I spoke with a friend recently who was driving around from dealership to dealership just looking for vehicles to purchase for his store.

Now, he is a pretty sharp used-car buyer, and I know he does not like to waste his time.

So you and I might be asking, “Why is he driving around from dealership to dealership?”

He, like many of us, is in real need of inventory. And like some of us, he is just frustrated enough to try the door-to-door car-buying approach.

It still amazes me even today, 20 or so years later, what a significant impact the Internet has had on the retail automotive industry.

And yet even after that amount of time, programmers and developers are just beginning to come up with more tools that allow us to find more customers, sell more vehicles and improve the ability to search and find the vehicles we all need — consumers and wholesalers alike.

But if Google can search the earth, and Apple can find you or any of your friends out there, why isn't there something that will allow all of us to find the vehicles we need more simply?

You can’t afford to randomly search anymore. When you spend time driving around or unintentionally walking around, somewhere you are missing buying opportunities.

For me, this thought was the catalyst to figuring out how much more effective I could be by investing my time in purchasing online as opposed to only going to one physical auction.

The auctions are constantly improving search tools, allowing you to refine details for more exact inventory matches. This includes partnering with companies like FirstLook and vAuto, and online purchasing tools like Auction Genius.

It should be easier than ever before to purchase inventory, but it isn't. If anything, it seems harder, which is largely due to a shortage of available inventory from the past few years.

In addition, it is a more common practice these days for people to sell potential trade-ins themselves through Craigslist. At this point, you might be wondering where I am going with this. It's OK, I am, too.

There is a way to find inventory! You can get there without driving, going right to where the inventory is waiting.

After you are done power searching on Manheim/OVE.com, ADESA OpenLane, etc., try this: go to Google; then go to advanced search.

From here, you can search specifically for the vehicles you are after, and even see specific sites you might find them on, like Craigslist. Yes, I know these are retail sites and not wholesale dealer sites.

To that I say: think about it; you are looking for good, clean cars to buy. Not every seller on Craigslist or any other site really wants to go through the painstaking process to sell their own car.

They often just try to see if it will sell before they go shopping, usually without much success. And you have the cash to offer them!

 I know this is not the easy way to purchase our inventory, but when you need inventory and you can't find it, this isn't that much work compared to walking the auction yard or driving around to dealerships.

Speaking of dealerships, I just found three vehicles my friend could use not far from where he is with one Google search. So, I think I'll give him a call.

For now I hope this might help with your inventory search needs. Until next month, see you in the lens of the lanes.