GM has continued to refine VINView since its launch in late 2020, McNeil said. It updates dealers as a vehicle leaves the plant and travels to the dealership.
Nienow had told customers over the years that dealers didn’t have a FedEx-level of tracking insight on vehicles. With VINView’s minute-by-minute updates, “you can sell more confidently on your incoming units if you know they have shipped already,” he said.
The tool has become more important as the pandemic and global microchip shortage sapped inventories. Customers often call asking for updates, said Pete Donohoo, co-owner of Donohoo Chevrolet in Fort Payne, Ala.
“Customers are used to an environment where, at worst, [the vehicle] is a few days away. It’s normally on the lot,” he said.
LaFontaine Automotive Group, which participated in an early pilot of VINView, has 40 sales associates across its six GM stores in Michigan who are typically tracking a combined 2,000 in-transit vehicles at any one time.
“The best part about this is … all of my salespeople can do it themselves,” said Ryan Hutchings, inventory manager for the group’s GM stores.
LaFontaine also can give shoppers a specific answer, instead of just a broad window, on when a desired vehicle will arrive.
The tool is one reason GM executives think dealers won’t need as much inventory in the future.
“Because it allows us to operate leaner as an OEM, it allows the dealers to operate leaner,” McNeil said.
Dealers always will have some level of inventory, GM executives say, but how much remains in question. By year end, Chevy plans to hold some Bolt EV and EUVs at regional hubs that dealers can pull from, said Steve Hill, vice president of Chevy, though the fastest-selling Bolts would be on dealers’ lots.
GM is still developing an allocation plan for the regional lots, McNeil said.
“We’re going to start that heavy with EVs — Bolt and Bolt EUV — and then branch it out because we think there is a lot of opportunity there,” he said.
GM has yet to explain the details, but dealers say as long as allocation is fair, there’s upside in a normal market to holding some vehicles off-site but nearby.
“A year or two from now, it’s probably going to be a great thing,” said Robert Simmons, executive general manager for LaFontaine’s GM dealerships. “Right now, we want everything we can get.”
