CDK Global Alternative for Car Dealerships

Keep the dealer management system your controller depends on, and give the sales floor exclusive leads and a CRM it will actually use, on one monthly bill.

CDK Global is one of the largest dealer technology providers in North America, best known for its dealer management system, the accounting and operations backbone of a franchise store. Around that core its portfolio has spanned CRM, digital retailing, service and parts tools, and data integration services, and many franchise groups run several CDK products at once. Elead, the CRM many franchise stores know, sits in the same family.

That breadth is why a CDK Global alternative search means different things to different stores. For one general manager it is the DMS contract. For another it is the CRM the sales floor works in every day, or the digital retail tool on the website, or the monthly total across all of them. Product names, bundles, contract terms and integration fees change over time and differ by store, so confirm current pricing and terms with the vendor directly. This page helps you sort which problem you have, and shows what changes when the sales layer moves to LeadLocate.

Spend an hour on this before any demo. Ask each department head what costs them time every week, and on which screen. Then sort the answers.

Posting, reconciliation, payroll, parts, repair orders, title work and manufacturer reporting belong to the dealer management system. Those answers point to a DMS evaluation, which is a months long, dealership wide project with its own shortlist. The CDK Drive alternative guide and the switching from CDK Drive guide cover that path in full.

Leads that sit unworked, follow up that dies after two touches, salespeople texting from personal phones, calls nobody can find, desking done in a spreadsheet and reporting nobody trusts all belong to the sales layer. That pile can change in weeks, at one rooftop, without touching accounting. In most stores it is the taller pile, and it is the one LeadLocate replaces.

Leave your number and a lead specialist calls you back to answer your questions about pricing, coverage, and setup. Mon - Sat, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.

General ledger, payables and receivables, payroll, deal posting, floorplan, parts, repair orders and title work stay in the dealer management system you run. LeadLocate runs beside it and takes over everything that happens with a customer before the deal reaches the back office.

No DMS integration or inventory feed is required to operate, which is why a single store can pilot LeadLocate while the rest of the group stays put. When you want vehicles in the conversation, Inventory Link ingests your inventory feed or imports inventory from your own website, and every unit appears behind the vehicle insert button in every text and email. When an application needs to reach the back office, SecureWebX exports it in the format the DMS expects, including STAR XML, fixed width, CSV or JSON. The CRM and DMS integration page covers how the two layers live side by side.

Leads inside the CRM. LeadLocate lead plans deliver exclusive local buyer leads and opt in seller leads from local owners who asked for an offer on their vehicle. Every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you, prescreened at capture with the questions you choose, and backed by a replacement review. You make your selections in Leads Manager, the zone, the campaign type, the prescreening questions and the offers, and our team builds and runs the campaigns on the webXintel Ads Network.

A communications stack in one place. A two way texting inbox with pictures and delivery status on every bubble, RCS with automatic SMS fallback, bulk texting, texting chatbots, a VoIP softphone with click to call, call recording and transcription, Call Alerts on the keywords your managers choose, voicemail drop, and an email inbox that sends from your own domain. A Phone Validator and an Email Validator show validity right on the lead. Every call, text, email and voicemail sits on one timeline per customer.

A phone system that answers. Tracking numbers per source, a Forward Calls To ring list built from your users, business hours routing, an IVR call flow builder and a virtual receptionist you switch on or off.

Desking and deal pages. EZ Desking covers cash, finance and lease with a 50 state tax matrix and three lease tax methods, and DealTracker puts the numbers on a customer deal page with a PIN, deal chat and e-signature.

Credit applications. SecureWebX sends branded apply links, runs OFAC screening, handles stipulations and adverse action notices, and shares applications with the lender you choose through Send to Lender.

Reporting and help. Activity, company and management reporting, Team Chat for every user, and Jax, the bilingual AI assistant inside the CRM.

The change shows up in ordinary moments. A lead arrives at eight in the evening and gets a text from the store inside the minute, because the Automated Template for that feed fired on its own. A salesperson on the lot answers from the LeadLocate phone app instead of a personal cell, and the conversation lands on the customer's timeline where the manager can read it. A shopper calls the number from a campaign, the caller ID name lookup shows who is calling, and the recording and transcript are on the lead before the salesperson hangs up.

At the desk, the manager builds three pencils in EZ Desking and sends a deal page instead of a photograph of a worksheet. The customer opens it with a PIN, asks a question in deal chat, and signs. In the morning meeting the reports show time to first response and follow up depth by salesperson, from activity the system recorded rather than activity someone remembered. None of it touched the DMS, and none of it needed the controller.

The table maps which system does which job. Most stores that move their sales layer keep the DMS.

Features and pricing change on both sides. Confirm anything decision critical with each vendor before you sign.

Moving the CRM and lead layer is a contained project when it is sequenced well.

1. Export first. Before you give notice on any CRM product, confirm what you can export, in what format, and whether notes and communication history come with it. Contact import brings your customers into LeadLocate, and Merge Duplicates cleans the overlap.
2. Set up the floor. Users and roles, custom lead statuses, tags, round robin assignment and lead routing rules per rooftop. Lead Feeds Manager gives every source its own feed, with manager copies where your managers want them.
3. Move the phones. Tracking numbers per source, the ring list, business hours and the IVR, so calls land in the CRM with recording and transcription from the first day.
4. Connect your website forms. Every form on your site posts into the CRM as a lead, and the first text can fire automatically.
5. Run in parallel for a few weeks. Point a defined slice of lead flow at LeadLocate while the old tool keeps the rest, then compare time to first response, follow up depth and appointments shown.

Training is included with every plan: a video library, live sessions and Schedule Training from the top bar. The CRM switching guide covers the people side in more depth.

Take these into every demo and write the answers down. What is the total monthly cost with every module the store actually needs, and what happens at renewal? How long is the contract, and what does leaving involve? What can we export, in what format, and does it include communication history? Who owns the customer data? How many hours of our staff does implementation take? If leads are included, are they exclusive to our store, how is the territory drawn, and what happens when a lead is bad?

Our answers: month to month with no long term contract, your data is yours and exportable, CRM Only from $199 a month, and lead programs from $799 with the full CRM included. Leads in your zone are delivered to you and only you, and a replacement review handles a bad one. We cannot guarantee lead counts or results, because the outcome depends on your inventory, your market and your team. Book the demo to see it running beside your DMS.

Can LeadLocate replace CDK Global?

LeadLocate replaces the sales layer: leads, CRM, texting, calling, desking, credit applications and deal pages. The CDK dealer management system keeps accounting, parts, service and title work, and LeadLocate runs beside it.

Do we have to change our DMS to use LeadLocate?

No. No DMS integration or inventory feed is required to operate. SecureWebX can export an application in the format your DMS expects, and Inventory Link can import vehicles from your website when you want them in texts and deal pages.

Can we move off a CDK CRM and keep the CDK DMS?

Yes, that is the most common path. Export your CRM data, import contacts into LeadLocate, move your lead feeds and phone numbers, and run both for a few weeks on a defined slice of lead flow before the full cutover.

Can one rooftop in a group try it first?

Yes. One store can run LeadLocate on real lead flow while the rest of the group stays on its current tools, and month to month pricing means the pilot carries no group wide commitment.

Are the leads exclusive?

Yes. Every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you, prescreened at capture with the questions you choose, and backed by a replacement review. Every lead plan includes the full CRM.

What does LeadLocate cost?

CRM Only starts at $199 a month, and lead programs start at $799 a month with the full CRM included. Plans are month to month with no long term contract, and current figures are on the pricing page.

We will show you the CRM, the phone system, desking and SecureWebX running beside the DMS you already have, and map a lead zone around your store. Month to month, no long term contract.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.