Cars.com addresses inaccurate dealer listings with auto VIN decoding

Bru

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Cars.com Introduces Only Automatic Solution to Auto-Populate Options and Features Data for All Dealer Listings

https://www.cars.com/articles/carsc...s-data-for-all-dealer-listings-1420757087986/

AutoCorrectedā„¢ will instantly complete build data for all dealer listings, saving dealerships millions of dollars in lost profit margins and valuable staff time from manual process

CHICAGO ā€“ Car dealerships nationwide spend more than 30 hours per 100 vehicles manually filling out options and features details for the inventory on their lot.Ā¹ Dealers unable to dedicate that painstaking time are left with lost sales and profit due to incomplete and inaccurate listings that showcase undervalued vehicles to consumers. As a result, shoppers eliminate these vehicles from their consideration set or miss them completely because they are not coming up in would-be relevant searches. Now, dealers can instantly, accurately, and completely populate these listings by opting into a free solution from the leading automotive digital solutions provider, Cars.comā„¢ (NYSE: CARS).

Cars.comā€™s AutoCorrectedā„¢ is a free solution powered by CarStoryā€™s VINspectā„¢ and will be unveiled at the 2019 National Automobile Dealer Association Show (NADA). The new solution leverages AI technology to VIN decode and normalize a dealershipā€™s data and detects merchandising errors on dealer listings, including trim, transmission and options. The result is an auto-population of inventory feeds with vehicle trim, spec, and feature data to maximize the value of each listing to ensure they can appear in feature-specific searches.

According to a recent case study with a dealership in Syracuse, NY, out of the more than 730 used units scanned on its lot, 37 percent had incorrect or missing options and features data listed. The errors cost the dealership approximately $66,750.Ā² In looking at a group of 142 dealerships with approximately 17,500 total vehicles in their combined inventory, about 21 percent of the vehicles scanned from these dealerships had errors or emissions and total lost profits of more than $1.8 million. It was also found that correctly merchandised vehicles are forecasted to sell 14.3 days faster.Ā³

ā€œDealers are losing sales every day due to cars being mislabeled as poor deals on other third-party sites when in reality itā€™s often just bad data,ā€ said Alex Vetter, chief executive officer of Cars.com. ā€œConsumers do not understand the true value of vehicles because the listings are missing critical information needed to make informed decisions. Car shoppers often look for specific features but when vehicles are not properly merchandised they are omitted all together from search results and dealers are missing out on potential profits. We are here to help dealers tell the full story with the right data and remove price as a point of friction in online sales.ā€

AutoCorrectedā„¢ is free for all Cars.com customers to help reduce labor costs and maximize inventory value and visibility. Dealers interested in listing these complete inventory feeds to other platforms beyond Cars.com ā€” such as their own website, technology, and digital advertising ā€” will be able to export and sync AutoCorrectedā„  inventory from the new Dealer InspireĀ® inventory management system, METALā„¢.

To learn more about Cars.comā€™s integrated solutions, visit GrowWithCars.com or visit the Cars.com/Dealer Inspire/DealerRater booth #2311S in the South Hall of the Moscone Center at the 2019 NADA Show in San Francisco from January 25-27.

Ā¹CarStory case study with 142 dealers and 17,485 total vehicles, January 11, 2019

Ā²CarStory case study with dealership in Syracuse, NY, January 13, 2019

Ā³ CarStory case study with 142 dealers and 17,485 total vehicles, January 11, 2019
 

Yaj Yak

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Kensington

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Search or sort by engine size or turbo/supercharger?

For example, I want to search for only 2.0T Fusions, but the only option is to search 2.0 turbo, but not all of the dealerships or people use 2.0 turbo...it could be 2.0 GTDI, 2.0 EcoBoost, 2.0T, 2.0 turbo...etc
 

Dan00Hawk

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As a buyer for a large dealer network, we spend a ton of time optioning cars for everything from trim and major options down to minor options, both at auctions when we are looking to determine a price to pay for cars (that we may not ever buy), and also for cars that we are appraising. We also recheck them before they make it to the front lot. We are generally in the 90% accuracy range the first time, and then check for errors the second time before they hit the lot for sale. We have built our own database that helps pre-populate what options may or may not be available based on trim levels, etc... But it is still complicated and time consuming for every year and make and model and trim.

And from time to time, somebody trims out a 2wd truck as 4wd, or doesn't account for navigation when it has it, or doesn't realize a Renegade Latitude has an Altitude Package, and so on...

I would definitely like to know more about this, as a truly automated VIN decoder for packages and minor options would be amazing.
 

Flyn

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On a side note, I just sold my daughter's car, put it on FB and craigslist to get a quick, local sale.

Craigslist is ridiculously bad now. Probably 90% of the inquiries were text scams. I was offered cashier's checks for more than the asking price twice. Almost a dozen other texts were obvious phishing or other scam attempts.

I blocked a bunch of numbers.

FB had a few but not as many. I ended up selling the car to an older lady who saw the ad on FB.

Thank goodness cars.com is good and improving because craigslist is on the way out, IMO.
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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On a side note, I just sold my daughter's car, put it on FB and craigslist to get a quick, local sale.

Craigslist is ridiculously bad now. Probably 90% of the inquiries were text scams. I was offered cashier's checks for more than the asking price twice. Almost a dozen other texts were obvious phishing or other scam attempts.

I blocked a bunch of numbers.

FB had a few but not as many. I ended up selling the car to a older lady who saw the ad on FB.

Thank goodness cars.com is good and improving because craigslist is on the way out, IMO.

sounds more like a florida issue.

when i sold my bmw a few months back craigslist was easy fucking peasy good to fucking go. i had around 10 real people ready to go within 6 hours of listing it.

it was sold with money in my hand within 7 hours of it hitting craigslist and gone. :dunno:
 
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