For good or bad, most car buyers today refuse to take a car dealer at their word, especially when it comes to buying a used car. Vehicle history reports are virtually non-negotiable in today’s world of ultra-transparent deals. Which leaves dealers with a sticky question: Should they choose Carfax or Autocheck?

Carfax and Autocheck are two of the most popular vehicle history reports on the market. They have won over as many raving fans as naysayers. Is one really better than the other?

We’ll let you decide. Let’s look at the pros and cons of Carfax vs. Autocheck so you can choose which one is right for your dealership.

Carfax

Founded in 1984, Carfax is the original used vehicle history report. As the first tool on the market, they have a number of key advantages, such as…

Pro: Name Recognition

Carfax is by far the most well-known vehicle history tool by consumers. Most of us remember the Super Bowl commercial with the fox teaching us to say, “Show me the Carfax”.

In fact, when we look at Google Trends, we can see just how dominant Carfax is over Autocheck. This chart shows the relative number of Google searches for each term over the last year.

Clearly, this gives dealers an advantage when making a sale. They don’t need to explain Carfax. In fact, customers might ask for it outright. Which means the second advantage to Carfax is…

Pro: Higher Consumer Trust

Customers simply trust a Carfax report over basically anything else. Is Carfax actually more trustworthy? Not necessarily. In fact, many dealers think Autocheck is more accurate, but essentially they provide the same information.

Still, anything that makes a customer more comfortable with their purchase is a big plus.

Pro: Open Recall and Guaranteed Buyback

Carfax has a few features that Autocheck doesn’t, namely open recalls and a guaranteed buyback program. Open recall is a service for dealers to announce vehicle recalls. Tools like VinCue also offer this service, so not every dealer needs this functionality built into their vehicle history tool.

The Guaranteed Buyback program is Carfax’s return policy. If they made a mistake on a vehicle history report, they will buy your vehicle back from you. This adds another level of trust for consumers, but as you can imagine, proving a mistake is extremely difficult. Buybacks rarely happen, but it’s nice to know there’s the option.

Con: Expensive

Carfax is able to charge a premium thanks to their name recognition and consumer trust levels. Many dealers are willing to pay the price, which can be several times more expensive than Autocheck.

Carfax is fairly tight-lipped about their wholesale prices, but on the consumer side, they charge $39.99 for 1 report and $99.99 for 6 reports. Autocheck gives you 300 reports for $99.99.

This is certainly a disadvantage, but it doesn’t mean the price isn’t worth it for some dealers. Having Carfax on your lot can certainly make sales easier, but it’s probably not a definitive factor.

AutoCheck

AutoCheck might be less well known, but it doesn’t mean it’s not a great product. AutoCheck comes with a number of advantages, including…

Pro: Owned by Experian

AutoCheck is owned by Experian, the international credit report company. This is not a dinky, third-rate service. AutoCheck is backed by a world-class company with experience in this type of reporting.

Some of AutoCheck’s features are clearly inspired by their parent company. One of their unique features is…

Pro: AutoCheck Score

The patented AutoCheck Score is a number between 70 and 90 that gives you a quick idea of a vehicle’s history. An AutoCheck Score is affected by accidents, mileage, damage, and whether the vehicle was ever stolen, repossessed, or used as a police car or taxi.

The AutoCheck Score is like a credit score for cars. The higher the score, the better shape the vehicle is in. It also tells you how similar vehicles scored in comparison.

Along with providing top-of-the-line history reports, the AutoCheck Score is a pretty cool feature. The best part of AutoCheck is that you get all of this for an incredible price.

Pro: Low Cost

Like we mentioned above, AutoCheck can be several times cheaper than Carfax. Even at retail price, you can get 300 AutoCheck reports for the same price as 6 Carfax reports.

If you’re willing to forego the name recognition, choosing AutoCheck is a no-brainer from a price standpoint. But of course, name recognition cannot be fully discounted, which is leads us to our con for Autocheck.

Con: Lack of Name Recognition

Choosing AutoCheck over Carfax will not tank your sales. In fact, if you train your sales people correctly, it might have no effect at all. But AutoCheck is certainly a harder path to take. Your salespeople will have to educate customers on the value of AutoCheck.

The lack of name recognition also leads to lower brand trust. Again though, good sales people should be able to overcome this by educating customers.

In short, the lack of name recognition can be mitigated, but could become a burden without the proper sales training.

The Verdict: Carfax vs. AutoCheck

The jury is still out on the better vehicle history tool, and honestly, a decision might never be made. Which tool you use depends on the way you run your dealership.

First, let’s state the most important fact: When it comes to vehicle history reports, Carfax and AutoCheck are equals. They both do a really good job, which just a few features on either side to differentiate them. On quality, we’ll call this debate a wash.

Carfax wins handily in the court of public opinion. It has a massive lead in consumer recognition and brand trust. Carfax has done a much better job marketing, plus they have been around longer than AutoCheck. The advantage here is that salespeople don’t need to educate consumers on Carfax. They know what it is and trust it. It’s one less thing dealerships have to worry about.

However, all that name recognition comes at a price– a big one. Carfax is several times more expensive than Autocheck, and it’s debatable what value you’re really getting. Good salespeople can overcome objections about AutoCheck fairly easily. Plus, as an Experian company, they definitely carry some clout.

If you have the money to spend and want to give your salespeople the easiest path to a sale, then Carfax might be the tool for you. However, if you want to save big money and trust your salespeople to do a good job, then Autocheck is a no-brainer.

Both Carfax and AutoCheck sync up with your VinCue account, giving you vehicle history information right inside your appraisal tool. With that in mind, you really can’t go wrong choosing either report.

We all try to deliver the ultimate car buying experience to our customers. In a word-of-mouth industry like auto sales, these “magic” moments are as important as ever.

The problem is, customers are less impressed by our “tricks” than they used to be. Back in the day, a dealer could do a customer a favor by dropping the price or throwing in extra financing. Today, though, the best deal is simply expected. Customers have perfect insight into local market prices. They know if your offer is really a “deal” or not.

This new reality means dealers have to be more precise when it comes to controlling costs. We have less wiggle room on margins. Dealers have to be on-point with every vehicle they buy and sell, which means we need better data to make decisions.

There are many tools on the market that help dealers make better decisions. Two of the most popular tools are Laser Appraiser and VinCue. Let’s look at each tool to see what they offer to dealers.

What is Laser Appraiser?

Laser Appraiser is a pricing and appraisal app became popular for their mobile VIN scanner. The VIN scanner made it really simple to get price guide valuations for any vehicle. Laser Appraiser has since built out their service offerings.

How it works:

1. The app lets you scan the VIN barcode usually located on the driver’s door.
2. When the VIN is detected, the app will display detailed information about the make, model and trim-level of the vehicle, as well as a options to adjust, like mileage.
3. When the variables are dialed in, the app will display price information from industry sources like KBB, Cars.com, Black Book, and more.

The Laser Appraiser mobile app is designed to give you key information on the go. You can make quicker, more accurate appraisals and win better deals for your dealership.

The desktop version, Dealer Studio, adds more features for dealers, including real-time market reports.

What is VinCue?

VinCue is a pricing and appraisal tool for new and used cars markets. VinCue helps you develop an inventory and pricing strategy based on hyper-local market data and trim-level insights. See what competitors are stocking, how they’re pricing, and how fast customers are buying.

Like Laser Appraiser, VinCue comes with a VIN scanner. However, VinCue’s mobile app does much more. You have access to all of VinCue’s market and appraisal data wherever you go. The VinCue mobile app is great to have at auctions or out on the lot.

The DealerCue Suite

DealerCue offers a few multiple tools that integrate seamlessly with VinCue. All of these tools actually live inside VinCue, so it’s hard to tell where one tool ends and the other begins.

• RevCue – Inventory management and websites
• BidCue – Intelligent auction sourcing
• AdCue – Online Ad management

These tools expand VinCue’s capabilities to cover the most important aspects of dealership management.

Laser Appraiser vs. VinCue

In general, Laser Appraiser is a “lite” version pricing and appraisal tool. While cheaper than VinCue, dealers get limited insight and functionality with Laser Appraiser, plus quite a bit of stock data you can find elsewhere.

Let’s look at key features of each tool more closely and see how they compare.

Also see VinCue comparisons with vAuto and Autoniq

Real-Time Market Data

Laser Appraiser only shows you market reports on its desktop client, Dealer Studio.

Dealer Studio works in alongside with the mobile app and offers extended features:

• In-depth valuation tools
• Market reports
• Auction sources and run lists
• Integration for inventory management solutions.

When you scan a vehicle with the app, Dealer Studio can plot its price on a chart with the prices of other similar vehicles. It’s very useful when adjusting the prices taken from your favourite industry guide.

The market shortage report will show you how the sales performance of different vehicles. You can identify quick sellers and fill your inventory with vehicles in high demand.

A big drawback to Laser Appraiser is you can’t use these extended features on your mobile phone or tablet, making them useless if you’re in the field.

Real-time market data is where VinCue really delivers

VinCue offers a ton of information about local, regional, and national car markets. You can find virtually any data and examine it from any angle:

• Market day’s supply
• Average days on market
• Brand days on market
• Market share and national sales
• Shortage reports
• Number of competing vehicles in your local area
• Individual prices listed by your competitors
• Average time on the lot

The best part is that VinCue market data is available on all devices. Regardless if you’re on mobile or desktop, you get access to all of the tools and information that’s available. A knowledgeable manager can use this data to sculpt a winning strategy for their dealership:  what cars to stock, how to appraise, what prices to list.

Appraisals

With VinCue, appraisals are computed using real-time market data.

The tool will intelligently compare all similar vehicles and calculate a true market value. You can input mileage, reconditioning costs and desired profit margin and VinCue will give you a wholesale appraised value.

With Laser Appraiser, the mobile VIN scanner will give you appraisal data from the price books like KBB and NADA. The in-depth valuation tools are only available only on the desktop version, Dealer Studio. Dealer Studio collects market data and compiles a few useful reports. However, you still don’t get the same level of detail provided by VinCue.

Vehicle Sourcing

Laser Appraiser displays auction information from Manheim, Adesa, and Auction Edge. The vehicle shortage report will help you stock up the right vehicles, but you cannot actually place bids inside Laser Appraiser.

DealerCue auction tool, BidCue, offers vehicle sourcing and bidding in the largest auctions in the country. BidCue actually lives inside the VinCue app and lets you use VinCue data to make better sourcing decision based on real-time market pricing.

Additionally BidCue offers multiple reports:

• Local supply and demand
• Competing dealerships
• Average days to turn
• Price history
• Sales volume of particular vehicles

You can buy vehicles directly in the BidCue app, making the sourcing process even easier.

Inventory management

Laser Appraiser offers integration with 3rd party inventory management solutions like Dealertrack and First Look. This means you will need an account with one of these tools to manage your inventory.

DealerCue has RevCue, a website and inventory management tool that lives inside VinCue. It tracks and reports on your dealerships activities:

• Sales
• Turn rates
• Pricing age
• Inventory age

RevCue also grades your sales and inventory performance. For example, it will tell you how you stack up to local competition on sales of SUVs. You can set up RevCue to receive alerts when vehicles have stale pricing, or if a car has been sitting on your lot for too long. RevCue ensures your website is always updated and manages your listings simultaneously.

Bottom line

It’s hard to compare Laser Appraiser and VinCue. In many ways, they are on two different levels. Laser Appraiser does well for the price, but many dealers find that it isn’t enough. From mobile capabilities to detailed market data, VinCue is a notch above in almost every aspect.

The most exciting thing about DealerCue is the regular addition of new tools. AdCue, the newest tool in the fleet, is a game changer for automotive marketing and integrates seamlessly with VinCue. This is another point for VinCue, especially for dealers who run ads. 
You now have the details on VinCue vs. Laser Appraiser, but don’t take our word for it. Schedule a demo of VinCue and see for yourself.