What Is vAuto? A Plain-English Guide for Dealers (2026)

Short answer

vAuto is an inventory management software suite from Cox Automotive. It helps franchise and independent dealers decide what used vehicles to buy, what to price them at, how fast to turn them, and how to merchandise them online. Its best-known module is Provision, the pricing and stocking tool. vAuto is not a website platform, not a CRM, and not a content-writing tool — it manages the inventory data that those systems consume.

The modules, and what each one is for

Provision

Provision is the core. It scores every used vehicle against live market data — supply, days' supply, recent sold comps in your radius — and gives you a pricing and stocking recommendation. Dealers use it to answer two questions: *should I buy this car?* and *what should it be listed at today?*

Conquest

Conquest applies the same market logic to new vehicles: which trims and configurations are actually moving in your market, and how your new-car pricing compares to competing rooftops.

Stockwave

Stockwave is the wholesale buying side. It pulls auction inventory from multiple sources into one screen and scores each unit against your own market data, so buyers aren't tab-hopping between auction sites.

iRecon

iRecon tracks reconditioning workflow — where each vehicle is in the recon process, how long it has sat at each step, and what that delay costs you in holding time.

Inventory Comments / merchandising fields

Every vehicle record in vAuto carries description and comment fields. Those fields syndicate out to your website and to third-party listing sites. This is the part most dealers under-use, and it's where our own product plugs in.

How the modules fit together

The four modules map onto the life of a vehicle at your store. When you're deciding whether to buy a used car and what to ask for it, Provision appraises it against live market data and sets the pricing and stocking recommendation. When you need inventory you don't have yet, Stockwave is the wholesale sourcing side — it brings auction listings into one place and scores them against your market. Once a unit is acquired, iRecon tracks the reconditioning workflow, showing where each vehicle sits in the recon process. And if your store sells new vehicles too, Conquest applies the same market pricing and stocking logic to the new-vehicle side. The mix you actually run depends on what you sell and how you buy — which is also what shapes your quote.

Who vAuto is actually for

vAuto is priced and built for dealerships whose used-vehicle volume is high enough that pricing precision changes the P&L. There is no published cutoff; ask the rep how the quote scales with volume.

What vAuto does not do

This matters more than the feature list:

• It does not write your vehicle descriptions. It gives you a field to put them in. What goes in that field is on you, your BDC, or a vendor.
• It is not an SEO or AI-visibility tool. Provision optimizes price-to-market. It has no opinion about whether your VDP gets cited by ChatGPT or picked up in a Google AI Overview.
• It is not a website. Your dealer website platform (Dealer.com, DealerOn, Dealer Inspire, and so on) renders what vAuto syndicates.

That gap — great inventory data, empty or templated description fields — is a pattern we see often when we audit vAuto stores.

Frequently asked

Who owns vAuto? Cox Automotive, which also owns Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, Dealertrack, and VinSolutions.

Is vAuto the same as Provision? No. Provision is a module inside vAuto. Dealers often say "vAuto" when they mean Provision, so the two names get used interchangeably.

Does vAuto replace my CRM? No. vAuto manages vehicles; a CRM manages people. Most stores run both, often VinSolutions alongside vAuto since both are Cox products.

Can I use vAuto as a consumer? No. It is dealer-licensed software.

Where to go next

If you already run vAuto and your Inventory Comments field is blank, templated, or copied from the OEM brochure, that's the fastest fix available to you — read how AI and Google detect templated VDP copy, or see how our integration writes into vAuto without touching your Provision pricing data.

Get a free visibility audit and we'll show you exactly what your vAuto-syndicated descriptions look like to Google and to ChatGPT today.

Sources

• vAuto Provision — accessed September 28, 2026
• vAuto Conquest — accessed September 28, 2026
• vAuto Stockwave — accessed September 28, 2026
• vAuto iRecon — accessed September 28, 2026
• Cox Automotive brands — accessed September 28, 2026