Car sourcing software, explained

For UK independent dealers and serious flippers: what these tools actually do, and how to judge one.

What it does

Car sourcing software watches the places used cars are listed — consumer marketplaces, retail platforms, sometimes auctions — and surfaces the ones worth your time. The basic version is a saved-search alert. The useful version goes further: it prices each car against real retail comparables, checks the vehicle’s history, and tells you why a listing is or isn’t worth a call.

The three tiers of tooling

• Alerts — “a new BMW 1 Series was listed near you.” Fast, cheap, and you still do all the analysis.
• Valuation overlays — alerts plus an estimated market value, so you can spot gaps at a glance.
• Decision intelligence — the tool verifies before it recommends: MOT history, DVLA records, mileage consistency, write-off categories, then comp-backed margin modelling. This is the tier Dealerly competes in.

Questions to ask any vendor (including us)

1. Where do the valuations come from? Real retail comparables you can inspect, or a black-box “market value”?
2. Can a good margin override a bad history? It never should. In Dealerly, fraud and write-off flags hard-cap the verdict regardless of the margin maths.
3. How fresh is the data? Scan cadence matters — a 24-hour-old bargain is usually sold.
4. Does it show its working? You are the one driving to see the car; you deserve the full breakdown, not just a score.

What it costs

UK tools in this space run from roughly £25 to £150+ per month depending on depth. Dealerly’s tiers: Free (look around), Starter £24.99, Pro £59.99, Dealer £129.99 — with a 7-day free trial on Starter and Pro. One rescued mistake — a rollback or hidden Cat S caught before you paid for the car — covers years of subscription.