Vehicle Finder: Locate the Unit a Shopper Wants

A shopper types what they mean, the finder searches your decoded inventory and locates the unit, and the request lands in front of a salesperson who can answer with the exact car.

The vehicle finder lets a shopper describe the unit they want in plain words and locates it in your inventory, then hands the request to your sales team with that vehicle attached. Inside Inventory Link it is called Locate, and it is the search box shoppers actually use: the one where they type what they mean instead of working through five dropdowns that were designed for a database rather than a person.

It works because of what sits behind it. Every vehicle in Inventory Link has been through VIN decode and the vehicle database, so the finder is searching real trims, real drivetrains, real equipment and real colors rather than whatever three words landed in the feed's description field. Vehicle text parsing does the same job for units that arrived as a description instead of a clean record. A lookup index built from that decoded inventory is rebuilt on a schedule, so the finder is searching what is on the lot now, not what was there when someone last exported a file.

The result is a dealership car finder that behaves like a good salesperson on the phone. The shopper says what they are after, the finder answers with the unit, and the conversation starts with the right car on the table.

A shopper lands on your dealer page at nine at night, after the kids are down, looking for a certified crossover with a third row and a tow package in something other than black. She has no interest in a filter panel. She types roughly that into the finder, and it locates the two units on your lot that match. She taps the silver one, the request sheet rises from the bottom of her phone screen, and she asks whether it is still there and what the payment might look like. That request lands in the dealer portal under Requests and in the CRM with the silver crossover attached.

The next morning the salesperson who picks it up does not have to ask what she was looking at. He opens the lead, sees the vehicle, checks In Store Now to confirm it is physically on the lot, and texts her back with the vehicle card, photo and price included, plus two times she could see it. She picks one. The whole exchange took the shopper thirty seconds at night and the salesperson two minutes in the morning, and both of them spent that time on the actual car.

The finder also earns its keep when the answer is no. A shopper describes a unit you do not have, and the request still lands with what they described, which is exactly the information a salesperson needs to say what you can get, or to note the want so the next trade that matches gets a call. Every request is a shopper who told you what they want. The what to expect from car sales leads page explains why that is worth more than it first looks.

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The finder is a shopper facing feature, so it lives where shoppers are: on the dealer page and the inventory websites the portal's Builder publishes. A shopper searches, browses and asks for a unit without leaving the page. Your own dealership website gets the same inventory through the embeddable inventory widget, so the units the finder locates are the same ones the widget displays, from the same inventory store.

On the dealer side, everything the finder produces arrives in two places. The dealer portal holds the request under Requests and in the inbox, and the LeadLocate CRM receives the lead with the vehicle attached. The portal opens from the My Inventory button in the CRM dock with single sign on, and the Inventory item in the main menu shows the list the finder searched. In every text and email composer, the vehicle insert button drops the located unit into the reply as a formatted card.

On the phone, the LeadLocate app carries the inventory list with a detail sheet and an inventory picker, so a salesperson answering a finder request from the lot sees the unit the shopper found. The dealer portal is also in the app stores under the listing name MyInventory.Link for managers who add and edit vehicles from a phone.

Most dealer websites ship with a filter grid: make, model, year range, price range, body style, then a results page. It is fine for a shopper who already knows your inventory and terrible for the one who knows what they want in their own words. Stores that want a smarter search box on the website usually pay a web vendor or a plugin company for it, and it searches whatever text the feed carried, which is often a stock number and a color.

The finder searches decoded inventory, and it comes with the platform rather than as a line item. The trim, the drivetrain and the equipment it matches on come from VIN decode and the vehicle database, which is why a shopper can ask for a third row or a tow package and get the right answer. The related question of how shoppers actually search a dealer site, and which design mistakes lose them, is on our inventory search page; this page is the product itself.

The cost is the plan you are already on. The finder is part of the platform subscription, month to month, and the pricing page lists what each plan includes.

A search tool is only as honest as the records behind it. When a finder matches on a hand typed description, a vehicle can show up in a search for equipment it does not have, and a shopper who drives across town to see a package that is not on the truck has a fair complaint. Because the finder searches decoded records, the equipment it matches on is the equipment the VIN says the unit carries, and the fuel economy and safety figures on the listing come from the government data in the vehicle database.

The request side is clean as well. Every finder request is a shopper who chose a vehicle, typed their own contact details and asked to hear from you. That is inbound, opt-in contact, and the CRM logs the conversation from the first reply so there is a record of what was asked and what was answered. If the shopper's budget and the vehicle's price are far apart, that is still a real lead; explain consumer behaviour rather than apologise for it, and let the salesperson do what salespeople do.

The finder searches your inventory, so the inventory comes first. Connect a feed under Feeds in the dealer portal, or point the importer at your dealership website and Inventory Link imports the vehicles from it. A broker with no lot switches on auto broker inventory mode. An inventory feed and DMS access are not required in any of these cases.

Once vehicles are in the portal, the finder is live on the dealer page and on any inventory site you publish from Builder. The lookup index rebuilds on a schedule, so newly added units become searchable without anyone doing anything. If you want the finder presented somewhere the standard placements do not cover, or wired to a search box your web vendor already built, that is available on request, our team puts it in production for your dealership.

To see it before you commit, the pre-recorded live demo shows a shopper describing a unit and the request landing in the CRM, and the contact page reaches a person who will run your own inventory through it.

The finder locates the car; the rest of the platform closes the loop. Pair it with Schedule a Visit requests, so the shopper who found the unit can pick a time to see it, and with In Store Now, so the salesperson confirms the unit is physically on the lot before promising it. Pair it with the vehicle insert button in the CRM composers, because the reply to a finder request should carry the vehicle back to the shopper as a card with a photo and a price, not as a stock number typed from memory.

Stores that run offers pair the finder with brand offer pages and the OEM incentives engine, so the unit a shopper located also shows what the manufacturer is offering on it. And every store pairs it with the shared team calendar in the CRM, so the Saturday appointment that came out of a Tuesday night search is on the board where the whole floor can see it.

The full list of what surrounds the finder is on the all features page. Search that understands what a shopper means is a small thing to describe and a large thing to have.

Plainly: the finder is additive. It reads from your inventory; your inventory does not depend on it. If our side is unreachable for an hour, your dealership website still shows your cars through your web vendor's own pages, your feed keeps flowing to everyone else who consumes it, and your phones still ring. Requests the finder already delivered are in the CRM for your team to work, and vehicle cards already sent are in your customers' hands.

When service returns, the lookup index rebuilds on its next scheduled pass and picks up whatever changed in between. Nothing about how your store sells a car has been moved onto our servers as a single point of failure.

Can a shopper search the finder by VIN or stock number?

A shopper describes the unit in plain language, and the finder matches against decoded inventory records that carry the VIN, the trim, the equipment and the stock number, including any stock number override you applied. Searching by a license plate is available on request, our team puts it in production for your dealership.

What happens when a shopper asks for a vehicle that is not on my lot?

The request still lands in the dealer portal and the CRM with what the shopper described. That is a lead with the want already written down, which is exactly what a salesperson needs to say what you can get or to call when the next matching trade arrives.

Does the finder need a feed?

No. It searches whatever is in Inventory Link, which can come from a feed, from an import of your own dealership website, from vehicles added by hand in the portal, or from auto broker inventory mode. An inventory feed and DMS access are not required.

How current is the inventory the finder searches?

The finder searches a lookup index built from your decoded inventory and rebuilt on a schedule, so newly added units become searchable and sold units drop out without anyone re-uploading anything.

Where does a finder request show up for my team?

In the dealer portal under Requests and in the inbox, and in the LeadLocate CRM as a lead with the vehicle attached. Salespeople on the phone app see the same unit in the inventory list and can reply with its vehicle card by text.

Is the vehicle finder an extra charge?

No. It is part of the LeadLocate platform subscription, month to month. The pricing page lists the current plans.

Give us your website address or a feed and we will show the finder locating your real units and the request landing in the CRM, before you decide anything. Month to month, no long term contract.

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