Pinewood Alternative for Car Dealerships

Whichever dealer management system runs your books, put the sales floor on one platform for leads, texting, calling, desking and credit applications.

A dealer who searches for a Pinewood alternative is usually asking one of two things. The first is a back office question: which cloud dealer management system should run accounting, parts, service and vehicle stock for the next decade? The second is a sales floor question: what should the store use to generate leads, answer them fast and turn them into appointments and deals, no matter which DMS sits behind it?

Those are different decisions with different timelines. A DMS decision involves the controller, the service director, the parts manager, data conversion and a cutover weekend. A sales floor decision can be made this month and proven on one rooftop in a few weeks. Stores get into trouble when they tie the two together, because the sales floor then waits on a conversion schedule it does not control while leads keep arriving every day.

This page is about the second question. LeadLocate runs beside whatever dealer management system you choose, Pinewood included, and it starts working the day you turn it on. That lets a store move its front office forward now and make the back office decision on its own merits.

Pinewood is publicly positioned as a cloud based dealer management system. It is best known in the UK, where franchise groups have used it for accounting, vehicle stock, parts, service workshop management and manufacturer communication, and it has been working to bring that platform to dealers in North America. Its appeal is a single cloud system for the back office that a group can roll out across many sites.

Packaging, modules, regional availability and pricing change over time and can differ by market. Confirm current pricing, terms and US availability with the vendor directly, in writing, and ask which sales floor tools are included and which are priced separately.

The comparison that matters is about purpose. A dealer management system is built to keep the books and departments in order. LeadLocate is built by LeadLocate for the front of the store: finding shoppers in your market, answering them in seconds, following up without anyone having to remember, and putting the desk and the credit application on the same screen as the conversation.

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.

Accounting, deal posting, parts, repair orders, workshop scheduling, title work and manufacturer reporting stay in the dealer management system you run. LeadLocate sits beside it and beside the manufacturer programs your store already uses, and it takes over everything that happens between the first contact with a shopper and the moment a finished deal goes to the business office.

That independence is the point. Neither a DMS connection nor an inventory feed is required to operate LeadLocate. If your store has an inventory feed, Inventory Link ingests it; if not, Inventory Link imports inventory from your website. Your units show up in the CRM, in the phone app and behind the vehicle button in every text and email composer. A store in the middle of a DMS evaluation can therefore run LeadLocate before, during and after the conversion without changing a single step on the sales floor.

When a deal is ready, SecureWebX exports the credit application to your lender or DMS in the format it expects: STAR XML, fixed width, CSV or JSON, delivered over SFTP, a REST API, encrypted email or a secure portal. The business office receives a complete file, whichever system it runs.

Leads and CRM from one vendor. In Leads Manager you draw your zone with the zone editor, review zip stats, choose the campaign type and the prescreening questions you want answered, and preview sample ads with See Samples. Our team builds and runs the campaigns from those selections on the webXintel Ads Network, included with every plan. Every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you, prescreened at capture, and backed by a replacement review, so a bad lead costs you nothing.

Conversations your customers actually answer. Two way texting with MMS and delivery status on every message, RCS with automatic SMS fallback, a browser softphone with click to call, call recording and transcription, voicemail drop, bulk texting and bulk email all sit on one communications timeline on the lead. Trackable short links show when a customer opened the link you sent, and scheduled sends let a rep write tomorrow's follow up tonight.

Automation that never forgets. Automated Templates answer every new lead the moment it arrives, Follow Up Processes carry each lead type through a multi step cadence, and Texting Chatbots reply after hours. Intake Process Automation replaces the third-party automation tools many stores pay for separately. The AI writing assistant drafts messages, and Jax, the bilingual AI assistant inside the CRM, answers a rep in English or Spanish.

Features and regional availability change on every platform, so confirm each row marked for the vendor directly before you decide. The LeadLocate column is what your store runs from its first day.

US car retail has its own math, and LeadLocate is built around it. EZ Desking opens from the lead and builds cash, finance and lease structures in a multi pencil grid with goal seek bays. The fifty state tax matrix applies the right tax for the customer's state, the engine handles three lease tax methods and trade credit caps, and a semimonthly payment frequency is there for the customers who ask for it. The Incentives Showroom inside the deal view shows the manufacturer incentives that apply to the unit on the desk.

The salesperson then sends a DealTracker deal page branded to the store. The customer opens it with a PIN, reviews the numbers, chats with the salesperson and signs. Digital retail on the deal page lets the customer walk through the build, document review and deal review before they ever arrive.

For financing, the rep texts a SecureWebX apply link. The five step application works on any phone, supports a co-applicant and ITIN as well as SSN, and captures versioned consent. The store works stipulations, generates adverse action notices from the application record, and can share the file with a lender of its choice through the Send to Lender secure share. Every step is protected by two factor sign in, encryption at rest and a full audit log.

Stores that handle both decisions well tend to follow the same order.

1. Move the sales floor first. Point every lead source at LeadLocate through Lead Feeds Manager and your form intake link, import contacts, merge duplicates, and set routing, templates and follow up processes. The floor is on the new platform within days.
2. Run the DMS evaluation on its own clock. Use a DMS vendor scorecard so accounting, parts and service score each candidate on what they need.
3. Plan the conversion. Data mapping, a parallel run and a cutover weekend happen in the back office while the sales floor keeps selling on LeadLocate.
4. Connect the handoff. SecureWebX export templates are set to the format the new DMS expects.

The DMS conversion timeline covers the back office side in detail.

Pick one rooftop and run it on LeadLocate for three to four weeks with a defined slice of lead flow. Compare time to first response, follow up touches and appointments set against the same weeks on your current process. The activity, company and management reports on the dock show it without a spreadsheet.

CRM Only starts at $199 a month for stores that keep their own lead sources, and plans with exclusive local leads start at $799. Every plan with leads includes the CRM, because the CRM is what receives and works those leads, and every plan is month to month. The details are on the pricing page.

We cannot guarantee lead counts, close rates or results, and no vendor can. Watch the demo, or contact us and call 844-376-2274 to map a zone around your store.

Does LeadLocate replace Pinewood?

LeadLocate runs the sales floor: leads, texting, calling, follow up, desking, deal pages and credit applications. Accounting, parts and workshop stay in Pinewood or whichever dealer management system you run, with LeadLocate beside it.

Can we start LeadLocate before we finish a DMS evaluation?

Yes. Neither a DMS connection nor an inventory feed is required to operate, so the sales floor can move now and stay on LeadLocate through any conversion.

How do credit applications reach the business office?

SecureWebX exports the application in the format your lender or DMS expects, including STAR XML, fixed width, CSV or JSON, over SFTP, a REST API, encrypted email or a secure portal.

Are LeadLocate leads shared with other dealers?

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, so a bad lead costs you nothing.

Is LeadLocate available outside the United States?

LeadLocate is built for US dealerships, from the fifty state tax matrix in desking to the campaigns our team runs in your zone.

What does LeadLocate cost?

CRM Only starts at $199 a month. Inbound buyer leads start at $799, Marketplace Acquisitions seller leads at $999, and the Buyers and Sellers Hybrid Plan at $1,599. Every plan is month to month.

See exclusive local leads, texting, calling with transcription, desking and credit applications on one screen, live on your store within days. Month to month, so we earn your business every month.

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