PLANO, Texas -

Bruce Thompson was part of a team in 2001 that says it introduced inventory management tools with American Auto Exchange that year, followed by several other inventory-focused companies.

On Tuesday, a Thompson-led team launched CarOffer, which it describes as the retail automotive industry’s first instant wholesale vehicle trade platform.

CarOffer said its platform addresses challenges with appraisal win ratios, aging inventories, and acquisition and selling of used-vehicle inventory, noting that with the platform, dealers can reverse current margin compression trends without monthly subscription fees or contracts.

According to CarOffer, more than 1,000 dealership locations have committed to using the platform.

TradeGrade, which the company describes as a real-time, integrated “point of appraisal” bidding platform and 24/7 automated inventory offers, are part of the CarOffer technology suite. The offers, which are available for instant liquidation, include an optional 45-day guaranteed sell offer. The company says the system works in tandem with the dealer’s current inventory management system.

CarOffer said that because its integrated tool suite can replace as many as six fee-based subscription products, it can save expense and time for dealers.

The company said that through its patent-pending dealer-to-dealer transaction marketplace called Matrix, the platform allows dealers to acquire retail-ready upstream inventory with confidence.

“It is a revolutionary new way to both acquire and liquidate inventory instantly,” CarOffer said in a news release.

The company says that for dealerships, CarOffer eliminates the guesswork and much of the risk of valuing vehicles with instant “on-the-money” value to win more appraisal offers. It also reduces inventory acquisition and disposal cost, virtually eliminates open-ended risk of aging inventory, lets dealers instantly find buy-ready vehicles, allows dealers an “exit ramp” from the “race to the bottom” pricing strategy, reduces reconditioning time and expense, makes inventory acquisition simpler, and charges no subscription fee.

Additional CarOffer features are:             

— It’s a national marketplace in which national buyers compete for used inventory with “on-the-money” offers at the point of appraisal. The marketplace includes a 45-day guaranteed buyback offer.               

— Retail-ready inventory, with new sources of inventory ready for the front line sooner. 

— “No-worry” acquisition in which the dealer can set buy specifications. Then the exchange platform does the rest.

Other features are faster inventory turns; daily bids; lower costs in which auction fees are cut by two-thirds; instant backstop bids; and 45-day guaranteed buyback offers.  

“CarOffer enables dealers to trade for twice as many vehicles with virtually no risk while also eliminating all aged units over 45 days,” said Thompson, who is the company’s founder and chief executive officer. “Obviously, this means many more new and used retail sales. In so doing, the average dealer will realize significant dollars to the bottom line. Trade-ins are as much as 150% more profitable and turn in half the time as purchased vehicles. CarOffer is the solution that will enable dealers to switch from the current acquisition and pricing strategies that have decimated pre-owned margins over the last decade. Everyone is making money except the dealer, and it’s our intent to turn the tables.”