Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail took another step forward in its quest to create standards for the auto retail industry.

The automotive information technology standards organization published its first application programming interface standard for automotive deals.

STAR said the deal API standardizes the management and exchange of deal-related information in auto retail, facilitating seamless communication between manufacturers, dealers and service providers.

The new API is part of STAR’s larger initiative to create a comprehensive domain model that maps the entire retail automotive sales process.

STAR chairman JP Garvey, dealer principal of Garvey Auto Group, said the release “continues a record-setting rollout of standards for 2025. Alongside the sales lead API and sales domain model API, STAR continues to expand its robust library of sales-related APIs with the addition of the automotive deal API.”

The deal API focuses on three primary areas.

Deal management: STAR enables the creation, retrieval, updating and deletion of deal records, providing a consistent exchange of data across multiple platforms.

Standardized data fields: Common data structures for customer information, vehicle details, pricing, finance options and deal status to promote uniformity across platforms and reduce integration complexities.

Integration support: The API is designed to integrate with various dealer management systems and customer relationship management platforms for interoperability within the automotive sales ecosystem.

STAR said its deal API allows automotive organizations to create a new deal by providing comprehensive details including consumer information, vehicle specifications, pricing and financing options, as well as retrieving the details of any specific deal or updating information — including vehicle details, pricing or customer information — in an existing deal.

Deals can be deleted or removed from the system entirely to achieve compliance with record-keeping and data management policies. STAR’s deal API also allows users to fetch a list of all deals, with optional filtering parameters based on criteria such as status, creation date and customer information. That allows retail auto businesses of every size to achieve more efficient and consistent information management, STAR said, improving operational efficiency and enhancing customer interactions throughout the deal process.

The deal API can be downloaded free here.