What’s coming and what’s new with Upstart Auto Retail | Q3 2022

Upstart Auto Retail has a vision—to create the world’s best car-buying experience for dealers and consumers. To help dealers stay at the forefront of innovation, we wanted to share what the product teams at Upstart have been up to.

Check out the updates that’ll be highlighted in this article:

What’s coming soon:
What’s landed recently:


What’s coming soon


Build & Price for 34 brands

Upstart Auto Retail’s Build & Price tool turns inventory challenges into opportunities. By the end of 2022, we expect that Build & Price, originally launched exclusively with Subaru, will be integrated to Upstart’s digital retail experience and made available to 34 OEM brands.

Built on top of Upstart Auto Retail’s digital retail platform, Build & Price allows car buyers to browse, shop, and build deals online for vehicles that are not in stock or even in transit—directly from the dealer’s website. This keeps car buyers engaged, capturing leads even when specific inventory isn’t available.

Car shoppers start on a dealer’s website with the option to Build & Price their vehicle. First, they choose a car from the brand(s) selected by the dealership. They then configure the model, trim, color, and more. From there, they’re  guided through the online digital retail process including trade-ins, payment configurations, appointment setting, and other steps as defined by the dealership.

Build & Price screen in Upstart Auto Retail where a customer is building a Kia Seltos
The OEM brands included* for Upstart Auto Retail Build & Price are Acura, Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, FIAT, Ford, Genesis, GMC, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Maserati, Mazda, Mercedes, MINI, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Ram, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo (*subject to change).

An improved desking experience

The planned Q4 2022 release will make it easy for managers to desk multiple deals at once directly from Upstart Auto Retail Manager Portal. What’s more, managers will be able to edit deal details in bulk.

Additional desking improvements include displaying commonly used actions more prominently, the ability to push customer information to the CRM at any time, more information about deal details, and a new “View Finance Offers” tab when Upstart Auto Retail Lending is enabled.

For the View Finance Offers feature, desking managers will be able to see the number of offers that have been returned in a bubble on the right side of the tab. From there, they  can choose which, if any, offers to send customers.

Improved desking experience in Upstart Auto Retail Manager Portal where three offers are displayed side-by-side before sending to a customer.

 

Automated trade and lease payoff

To accept trade-ins, dealers need to know how much a trade-in is worth and how much the customer owes on the car. Many dealers determine trade equity and lease payoff by asking their customers to provide personal and vehicle information. They then have a third-party vendor verify the customer’s information and provide a quote for the dealer to pay off the loan or lease.

In Q4 2022, Upstart Auto Retail customers will be able to provide car buyers with the option to request their own payoff balance. When a car buyer requests their payoff balance, a payoff request is initiated. If a payoff quote is returned, it is valid for 10-14 business days, giving car buyers plenty of time to finalize their purchase.

Upstart Auto Retail trade and lease payoff screen showing the trade in summary alongside the information for the car being purchased.

Integration with Dealertrack DMS 

The integration with Dealertrack DMS will interface Upstart Auto Retail In Store and Manager Portal, where users can push and pull deal information to or from the DMS. This integration will be available to Upstart Auto Retail customers in Q4 2022.



What’s landed recently


Auto Retail Lending and AI-Powered Financing updates

Upstart Auto Retail lending is live in California, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas across dozens of rooftops. With many states ready to go live in the coming months, improvements are being added regularly to AI-Powered Financing and the Real-Time Approvals workflow.

The best time to sign up for Upstart Auto Retail is now, even if your dealership isn’t located in one of the four states listed above. Why? State-by-state expansion of Upstart Auto Retail Lending is ramping up quickly and the list of dealers signing up to be ready when their state launches continues to grow rapidly.

Integration with TradePending

Upstart Auto Retail now fully integrates with TradePending, ensuring car shoppers can  conveniently add their vehicle trade-in information and view trade-in values.

Upstart Auto Retail trade in screen highlighting the integration with TradePending.


Create and send deals to customers—no VIN required 

In the past, when a car shopper wanted to buy a specific car that wasn’t available, sales consultants were stuck in a difficult situation—collect the customer’s information and follow up when inventory arrived. The customer had to leave the dealership empty handed.

Not anymore. With Upstart Auto Retail, sales consultants can build a vehicle including year, make, model, trim, and more—no VIN required. They can work deals, provide first pencil, and send them to customers via text or email. Dealers can also give customers the opportunity to leave a deposit, securing their position in the queue for the vehicle they wanted. 



Additional information

 

We hope you enjoyed this sneak peek into what’s coming soon, as well as the recap of what’s been recently added to Upstart Auto Retail. To learn more about Upstart Auto Retail, please visit the following sites:

Want to see what Upstart Auto Retail can do for your dealership?

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