You have a lot of control on how much traffic your inventory gets online and not much control of your physical lot and here is why. The only way to control how much traffic you get on your physical lot is to have a police officer in the street in front of your store directing traffic onto your lot. That’s the only way to guarantee more traffic onto your lot. But online it’s a different story, it is almost all up to you!

Online there are 3 major metrics that you can control and track to gauge your inventory internet traffic and those are SRPs (search result pages), VDPs (vehicle detail page views) and VDP% (the conversion percentage between SRPs and VDPs). And online, you have control of how many SRP’s, VDP’s and how good your VDP% is based on how you control your inventory. There are 5 major components that effect SRP’s, and you have control over all of them but 1, and there are 3 major components that drive VDPs you have control of all 3. Let’s imagine that a SRP is the equivalent of a customer pulling in on your lot and driving up and down the lanes looking at what cars you have for sale and that a VDP is the equivalent of them stopping their car, getting out and asking you for the keys to take a closer look of the vehicle. So you really cannot sell any car off your lot without the customer asking for the keys to take a look at it, but you cannot get that customer to ask for the key for your car if he is not even on your lot in the first place. So SRPs drive VDPs and VDPs drive sales.

Here are the 5 components that effect your SRPs

1. More or less traffic online (this is the one you cannot control, if there are less shoppers online that can equal less SRPs for your inventory, and you cannot control that, but you can still drive up SRPs with less shoppers the better you get with #3)
2. Inventory count. If you go from 100 cars to 50 cars, you should expect less SRPs (unless you do better with #3)
3. Inventory mix. The better your inventory is matching what customers are looking for the more SRPs you can get. If you replace vehicles that are not being shopped for with vehicles that are more popular you should get more SRPs and vice versa
4. How fast you can get the car listed online. If 20% of your inventory is not online because they have not been through the shop and photo/described/priced it is costing you SRPs. If you reduce that to 0% you will get more SRPs because you have more cars online
5. Budget and package options. If you invest more in different packages offered by sites like Autotrader and cars.com the more SRPs you should get. If you go from a top package from one of these providers to a base package you will get less SRPs

Some would argue that you can drive SRPs with Photos, Price and or Descriptions but these do not guarantee more SRPs because you have seen vehicles with no photos and no descriptions still show up in a search because the default searches on these sites are set to show all vehicle. Yes, if someone narrows their search down to a photos only search and you do not have photos it will cost you a SRP but it is still not a guarantee that they will search that way and that’s the same with descriptions and price. I can even argue that price can drive SRPs if you Flat Price a vehicle (talked about in previous articles) but it still doesn’t guarantee the results if customer don’t search by price band. Watch out for your numbers leading you wrong. Just because you are seeing an increase in SRPs and VDPs doesn’t mean you are doing a better job, it could just mean there are more active shoppers in your market, so you need to be trending that activity out if you want to see what kind job you are really doing. But if you are seeing a drop in your SRPs and you have not changed your packaging then the first place to look is inventory count, then see if there were less shoppers in your market (both Autotrader and cars.com backend show you active shopper count) and then check to see if you have all your cars online or are they held up in service or by your photo person. I would trend these all out because a drop in SRPs could be caused by a “drop of the ball” in one of these processes.

Here are the 3 components that effect VDPs

1. Photos. If you do not have photos of your vehicles or if your thumbnail photo is horrible, then you will not get the click or VDP
2. Price. If you are priced to high or no price at all you will greatly reduce the VDP, the better you are at pricing the more VDPs you should get
3. Descriptions. The better you are at selling that car in the first few sentences the more VDPs you should get. (This does not guarantee more VDPs on a site like cars.com because they do not display the comments on the listing (SRP) page but it does help increase sales once the customer gets onto the VDP page).

The better you get with photos, price and descriptions the more VDPs you get on your vehicles and that drives your VDP%. If you are seeing that you have a drop in your VDPs, the first place to look is to see if your VDP% has decreased, if that’s the case it has to do with price, photos and descriptions. If you VDP% didn’t drop off then you need to see if you had less SRPs and if you did then you need to see what you can do to any of the 4 SRP factors (that you control) that you can change to get the SRPs back in line or to increase.

All these things play a factor in how successful you will be with your inventory online, and like I said at the beginning, you almost have total control and that’s the fun but yet challenging part. So I say, trend, trend, trend and if you can catch one of those issues sooner than later then you will continue to increase your online traffic (SRPs) which will increase your clicks (VDPs) which will increase your sales. 

You have a lot of control on how much traffic your inventory gets online and not much control of your physical lot and here is why. The only way to control how much traffic you get on your physical lot is to have a police officer in the street in front of your store directing traffic onto your lot. That’s the only way to guarantee more traffic onto your lot. But online it’s a different story, it is almost all up to you!

Online there are 3 major metrics that you can control and track to gauge your inventory internet traffic and those are SRPs (search result pages), VDPs (vehicle detail page views) and VDP% (the conversion percentage between SRPs and VDPs). And online, you have control of how many SRP’s, VDP’s and how good your VDP% is based on how you control your inventory. There are 5 major components that effect SRP’s, and you have control over all of them but 1, and there are 3 major components that drive VDPs you have control of all 3. Let’s imagine that a SRP is the equivalent of a customer pulling in on your lot and driving up and down the lanes looking at what cars you have for sale and that a VDP is the equivalent of them stopping their car, getting out and asking you for the keys to take a closer look of the vehicle. So you really cannot sell any car off your lot without the customer asking for the keys to take a look at it, but you cannot get that customer to ask for the key for your car if he is not even on your lot in the first place. So SRPs drive VDPs and VDPs drive sales.

Here are the 5 components that effect your SRPs

1. More or less traffic online (this is the one you cannot control, if there are less shoppers online that can equal less SRPs for your inventory, and you cannot control that, but you can still drive up SRPs with less shoppers the better you get with #3)
2. Inventory count. If you go from 100 cars to 50 cars, you should expect less SRPs (unless you do better with #3)
3. Inventory mix. The better your inventory is matching what customers are looking for the more SRPs you can get. If you replace vehicles that are not being shopped for with vehicles that are more popular you should get more SRPs and vice versa
4. How fast you can get the car listed online. If 20% of your inventory is not online because they have not been through the shop and photo/described/priced it is costing you SRPs. If you reduce that to 0% you will get more SRPs because you have more cars online
5. Budget and package options. If you invest more in different packages offered by sites like Autotrader and cars.com the more SRPs you should get. If you go from a top package from one of these providers to a base package you will get less SRPs

Some would argue that you can drive SRPs with Photos, Price and or Descriptions but these do not guarantee more SRPs because you have seen vehicles with no photos and no descriptions still show up in a search because the default searches on these sites are set to show all vehicle. Yes, if someone narrows their search down to a photos only search and you do not have photos it will cost you a SRP but it is still not a guarantee that they will search that way and that’s the same with descriptions and price. I can even argue that price can drive SRPs if you Flat Price a vehicle (talked about in previous articles) but it still doesn’t guarantee the results if customer don’t search by price band. Watch out for your numbers leading you wrong. Just because you are seeing an increase in SRPs and VDPs doesn’t mean you are doing a better job, it could just mean there are more active shoppers in your market, so you need to be trending that activity out if you want to see what kind job you are really doing. But if you are seeing a drop in your SRPs and you have not changed your packaging then the first place to look is inventory count, then see if there were less shoppers in your market (both Autotrader and cars.com backend show you active shopper count) and then check to see if you have all your cars online or are they held up in service or by your photo person. I would trend these all out because a drop in SRPs could be caused by a “drop of the ball” in one of these processes.

Here are the 3 components that effect VDPs

1. Photos. If you do not have photos of your vehicles or if your thumbnail photo is horrible, then you will not get the click or VDP
2. Price. If you are priced to high or no price at all you will greatly reduce the VDP, the better you are at pricing the more VDPs you should get
3. Descriptions. The better you are at selling that car in the first few sentences the more VDPs you should get. (This does not guarantee more VDPs on a site like cars.com because they do not display the comments on the listing (SRP) page but it does help increase sales once the customer gets onto the VDP page).

The better you get with photos, price and descriptions the more VDPs you get on your vehicles and that drives your VDP%. If you are seeing that you have a drop in your VDPs, the first place to look is to see if your VDP% has decreased, if that’s the case it has to do with price, photos and descriptions. If you VDP% didn’t drop off then you need to see if you had less SRPs and if you did then you need to see what you can do to any of the 4 SRP factors (that you control) that you can change to get the SRPs back in line or to increase.

All these things play a factor in how successful you will be with your inventory online, and like I said at the beginning, you almost have total control and that’s the fun but yet challenging part. So I say, trend, trend, trend and if you can catch one of those issues sooner than later then you will continue to increase your online traffic (SRPs) which will increase your clicks (VDPs) which will increase your sales. 

Here is a way the dealer body can effect and manipulate the default listing order of high to low by price on sites like Autotrader and Cars.com. As you probably know, Autotrader and Cars.com default listing of vehicles in a search result page are sorted by highest price to lowest price (other than the packages that Autotrader offer like premium listings). I have been told by their reps that one of the reasons they do this is if they were to list the vehicles low to high based on price then consumers wouldn't have any reason to look past the first couple of pages. That makes sense for their marketing purposes but I believe dealers and consumers would benefit if they were listed a better way.
One of the ways I believe the default order should be is by listing them nearest to the zip that the customer puts in. Both the consumer and the dealers would benefit by this order and I believe these site would get more buy in from the dealerships and here is why. If I am a dealer and I know that if a customer does a search in my direct market and my cars would show up before competitors in other markets, I would believe these sites would benefit me more. And from a consumer perspective, I would love to be able to see local offers on vehicles before I have to travel too far to get a good deal on a car I am shopping for I would more than likely give them a chance. Another way a default sort order would benefit the dealers and consumer would be by odometer. If the dealer, or consumer is comparing similar vehicles that have the same equipment or options then the mileage of the vehicles will be the next driving factor on which on is a better deal. If I am a dealer with nice low mileage vehicles I would want the consumer to see my vehicles first, or if I am a consumer looking at vehicles that are in the same price point or make/model search, then mileage would be the next thing to consider.

The dealer body (the reason I am saying dealer body, is that the fact that the more dealers that do this strategy the better it will work) can manipulate the high to low price default by pricing their vehicles at a Flat Price. And what I mean by Flat Price, is to price their vehicles at a flat number like $18,000 instead of $17,998 and here is why:

1. Autotraders next default, if the price is the same, is by putting the vehicles in order by the dealership closest to the zip code that the customer put in. So for example, if there are 10 cars on a SRP page that have the same price of $18,000 then Autotrader can’t put them in price order so the next default setting is to put them in order by the dealership closest to the zip. Click HERE to see it in action, notice all the $18000 vehicles then notice the miles from zip order.
2. Cars.com’s next default, if the price is the same, is by putting the vehicles in order by the vehicle that has the lowest miles. So for example if there are 20 cars all price at $20,000 cars.com can’t put them in order by price so the next default setting is to put them in order by the cars that have the lowest mileage first. Click HERE to see it in action, notice the mileage of all the vehicles priced at $20,000.

The more dealers that price their cars at a flat number like, $10,000, $15,000 and so on the more the dealer body can manipulate how these sites put in order to cars listed for sale. These two ways of listing vehicles, 1. By closest to the zip and/or 2. By lowest mileage are the 2 best ways that the customer and dealership benefit from because it’s a win win for the dealers and the consumers.

There are tons of other reasons why you want to Flat Price a vehicle. I would never price a vehicle at $19995 again. 

Here is a way the dealer body can effect and manipulate the default listing order of high to low by price on sites like Autotrader and Cars.com. As you probably know, Autotrader and Cars.com default listing of vehicles in a search result page are sorted by highest price to lowest price (other than the packages that Autotrader offer like premium listings). I have been told by their reps that one of the reasons they do this is if they were to list the vehicles low to high based on price then consumers wouldn't have any reason to look past the first couple of pages. That makes sense for their marketing purposes but I believe dealers and consumers would benefit if they were listed a better way.
One of the ways I believe the default order should be is by listing them nearest to the zip that the customer puts in. Both the consumer and the dealers would benefit by this order and I believe these site would get more buy in from the dealerships and here is why. If I am a dealer and I know that if a customer does a search in my direct market and my cars would show up before competitors in other markets, I would believe these sites would benefit me more. And from a consumer perspective, I would love to be able to see local offers on vehicles before I have to travel too far to get a good deal on a car I am shopping for I would more than likely give them a chance. Another way a default sort order would benefit the dealers and consumer would be by odometer. If the dealer, or consumer is comparing similar vehicles that have the same equipment or options then the mileage of the vehicles will be the next driving factor on which on is a better deal. If I am a dealer with nice low mileage vehicles I would want the consumer to see my vehicles first, or if I am a consumer looking at vehicles that are in the same price point or make/model search, then mileage would be the next thing to consider.

The dealer body (the reason I am saying dealer body, is that the fact that the more dealers that do this strategy the better it will work) can manipulate the high to low price default by pricing their vehicles at a Flat Price. And what I mean by Flat Price, is to price their vehicles at a flat number like $18,000 instead of $17,998 and here is why:

1. Autotraders next default, if the price is the same, is by putting the vehicles in order by the dealership closest to the zip code that the customer put in. So for example, if there are 10 cars on a SRP page that have the same price of $18,000 then Autotrader can’t put them in price order so the next default setting is to put them in order by the dealership closest to the zip. Click HERE to see it in action, notice all the $18000 vehicles then notice the miles from zip order.
2. Cars.com’s next default, if the price is the same, is by putting the vehicles in order by the vehicle that has the lowest miles. So for example if there are 20 cars all price at $20,000 cars.com can’t put them in order by price so the next default setting is to put them in order by the cars that have the lowest mileage first. Click HERE to see it in action, notice the mileage of all the vehicles priced at $20,000.

The more dealers that price their cars at a flat number like, $10,000, $15,000 and so on the more the dealer body can manipulate how these sites put in order to cars listed for sale. These two ways of listing vehicles, 1. By closest to the zip and/or 2. By lowest mileage are the 2 best ways that the customer and dealership benefit from because it’s a win win for the dealers and the consumers.

There are tons of other reasons why you want to Flat Price a vehicle. I would never price a vehicle at $19995 again. 

If you, your dealership or your vehicles, are not the first thing that comes to mind when a consumer is shopping for a car, service, parts....you better be the first thing that they see when they search, "if you are not first in mind you better be first in line". I could talk about SEM/SEO or VDP's right now but I want to cover SRP's, or search results pages because there is so much talk right now about VDP's but if you don't show up in a search, you can forget about the VDP. 

When consumers are searching for vehicles they are going to use multiple resources to shop for their cars and one major one is going to be the Internet. While researching online they will be visiting multiple sites and each site has a unique way to list, sort and search for particular vehicles. The problem is, you just don't know what website they end up on and what ways they might search for to finally stumble upon your vehicle. Some sites have the ability to select certain options or features to narrow their list of vehicles down, some others may allow the customer to type whatever they want to narrow down their search. Some sites have a drop down to choose price points and others may allow the customer to type in their price range. If your vehicle does not fit into their search parameters your vehicle will not get the SRP needed to drive up your VDPs. So how do you increase your SRPs to make sure that no matter how the customer searches, by make/model, price point and or options? I will give you a few pointers:

1. Stop using manufacture terms or car talk terms for your options. What I mean by that is just because Lexus calls it a moonroof, the customer may be on a site looking for a sunroof and your car does not show up. More on that later...
2. Start flat pricing your vehicles, especially if you have a car that not too many people are looking for. What I mean by that is to price your car at $15,000 instead of $14,995 especially if its a vehicle like a Mercury Mountaineer. There are more people shopping for a $15000 SUV then there are people shopping for a Mountaineer and so if the customer is shopping for a $15000-$18000 SUV you will miss that search if you are priced at $14995
3. "Meta tag" your comments. What I mean by that is that you need to think of any way a customer my search for a vehicle, by options, on any particular site and put those terms into your descriptions. If you are going to use "7 passenger" in your comments you better include "3rd row seat" somewhere in your comments also. If you are going to use "GPS" in your comment you better included "navigation" also. If you are going to put "rear entertainment" in your descriptions you better include "DVD player" somewhere in your descriptions. You don't know if the customer is looking for a GPS but if your descriptions list it as a navigation or navi, you do not show up in that search on most sites, if they look for a DVD player and you have rear entertainment, guess what, your car won't show up.

So in order to be one of the vehicles first in line on the SRP page, to get that valuable VDP, you better maximize your pricing and comment strategy to make sure your car is at the top of the list because you and your car probably were not the first thing that came to mind when they started searching.

Check out my webinar that goes over how to enhance both your pricing and comments to get a huge increase in SRP's at www.automotiverevolution.com 

If you, your dealership or your vehicles, are not the first thing that comes to mind when a consumer is shopping for a car, service, parts....you better be the first thing that they see when they search, "if you are not first in mind you better be first in line". I could talk about SEM/SEO or VDP's right now but I want to cover SRP's, or search results pages because there is so much talk right now about VDP's but if you don't show up in a search, you can forget about the VDP. 

When consumers are searching for vehicles they are going to use multiple resources to shop for their cars and one major one is going to be the Internet. While researching online they will be visiting multiple sites and each site has a unique way to list, sort and search for particular vehicles. The problem is, you just don't know what website they end up on and what ways they might search for to finally stumble upon your vehicle. Some sites have the ability to select certain options or features to narrow their list of vehicles down, some others may allow the customer to type whatever they want to narrow down their search. Some sites have a drop down to choose price points and others may allow the customer to type in their price range. If your vehicle does not fit into their search parameters your vehicle will not get the SRP needed to drive up your VDPs. So how do you increase your SRPs to make sure that no matter how the customer searches, by make/model, price point and or options? I will give you a few pointers:

1. Stop using manufacture terms or car talk terms for your options. What I mean by that is just because Lexus calls it a moonroof, the customer may be on a site looking for a sunroof and your car does not show up. More on that later...
2. Start flat pricing your vehicles, especially if you have a car that not too many people are looking for. What I mean by that is to price your car at $15,000 instead of $14,995 especially if its a vehicle like a Mercury Mountaineer. There are more people shopping for a $15000 SUV then there are people shopping for a Mountaineer and so if the customer is shopping for a $15000-$18000 SUV you will miss that search if you are priced at $14995
3. "Meta tag" your comments. What I mean by that is that you need to think of any way a customer my search for a vehicle, by options, on any particular site and put those terms into your descriptions. If you are going to use "7 passenger" in your comments you better include "3rd row seat" somewhere in your comments also. If you are going to use "GPS" in your comment you better included "navigation" also. If you are going to put "rear entertainment" in your descriptions you better include "DVD player" somewhere in your descriptions. You don't know if the customer is looking for a GPS but if your descriptions list it as a navigation or navi, you do not show up in that search on most sites, if they look for a DVD player and you have rear entertainment, guess what, your car won't show up.

So in order to be one of the vehicles first in line on the SRP page, to get that valuable VDP, you better maximize your pricing and comment strategy to make sure your car is at the top of the list because you and your car probably were not the first thing that came to mind when they started searching.

Check out my webinar that goes over how to enhance both your pricing and comments to get a huge increase in SRP's at www.automotiverevolution.com 

How many dealers are running to the auctions to buy 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor LS's or 2009 Kia Borrego EX's or even 2013 Kia Rio EX's or other cars like these? 
Matter of fact, how many customers are running to the internet to do searches for these particular cars?
Well I am going to tell you why you might want to be hunting some of these and others like them down. 
This is going to go against most stats and stocking strategies that are being promoted in the industry right now but hear me out. The cars I listed above have little demand on the internet when looking at Autotader search stats, matter of fact the 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor scores a D grade (on an A to F grading system) for market "Demand" in vAuto's Provision scoring tool. It gets a D grade because its in the 24 percentile when compared to other vehicles in the Kansas City market. That means on Autotrader there are 76% more cars been searched for than a 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor so not many people at all are running to the internet looking for this year, make, model. The 2009 Kia Borrego also scores a D grade for Demand in vAuto because of its 24 percentile ranking and the 2013 Kia Rio gets a C- because it is in the 32 percentile of searches being done on Autotrader. 
So why would I tell you that you might want to stock some cars like these when no one is searching for these year, make and models? Because there are a lot of segment and price shoppers in the market and these cars do very well for those types of shoppers. 
How many times have you talked to a customer that says they are interested a particular vehicle on your lot, but once talking to them they are really just looking for a nice $15000-$18000 SUV, or what have you? These cars are for those shoppers, the ones hitting the internet doing searches for their perfect $15000-$18000 SUV, or sedan or .....(enter price point, segment). So they may have never of thought to do a search for a 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor LS (hence the low demand score) but once that vehicle shows up in their SUV search, all of a sudden that is an attractive vehicle and they click on it (getting you that most sought after thing...the VDP). This particular vehicle in the Kansas City market has an average retail price of $15900 with and average of 42000 miles, that is a lot of SUV for the money. The reason I know this car gets VDP's is because it is converting SRP's to VDP's at a 5.12% which is about twice the rate of the average car on Autotrader. So how does it get the SRP, if no one is looking for that year, make, model? Its because it is showing up in SUV searches, once it shows up, it is getting clicked. Now you can say, "just because it is getting clicked doesn't mean it will sell" but I would argue that fact. Because again, in vAuto I can see that it gets a Days Supply grade of a B because this 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor LS has a 62 days supply (which is about or a little above average) and it also scores a B- grade in Volume because 8 of them have sold in the last 45 days.
Just so you know, the 2009 Kia Borrego EX has a A- interest grade at 4.36% a A- for Days Supply at 45 days and a B- for volume because 7 sold in the last 45 days and the Rio is about the same. 
The next thing you would want to do with these type of cars is to check out their reviews, an odd car with a bad review will kill your inventory (not to many used car managers considering reviews of cars when they stock..more on that in another article). So guess what, that 2011 Endeavor and the 2009 Borrego both score 4.7 stars out of 5 on edmunds.com, the 2013 Rio has a 8.3 out of 10 rating on USNews and is ranked #6 out of 41 in affordable small cars. Use this information when marketing these cars but also make sure you flat price these cars, which means price them at a flat number like $15000 instead of $14999 so you show up in more SUV price point searches. If you price this Endeavor at $14999 and someone does a search for a $15000-$18000 SUV, you will miss that search by $1 and will defeat the purpose of buying this type of car. You can get more on the flat pricing strategy on one of my other postings, click HERE to read.
Some more vehicles that I would consider as "odd" type cars for example would be:
-Suzuki XL7's
-Lincoln MKT's
-Mercury Mountaineers
-Kia Forte Koup
-Subaru Tribeca
-Scion xA 
-Lincoln Aviator (in one market I seen this vehicle in a 2005 AWD model, show a low demand but 4% VDP, 57 days supply and 53 sell in 45 days) again, its a total price point car.
-there are a bunch of others but here is a few

One last note, like I said at the beginning, not too many used car managers or buyers are running to the auction with these vehicles in mind and on their HOT list so that should make it a little easier to acquire these types of vehicles for a good price. Every buyer is at the lane looking for those cars with HIGH demand scores or the ones at the top of Autotrader and Cars.com "searched for" list, but I would want to also be stocking some of the cars no one is thinking of looking for but end up clicking on and buying because of segment and price point. Thats how you gain market share and get a head of the game!!!

*I am not telling you to go buy a ton of these cars and replace your hot products, but I am encouraging you to take a deeper look at these "odd" cars and carry a half of dozen or so depending on the size of your lot. But only do it, if you are going to market them the right way!

How many dealers are running to the auctions to buy 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor LS's or 2009 Kia Borrego EX's or even 2013 Kia Rio EX's or other cars like these? 
Matter of fact, how many customers are running to the internet to do searches for these particular cars?
Well I am going to tell you why you might want to be hunting some of these and others like them down. 
This is going to go against most stats and stocking strategies that are being promoted in the industry right now but hear me out. The cars I listed above have little demand on the internet when looking at Autotader search stats, matter of fact the 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor scores a D grade (on an A to F grading system) for market "Demand" in vAuto's Provision scoring tool. It gets a D grade because its in the 24 percentile when compared to other vehicles in the Kansas City market. That means on Autotrader there are 76% more cars been searched for than a 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor so not many people at all are running to the internet looking for this year, make, model. The 2009 Kia Borrego also scores a D grade for Demand in vAuto because of its 24 percentile ranking and the 2013 Kia Rio gets a C- because it is in the 32 percentile of searches being done on Autotrader. 
So why would I tell you that you might want to stock some cars like these when no one is searching for these year, make and models? Because there are a lot of segment and price shoppers in the market and these cars do very well for those types of shoppers. 
How many times have you talked to a customer that says they are interested a particular vehicle on your lot, but once talking to them they are really just looking for a nice $15000-$18000 SUV, or what have you? These cars are for those shoppers, the ones hitting the internet doing searches for their perfect $15000-$18000 SUV, or sedan or .....(enter price point, segment). So they may have never of thought to do a search for a 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor LS (hence the low demand score) but once that vehicle shows up in their SUV search, all of a sudden that is an attractive vehicle and they click on it (getting you that most sought after thing...the VDP). This particular vehicle in the Kansas City market has an average retail price of $15900 with and average of 42000 miles, that is a lot of SUV for the money. The reason I know this car gets VDP's is because it is converting SRP's to VDP's at a 5.12% which is about twice the rate of the average car on Autotrader. So how does it get the SRP, if no one is looking for that year, make, model? Its because it is showing up in SUV searches, once it shows up, it is getting clicked. Now you can say, "just because it is getting clicked doesn't mean it will sell" but I would argue that fact. Because again, in vAuto I can see that it gets a Days Supply grade of a B because this 2011 Mitsubishi Endeavor LS has a 62 days supply (which is about or a little above average) and it also scores a B- grade in Volume because 8 of them have sold in the last 45 days.
Just so you know, the 2009 Kia Borrego EX has a A- interest grade at 4.36% a A- for Days Supply at 45 days and a B- for volume because 7 sold in the last 45 days and the Rio is about the same. 
The next thing you would want to do with these type of cars is to check out their reviews, an odd car with a bad review will kill your inventory (not to many used car managers considering reviews of cars when they stock..more on that in another article). So guess what, that 2011 Endeavor and the 2009 Borrego both score 4.7 stars out of 5 on edmunds.com, the 2013 Rio has a 8.3 out of 10 rating on USNews and is ranked #6 out of 41 in affordable small cars. Use this information when marketing these cars but also make sure you flat price these cars, which means price them at a flat number like $15000 instead of $14999 so you show up in more SUV price point searches. If you price this Endeavor at $14999 and someone does a search for a $15000-$18000 SUV, you will miss that search by $1 and will defeat the purpose of buying this type of car. You can get more on the flat pricing strategy on one of my other postings, click HERE to read.
Some more vehicles that I would consider as "odd" type cars for example would be:
-Suzuki XL7's
-Lincoln MKT's
-Mercury Mountaineers
-Kia Forte Koup
-Subaru Tribeca
-Scion xA 
-Lincoln Aviator (in one market I seen this vehicle in a 2005 AWD model, show a low demand but 4% VDP, 57 days supply and 53 sell in 45 days) again, its a total price point car.
-there are a bunch of others but here is a few

One last note, like I said at the beginning, not too many used car managers or buyers are running to the auction with these vehicles in mind and on their HOT list so that should make it a little easier to acquire these types of vehicles for a good price. Every buyer is at the lane looking for those cars with HIGH demand scores or the ones at the top of Autotrader and Cars.com "searched for" list, but I would want to also be stocking some of the cars no one is thinking of looking for but end up clicking on and buying because of segment and price point. Thats how you gain market share and get a head of the game!!!

*I am not telling you to go buy a ton of these cars and replace your hot products, but I am encouraging you to take a deeper look at these "odd" cars and carry a half of dozen or so depending on the size of your lot. But only do it, if you are going to market them the right way!

When we talk about getting more exposure on your vehicles by enhancing your descriptions to include the options and features of the vehicle, no one is talking about specifics. 
Look at the listing in this article, their description looks great, they talk about one owner, no accidents, has equipment like leather, reverse sensing AND the "MOON & TUNE" package. All that is great except 1. not too many people run to the internet looking for a Mercury Mariner, but they probably will go to the internet, look for an SUV and they may narrow their search down to ones with "SUNROOF" if that is an option they are looking for. That is where the problem begins, this vehicle will NOT show up in an SUV with SUNROOF search because they described the feature as a "MOON AND TUNE" feature. Lets look at it from another search that a customer may do, they might go to a site like craigslist.com and do a search for 4WD vehicle or a 4 wheel drive vehicle, and again, this vehicle will not show up in that search on craigslist because the dealership describes it having 4X4...
WATCH THE 5 MINUTE VIDEO BELOW TO SEE THIS IN ACTION

 

When we talk about getting more exposure on your vehicles by enhancing your descriptions to include the options and features of the vehicle, no one is talking about specifics. 
Look at the listing in this article, their description looks great, they talk about one owner, no accidents, has equipment like leather, reverse sensing AND the "MOON & TUNE" package. All that is great except 1. not too many people run to the internet looking for a Mercury Mariner, but they probably will go to the internet, look for an SUV and they may narrow their search down to ones with "SUNROOF" if that is an option they are looking for. That is where the problem begins, this vehicle will NOT show up in an SUV with SUNROOF search because they described the feature as a "MOON AND TUNE" feature. Lets look at it from another search that a customer may do, they might go to a site like craigslist.com and do a search for 4WD vehicle or a 4 wheel drive vehicle, and again, this vehicle will not show up in that search on craigslist because the dealership describes it having 4X4...
WATCH THE 5 MINUTE VIDEO BELOW TO SEE THIS IN ACTION