LAS VEGAS -

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: there’s a massive amount of used-car supply hitting the market this year.

But the gobs of pre-owned inventory, particularly the off-lease variety, is a big story.

And perhaps it gets oodles of attention because of just how stark the contrast is to a few years ago, when many dealers were scrambling to fill their used-car lots.

And to their credit, dealers and the industry overall got creative: hitting the service lane for cars, lease pull-ahead programs, trades with other dealers and so on.

But the inventory glut has not made them any less innovative.

For instance, take vAuto, which launched a product at the NADA Convention & Expo called Stockwave that is designed to help dealers efficiently source auction vehicles that align with their inventory and profit objectives.

Interestingly enough, a flood of used cars helps drive the need for this, said vAuto founder Dale Pollak.

“It actually makes it more important, because there’s more cars to sift through,” Pollak said in an interview at NADA. “And the more inventory there is to look at, the longer it takes and the harder it is to keep objective (about) finding the right one. It really makes a big, ugly task very manageable, very efficient.”

vAuto certainly is not alone in the used-car sourcing space. In the expo halls at NADA and throughout the industry are companies that put a digital focus on helping dealers acquire the right used cars, be it through dealer-to-dealer trade networks, acquiring trade-ins from private consumers or wholesale remarketing channels. 

Car Lister, TradeRev, DRIVIN, The Appraisal Lane, eAutoAppraise (which, according to the company’s website, helps generate sales leads for dealers from consumers looking to get a value on their trade).

Though similar projects can be found in recent industry history, it’s interesting to note that operations for companies like these are ramping up just as used-car supply has begun to do the same.

Earlier this year, Car Lister, which also works on the consumer side, launched a fully transactional e-commerce platform that lets dealers buy, sell, and trade with — and ship inventory to — each other. 

Through the Dealer Wholesale Platform, dealers can create national wholesale groups to manage movement of vehicles between members.

Andrew Iorgulescu — one of the co-founders of OPENLANE — is co-founder and president of The Appraisal Lane, a used-car trade network for dealers.

When it comes to the off-lease surge, it’s really all about redistribution. And that’s not a new issue, he says. If a dealer gets a vehicle that’s not a core car, they’ve always needed a way to move it elsewhere.

“Dealers are still going to need cars, consumers are still going to be trading in their Acuras at the BMW store. Those cars are still going to need to be redistributed,” he said. “Just because Acura has a lot more lease returns coming back doesn’t necessarily mean the BMW dealer is all of a sudden going to be swimming in Acuras.”

An additional thought on the sourcing side is this: it’s still about getting the right cars, even if there are a lot more from which to choose.

In mid-March, Black Book announced a deal with DRIVIN in which it would be the company’s exclusive vehicle valuation provider. In a news release on the deal, Black Book’s Jared Kalfus made a point that emphasized the notion of getting the right cars.

“DRIVIN is disrupting the used-car industry by offering dealers a better way to source, acquire and receive the right, quality inventory for their lot,” said Kalfus, Black Book’s senior vice president of sales. “We are excited by this long-term partnership and look forward to being their exclusive partner for valuation services, while offering our dealers access to DRIVIN’s pre-negotiated inventory and premier sourcing service via our Black Book Digital mobile app.

“DRIVIN helps dealers rethink their sourcing strategy and stock the right used cars for their lot based on consumer demand, local market analysis and profit margins,” he added.