gum-up" or sluggishness? Batch editing, which is an advanced feature, will allow you to edit multiple vehicles in one shot. It is nice to have batch editing, or macro capability.

Inventory tracking should also cover what works have been done to each vehicle, what part used, and by whom. When you have a lot of vehicles, and you outsource car dealership web advertising work to contractors, make sure you know who is in possession and what work has been done at any given time. That helps you keep track of contractor work performance. Ideally it also keep track of the itemized expense of these works.

The software shall report aged inventory that need to be moved to wholesale or mark down. The longer the vehicle stays on the lot, the more it cost to keep it in salable condition. And aged unprofitable vehicles take up space and capital which should be used for more profitable vehicles. Aged inventory carries a hefty opportunity costs. Software should let you set the policy of acceptable inventory ages and flag vehicles on time.

For Buy-Here-Pay-Here, or in house financing auto lot, one of the major activities is asset recovery, or repossession. Repo can be expensive and costly if not done right. Certain procedures have to be followed to be compliant with local laws, and notice shall be given timely and properly. Dealer software package shall track installment payment and report late payment timely so the repo action can be taken timely.

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The article is written by dealerclick.com which is the best car dealership website with top ranking car dealership software for most convenient utility at http://www.dealerclick.com/.