SLANTS & TRENDS–NEW PRODUCTS AND INFORMATION

DEALERTRACK OFFERS A ‘PRO’ FOR INVENTORY CONTROL
February 4, 2007—DealerTrack, Lake Success, N.Y., launched “InventoryPro” yesterday to help dealers with their used-car ops. It provides dealers with a broad range of tools to appraise and book inventory, integrating values from Manheim’s Market Report, The Black Book, Kelley Blue Book, and NADA Guides. InventoryPro will also integrate with Chrome’s automotive description service, various auctions like Manheim, and ALG pricing and market data, allowing dealers to leverage a single platform for the info. DealerTrack also announced it has reached agreement with Microsoft to integrate DealerTrack’s full product suite with Microsoft’s new DMS, being introduced here.

SIGNATURE LAUNCHES DIGITAL DISPLAY SYSTEM FOR DEALERS
February 4, 2007—Signature Technologies, Inc., Dayton, Ohio, a leading provider of digital display systems to North American airports, yesterday announced the launch of Signature Dealer Display System for the automotive retail market. It lets dealers import, organize, and manage digital content to promote on image-enhancing flat panels service specials, accessories, finance incentives, and new vehicles both inside and outside the store. “[It] allows them to replace static signage with displays that grab the customer’s attention,” said Signature Technologies president Dave Michaels. The system also allows news, weather, stock and other general information to be run alongside promos and comes with turnkey deployment, including training, installation, 24/7 software support and maintenance, and content development services.

EXPERIAN: MAKING VEHICLE HISTORY REPORTS MORE USER-FRIENDLY
February 4, 2007—Experian Automotive announced AutoCheck Score, which summarizes data on AutoCheck vehicle history reports into one, straightforward score—a number from 1 to 99 based on info contained in Experian Automotive’s AutoCheck vehicle history reports specific to that car’s VIN. The score rates the quality of a vehicle’s history against all post-1981 used vehicles on the road  and provides a relative comparison to units of the similar model year and vehicle class. The feature will be available on all AutoCheck vehicle history reports this summer. “Condensing information into an easy-to-understand and comparable score revolutionizes vehicle history reporting,” said Experian Automotive president Scott Waldron.

FIRST LOOK LAUNCHES FIRST SEARCH ENGINE FOR WHOLESALE
February 4, 2007—Chicago-based INCISENT Technologies’ First Look, the pre-owned performance management and inventory optimization solution from, today introduced the First Look Search Engine, the car industry’s first search engine for major wholesale markets. It lets dealers instantly search more than 30 online marketplaces featuring more than 2 million vehicles annually. First Look Engine also searches more than 50 live auctions throughout the U.S. to identify the best auctions to meet a dealer’s inventory needs. It uses “predictive search,” utilizing First Look’s Inventory Optimization Engine, the First Look Search Engine to get precise, comprehensive search results quickly and accurately—a process that would typically take 30 minutes to create through a traditional search, the company says.

LIQUID MOTORS POURS OUT NEW ONLINE VEHICLE MARKETING SOFTWARE
February 4, 2007—Internet vehicle marketing firm Liquid Motors, Dallas, now takes photos (20 to 30 per vehicle) for the entire dealer's inventory, capturing vehicle data to improve the listing quality and printing and affixing window stickers. The new version of the software also supports all major vehicle Internet classified Web sites, such as Autotrader.com; listings on natural search sites such as GoogleBase; customized dealer Web sites; and an inventory plug-in or feed for any existing dealer Web sites. Plus, it includes a window sticker option. “Potential online customers may not be able to kick the tires, but Liquid Motors software gives them the next best thing—an avalanche of detail and important information about the vehicles they're viewing,” said Liquid Motors manager of dealer services Jason Toy.

DEALERS CAN SPECIFY LEAD PRICE, CRITERIA WITH LEADPOINT OFFERING
February 4, 2007—LeadPoint, Los Angeles, the largest online leads exchange, today debuted of a new lead trading platform for the nation’s new-car market, building on its successful mortgage leads exchange platform. Up till now, dealers were forced to buy leads for a flat rate regardless of quality, make, model, or trim. With LeadPoint, dealers can now specify the make, model, and trim, along with other details of the leads they want to buy. The platform also enables dealers to pay exactly what they believe the leads are worth via bidding. Dealers who use LeadPoint’s new-car leads exchange are not committed to minimum volumes and can change their bid criteria and price at any time.