Auto/Mate Alternative for Car Dealerships

An honest page: we are not a dealer management system. Here is how to shop for one, and what we do alongside whichever one you pick.

If you landed here looking for something to replace Auto/Mate, you are shopping for a dealer management system, and we should say plainly that we do not sell one. No general ledger, no accounts payable or receivable, no payroll, no bank reconciliation, no deal posting to accounting, no parts inventory or counter, no repair orders, no technician time, no shop loading, no warranty claims, and no title or registration processing. If any of that is on your requirement list, we are not the answer to it and we would rather say so on the first screen than three demos in.

What we are is the layer above that: lead generation and a full CRM covering the customer, the conversation and the deal, running independently of whichever system holds your accounting. Plenty of stores change one without touching the other, and there is a good argument for doing exactly that, which the rest of this page gets into.

So this page has two jobs. Help you evaluate a DMS replacement properly, since that is what you actually came for, and explain honestly where a platform like ours fits next to one.

Auto/Mate is a dealer management system with a long history in the independent and franchise market, known among dealers for a customer support reputation and for pricing that was positioned against the largest incumbents. It was acquired by DealerSocket in 2020, and DealerSocket was subsequently acquired by Solera, so the product now sits inside a much larger portfolio than the one it grew up in.

We are not going to characterize its current feature set, roadmap, support model or pricing, because those change and because a comparison page is the wrong source for them. Get that directly from the vendor, in writing, with a date on it. That advice applies to every page like this one, including ours.

What we will say is that acquisitions are one of the most common reasons a store starts shopping, regardless of vendor. Contracts get renegotiated, support structures change, and integration priorities shift toward the acquiring company's other products. None of that is unique to this vendor and none of it is automatically bad. It is simply the moment when it becomes reasonable to look.

Worth laying out side by side, because the two are complements far more often than competitors.

Features, packaging and pricing change. Confirm anything that will drive your decision directly with each vendor before you sign, and take the answers in writing.

Nothing on this page argues against replacing your DMS. If these describe you, that is the project, and a CRM change is a separate conversation for a later month.

• Your accounting office is working around the system rather than in it, and your controller has built a parallel set of spreadsheets.
• Parts and service cannot get what they need out of it, or the fixed ops side is where your growth is and the system is the ceiling.
• Your OEM reporting requirements are not being met cleanly.
• The total cost, including every module and integration fee, is out of line with what the market now charges. Build that number properly using the total cost of ownership approach rather than comparing headline prices.
• You are being pushed toward a contract structure or a bundle you do not want.

If that is you, the vendor evaluation scorecard and the switching guide are written for exactly this decision, and they are vendor neutral on purpose.

The case for us is different and much narrower. It is strongest when several of these are true at once.

• Your actual problem is lead volume or lead handling rather than accounting, and a DMS project would be an expensive way to solve it.
• You are paying one vendor for leads and another for CRM, and stitching them together yourself.
• You want exclusive local leads mapped to a territory around your store rather than shared internet leads that three dealerships are calling at once.
• Your team communicates on personal cell phones, so your reporting is fiction and nothing survives an employee leaving.
• You want your salespeople working inside real tools: threaded texting, a dialer with recording and transcription, voicemail drop, drip processes and a desking engine that covers loan and lease across state lines.
• You want to change something this month without a conversion project, since neither a DMS integration nor an inventory feed is required to run.

Those two lists are not exclusive. A number of stores do both, in sequence, and the sequence matters more than most vendors admit.

A DMS conversion is the largest software project a dealership undertakes. Accounting, parts, service and sales all move at once, historical data has to come across, and the store operates at reduced capacity for weeks. It is a serious commitment and it is not something to run during your best selling season.

The lead and CRM layer is a fraction of that risk. There is less to configure, the data that has to move is customer records and communication history rather than a general ledger, and it can be piloted on one team or one store while everything else stays exactly where it is.

So the practical advice we would give even if you never bought anything from us: if both layers frustrate you, fix the cheaper and faster one first. You will find out quickly whether the pain was really the DMS or whether it was the lead process sitting on top of it. A surprising number of stores discover the second, and save themselves a conversion.

If you do go ahead with a DMS change, do the CRM move before or well after it, never during. Two conversions at once is how stores lose a quarter.

Concretely, here is what sits on top of whichever system you land on.

Leads. Exclusive local buyer leads inside a mapped zone, and opt in seller leads from local owners who filled out a vehicle offer request and asked to be contacted. Nothing is filtered or scored, every submitted lead in your zone is delivered exclusively, and problems are handled by post delivery replacement review rather than a quality claim made up front. Leads are a mix of VIN specific and open shoppers, and we do not promise a ratio.

CRM. Lead inbox, customer profiles with encrypted personally identifiable information, distribution rules, automations, follow up processes, drip campaigns, appointments and reminders, tasks, and three layers of reporting.

Communication. SMS and MMS with threading, RCS with SMS fallback, click to call with a VoIP softphone, call recording with transcription, voicemail drop, email with a real inbox and composer, bulk email, plus an email validator and a phone validator most dealers are surprised to find in a CRM. AutoMail adds IVR and inbound call routing.

Deals and customer facing tools. Desking for loan and lease with a 50 state tax matrix, deal jackets, print templates, customer facing deal pages with e signature, lead pages, personal salesperson websites and a live chat widget. Inventory Link ingests your feed if you have one. Integration options with the dealer management system you run are covered on the CRM with DMS integration page.

Take these into every demo. The answers separate vendors faster than any feature grid.

What is the total monthly cost with every module we actually need, and what is the price at renewal? What is the contract length, what is the cancellation process, and what is the notice period? Exactly what data can we export if we leave, in what format, and does it include history rather than just current records? Who owns the data? What does the conversion timeline look like, and what does the store have to supply? Which third parties currently post into the system, and what does repointing each of them cost? What does support look like at 6pm on a Saturday rather than at 10am on a Tuesday?

Write the answers down and date them. The data ownership page covers the export question in more depth, and the hidden costs page covers the ones that never appear on a quote.

Our own answers, so they are on the record: month to month, no long term contract, cancel with notice, your data is yours and exportable, no DMS integration or inventory feed required to operate, US only, and pricing published on the pricing page rather than quoted differently to every store. We cannot guarantee lead volume, close rates or results, and we would be suspicious of anyone who does. If you want to test that rather than take our word, the demo is a reasonable next step.

Can LeadLocate replace Auto/Mate?

No. Auto/Mate is a dealer management system and LeadLocate is not one. We have no general ledger, accounts payable, payroll, parts inventory, repair orders or title work. We run alongside whichever dealer management system your store keeps.

Do we need a DMS integration to use LeadLocate?

No. Neither a DMS integration nor an inventory feed is required to operate, which is also why brokers and individual salespeople run on the same platform. If you do have an inventory feed, Inventory Link can ingest it.

Should we change our CRM or our DMS first?

If both frustrate you, change the cheaper and faster layer first. A CRM change can be piloted on one team in a few weeks. A DMS conversion moves accounting, parts, service and sales at once. Never run both at the same time.

What happened to Auto/Mate?

It was acquired by DealerSocket in 2020, and DealerSocket was later acquired by Solera, so the product sits inside a larger portfolio today. Current capability, support model and pricing should be confirmed directly with the vendor, since those change.

What does LeadLocate cost?

CRM Only starts at $199 per month if you have your own lead sources. Programs including exclusive local buyer leads start at $799, the seller side at $999, and the combined plan at $1,599. Month to month, no long term contract.

Will switching improve our sales?

We cannot guarantee results, and any vendor who does is selling something other than software. What we can do is show the platform running on real lead flow, price it monthly, and let you pilot one team before committing anything wider.

Book a walkthrough and we will map a territory around your store, show the CRM running on real lead flow, and give you a straight number. Month to month, and it sits alongside whatever system your accounting office uses.