Add a Vehicle

Add a vehicle as soon as it enters your dealership. You can create a Draft with only the information you have, then finish it as the vehicle moves through preparation.

Choose the fastest starting point

You can start in three ways:

• Blank draft: Create the record without year, make, model, or VIN.
• VIN-assisted draft: Enter a valid 17-character VIN and use the returned vehicle details as a starting point.
• Browser extension: Import supported third-party listing data into a Draft vehicle.

Every path creates an editable inventory record. It does not publish the vehicle.

Create a vehicle from Inventory

1. Open Inventory.
2. Select Add Vehicle.
3. Optionally enter the 17-character VIN.
4. If your dealership has multiple branches, choose the branch that owns the record.
5. Create the vehicle.
6. Review Details and prepare the Listing.

If you leave the VIN blank, DealerSpot creates the vehicle without attempting a lookup. Year, make, and model are not required at creation.

What DealerSpot creates automatically

Each new vehicle starts as Draft. DealerSpot also creates:

• A stock number when you did not supply one.
• A working title from the year, make, model, and trim when available.

VIN and stock number must be unique within the dealership. If either value already belongs to another vehicle, use the existing record or correct the duplicate before continuing.

Use VIN decoding

DealerSpot checks the VIN against a national vehicle database. The result may include:

• Year, make, model, trim, and series
• Vehicle type, body style, and cab type
• Drive type and fuel type
• Engine, displacement, cylinders, configuration, and horsepower
• Transmission, transmission speeds, and door count

Review the decoded values before relying on them. VIN data can be incomplete, formatted differently from your preferred listing language, or unavailable for a particular vehicle.

When lookup does not return data

Create the Draft and enter the known information in Details. You can keep a valid VIN on the record even when the lookup returns only part of the vehicle information.

Complete the internal record

After creation, open Details and enter the information you can confirm.

Price options are Contact to See, Fixed, and Negotiable. Your choice controls how the price appears on the storefront.

Prepare the listing

Use the Listing tab to turn the internal record into customer-facing inventory:

1. Review the public listing title.
2. Write or generate a description, then edit it for accuracy.
3. Add the original source link when it helps your team. Shoppers do not see it.
4. Upload and arrange listing images.
5. Confirm the website channel and branch.
6. Change the vehicle to Listed only after the public presentation is ready.

Only Listed vehicles assigned to that storefront's branch become visible to shoppers.

Import with the extension

The DealerSpot browser extension can import vehicle details from Copart, IAAI, Cars.com, AutoTrader, and Carfax. It still creates a Draft, marks the source as Imported, and keeps the source link. Importing images is optional.

Use the extension when a supported source already contains useful listing data. Use the dashboard flow when you want a blank record or only have a VIN.

Before listing

• Verify VIN, stock number, mileage, price, and title status.
• Confirm the vehicle belongs to the correct branch.
• Record preparation costs in Expenses.
• Add only non-sensitive supporting files in Documents. Anyone with a file's direct link may be able to open it.
• Review the first image, because it becomes the primary listing image.
• Check the public title, description, price display, and public custom values.

Related workflows