New diagnostic tool aims to leapfrog the competition.

ALLDATA introduced a new diagnostic tool—ALLDATA Diagnostics—at this year’s AAPEX show. Although it was officially launched last year, it’s now live and comes with a number of exciting features. “We think we have a disruptor in the market,” Robert McBride, VP of Product Strategy, ALLDATA told CarCare Business magazine.

One of the major differentiators, according to the company, is that ALLDATA connects codes from the vehicle to unedited repair information from the OE. “We’ve had almost every major manufacturer come to us at one time or another and say, ‘We’d love to put your data into our tool.’ But we said, ‘Let’s put it in our tool first.’ So that’s what we have today. You can scan a vehicle, get a code, click on it, and get an article that comes from the OE,” McBride says.

Another major differentiator is the business model ALLDATA has chosen. “While a lot of companies ask for money upfront, we don’t. The other companies want you to buy their device, and then pay for updates,” McBride explains. “Instead, we have decided on a subscription model, where our clients pay a monthly fee, which includes the device—refreshed every three years—along with access to the repair information and updates.”

McBride says ALLDATA publishes OE data daily, and updates the diagnostic tool on a quarterly basis. “And all that is included in the subscription.”