Founder cohort: full Core at $249/mo, or $199 paid annually. First cohort only

Buyers are asking AI about cars.
Does your dealership show up in the answers?

VIN Index tracks the questions shoppers are asking, reads the pages winning those answers today, and builds yours to beat them. All from the inventory feed you already have.

Free, no card, about a minute. Or see how it works.

ChatGPTillustrative

“which dealerships near me work with bad credit?”

The answer names

  • A national listing site
  • A dealership 20 minutes away
  • A forum thread
Your dealershipnot named

The questions buyers now ask AI

  • Most reliable SUV under $20,000?

    asked in ChatGPT

    MR
  • Best first car for a teenager?

    asked in Copilot

    DL
  • What should I buy instead of a RAV4?

    asked in Perplexity

    AK
  • Cheapest AWD crossover to own?

    asked in Google AI

    JS
  • Is a 2019 Forester a good buy at 75k km?

    asked in ChatGPT

    EM
  • Best used truck for towing under $30k?

    asked in Copilot

    RT
  • Which hybrid holds its value best?

    asked in ChatGPT

    HL
  • Good family minivan near me under $25k?

    asked in Google AI

    PF
  • What does a fair all-in price look like?

    asked in Perplexity

    CN
  • Best car for a new driver in the snow?

    asked in ChatGPT

    SW

Every one of these already gets an answer, and the answer names somebody.

Why now

Car shopping moved. It starts with a question now.

Shoppers used to type used trucks near me into Google and scroll. Now they describe their situation to an assistant and ask what to buy and who to buy it from. The assistant answers with a handful of names.

44%
of car shoppers have already used AI tools to shop, and 97% say it will shape their decision.

Cars.com, 2025

25%
of new-vehicle buyers used AI in their journey in 2025, the first year it was tracked.

Cox Automotive, 2025

50%
roughly the drop in clicks to traditional results once an AI summary appears.

Pew Research, 2025

The dealers those answers name get the buyer. The rest never hear that the shopper existed.

Learn

Right now, those answers name someone else.

Ask an assistant who finances bad credit in your city, or which dealership is worth the drive, and you get an answer today. It usually names a listing site you already pay, a forum thread, or the store down the road. You are not in it, and nothing tells you it is happening.

  • aggregators win

    No page of yours answers “which dealers near me work with bad credit?”

    You were not named in 6 checked answers for this question.

    Build this page
  • forums win

    No page of yours answers “what do I need to get approved same day?”

    Searched 4 times by ChatGPT while answering your tracked questions.

    Build this page
  • only you can do this

    Set your lender rates for all four credit bands

    Dealer-configured rates are one of the three requirements of AI-Ready Verified, which decides how your listings group on the network market pages.

    Set rates
  • best-of lists win

    No page of yours answers “best first car for a new driver near me”

    You have 11 vehicles under $15,000 in stock.

    Build this page
  • only you can do this

    Cited answers state what credit score qualifies. Yours does not.

    5 of the 7 cited answers state this. Yours does not.

    Answer in 30 seconds
  • dealer pages win

    No page of yours answers “which lots near me do their own financing?”

    Your site already says: “In-house approvals on every vehicle we sell.”

    Build this page

So we watch the questions, and record who gets named.

The real buying questions in your market, re-asked on ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity and Gemini on a schedule. Every run stores which dealerships and which sites the assistant named, so the gap stops being a hunch and starts being a number you can look at.

tracked queries · your marketnamed on 4 of 5
  • best used AWD SUV under $18,000 near HamiltonChatGPT: you are citedCopilot: you are citedPerplexity: you are citedGemini: not citedyour store
  • is the 2019 Subaru Forester reliable?ChatGPT: you are citedCopilot: you are citedPerplexity: not citedGemini: you are citedyour store
  • used SUV around $300 a month in HamiltonChatGPT: you are citedCopilot: not citedPerplexity: you are citedGemini: not citedyour store
  • bad credit SUV financing near meChatGPT: not citedCopilot: not citedPerplexity: not citedGemini: not citedaggregator
  • Forester vs CR-V used — which to buy?ChatGPT: you are citedCopilot: you are citedPerplexity: you are citedGemini: you are citedyour store

One query still names an aggregator. That is the gap, and it is the next page we build.

sample queries, illustrative · re-checked weekly on Core, daily on Pro

Run the free check on my store

We ask the engines your buyers’ questions and show you who got named. No feed, no card.

Build

We make your store the one it names.

Two things, from one feed.

Your cars

Every vehicle, published so an assistant can read it

The full spec, the price, whether it is still on the lot, and who has it. Most AI crawlers cannot run JavaScript, so a normal dealership website hands them almost nothing. These pages hand them everything.

Your answers

And the questions with no car in them

Who works with bad credit, who takes a trade with money owing, who is open Sunday. No feed can answer those. We read the pages winning them today, then build you one carrying what they do not have: your real rates, your process, and the cars on your lot that qualify right now.

A question with no vehicle in it

which dealerships near me actually work with bad credit?

Who answers it today

  • A national listing siteeditorial

    1,400 words · 6 stats · undated

  • A discussion threadforum

    12 replies · no rates

  • A competitor's blog postsingle business

    600 words · no stock

Your dealership has no page that answers this.

The page VIN Index builds

published
  • Direct answer, firstwho qualifies, in 40 words
  • Fact tablescore bands · rates · terms
  • Sources, linked inline4 third-party references
  • Live qualifying stock7 vehicles, priced
  • Visible datemoves on real change only

Kinds of fact this page states

12

9, what they state

Illustrative sequence. And when a question is one no single dealership can win, it says so and points you at the one you can.

See how a page gets builtSee how it works

Land

The buyer lands on your page. The lead lands in your CRM.

Every inquiry your pages earn arrives stamped with the assistant that sent it and the car it was about, so you can draw a straight line from the feed you connected to the buyer who walked in.

confirmed eventslive
312
shoppers sent
47
AI searches
9
leads
1,400
platform checks
  • 41mChatGPTcrawler checked your Forester listingverified
  • 33mPerplexitycrawler checked 3 of your listingsverified
  • 19mChatGPTbuyer referred → Forester VDPsent by AI
  • 12mClaudesearched your inventory for an SUVAI search
  • 4mCopilotbuyer referred → your inventorysent by AI
  • nowChatGPTlead → your CRM · source attachedattributed

sample stream, illustrative · hit type × platform · never an estimated traffic number

Your own branded pages

The shopper arrives somewhere with your name on it, not a marketplace tile, and the inquiry form goes to you.

Leads, attributed

Every inquiry arrives stamped with the assistant that sent it and the car it came from, so you can draw a straight line from the feed you connected to the buyer who showed up.

Confirmed events only

Shoppers sent by AI, searches run against your inventory, and platform checks on your listings, each tied to a platform and a vehicle. Never an estimated traffic number, because no honest one exists.

Feed synced 14 min ago
leadAttributed to ChatGPT, routed to your CRM

Maple Ridge Auto’s AI visibility, trending up

+5.2%
Last 30 daysAll platformsExport
312
Shoppers sent by AI
47
AI inventory searches
9
Leads from AI

Shoppers sent by AI

before VIN Index, dashed

FebMarAprMayJunJul
  • ChatGPT143
  • Copilot84
  • Google AI59
  • Perplexity26

sample dashboard, illustrative · confirmed events only

Plenty of tools can show you a gap and hand you homework. Here, every gap connects to the machine that closes it: the page gets built, your live cars and real payments back it, and the lead lands in your CRM.

Whose shopper

Your shopper. Yours to keep.

Listing sites put your car next to your competitors’ and spend the visit nudging your shopper elsewhere. That is the business model, not a flaw in it.

Your VIN Index pages carry your inventory and nobody else’s. We never rate your deal, never flag your price as high, and no dealer can pay to have their cars ranked above yours. You pay us; nobody else does, and every inquiry your pages earn comes straight to you, never resold, shared or brokered.

  • No per-lead fees
  • No contract
  • Your website keeps its job
  • Nothing to rebuild

You

get the inquiry, with the AI source attached, in your CRM.

The shopper

contacts you directly through your own page.

No competitors

on your pages, and no carousel pulling the shopper to another lot.

Around your vehicle

Listing sites

Competing dealers’ listings and “similar cars” suggestions.

VIN Index

Just your vehicle, cited as the source.

What they optimize for

Listing sites

Traffic, impressions, and clicks across every listing.

VIN Index

Getting the shopper to your vehicle and your store.

Where your shopper goes next

Listing sites

Any other dealer on the platform.

VIN Index

To you.

How it makes money

Listing sites

Paid placement and ad impressions. You compete for attention on your own car.

VIN Index

A flat monthly rate. You are the answer, not one of twenty.

The inquiry

Listing sites

Routed through the marketplace.

VIN Index

Comes straight to you with the AI source attached.

Listing sites sell attention across every dealer on the page. VIN Index makes your vehicle the answer, so the shopper comes to you.

Pricing

Flat monthly, per rooftop. No per-lead charges.

Free

$0no card

Your used inventory listed with AI-readable vehicle pages and complete vehicle information, discoverable by AI assistants. Unlimited vehicles.

Founder Core

First cohort only

$249/mo

The full fight at any lot size: always-on enrichment, your own agent endpoint, syndication feeds, weekly checks on the questions that matter in your market, and every lead in your CRM. $199/mo paid annually. Your rate is locked from the day you check out.

Founder Pro is $499/mo, or $399 paid annually, and adds the query-level funnel, a custom domain, and financing tools inside the chat. Pro rooftops get hands-on setup, so they go out by application. When the founder cohort closes, the standing ladder is Core at $499 and Pro at $699. New-vehicle territories are sold separately. See full pricing.

How AI visibility works

Read the full guide

See who AI names in your market.

Free, no feed, no card, about a minute. We ask ChatGPT, Copilot and Google AI the questions your buyers ask, show you who got named, and grade what they can read from your inventory today.