Reynolds and Reynolds announced the launch of its latest suite of tools to empower dealerships’ decision-making at NADA February 2-4.

Designed to sell used vehicles more efficiently and profitably, AutoVision revolutionizes how dealerships handle used vehicles from beginning to end. Reynolds has built this cutting-edge technology into its Retail Management System.

“For years, dealers have been telling us there has to be a better way to manage used vehicles, from acquisition to reconditioning to merchandising and sale. They face major struggles like refining accurate competitive vehicle sets and gaining visibility into recon pricing, and there hasn’t been an effective way to overcome them,” said Chris Walsh, President of Reynolds. “We couldn’t be more excited to bring AutoVision to retailers to help solve these issues they have been forced to accept for far too long.”

Precise appraisals

Retailers will be able to achieve precise appraisals with AutoVision’s customizable adaptive market pricing algorithms. These algorithms use sophisticated language processing and source data directly from dealer websites in real-time to help ensure competitive vehicle sets are accurate.

“Ghost vehicles have been a real problem for a long time. These are vehicles that are pulling into a comp set but have already been sold. They end up in the comp set because of the delay between a sale at the dealership and the listing on third-party sites. They can often throw off your appraisal by a significant amount depending on how they were priced,” said AJ McGowan, President of AutoVision. “Having real-time, customizable data gives dealers a clear view into their market to help ensure they don’t leave anything on the table.”

Three uncertainties

Historically, a lack of bidirectional visibility into reconditioning has resulted in three uncertainties:

1. How much is recon going to cost?
2. How long will it take to get the vehicle through recon?
3. How much was allocated for reconditioning in the appraisal?

With AutoVision and ReconTRAC working together, these questions are answered. The ability to make decisions based on that information speeds up approvals and protects margin by avoiding wasteful spending.

In addition, the entire process becomes more efficient by eliminating the need to rekey information. Automated functions, like immediately opening a reconditioning repair order, help the recon process run more smoothly. This greatly enhances communication between fixed and variable operations.

“Dealers have never had this much access to, or control over, pertinent data to base their decisions on,” concluded Walsh. “AutoVision is a game changer, and we are excited to show it off.”