ViHUB ‘Finds’ New Vehicle Lost In A Dealer Group Stock For One Year
January 8, 2026
Dealer group incident underlines the value of ViHUB
Lack of genuine complete inventory overview makes anecdotal incident highly likely
Autofinity’s ViHUB flagged new vehicle which had remained ‘hidden’ for 400 days
When senior managers at a large UK dealership group undertook a stock overview using Autofinity’s ViHUB vehicle inventory management and publishing platform, a new vehicle which had been in group stock for over a year was identified.
As a mostly depreciating asset, loss of visibility of vehicles, which is more commonplace than might be expected, impacts the bottom line and profitability.
Lack of complete oversight of vehicle inventory was highlighted by an anecdote from a dealer group when a ‘lost’ new vehicle, which had remained in group stock for 400 days, was highlighted after a run-of-the-mill search for overage stock.
Our CEO Andy Whitehair: “Unfortunately, this sort of situation is not uncommon. It is very difficult for large dealer groups with multiple sites and which retail thousands of units per year, to keep tabs on every vehicle. Apparently, the vehicle, which was worth more than £40k, was literally sitting in group stock where it had been for 400 days after it was ordered on behalf of a customer but for one reason or another, the sale was never completed.
“Obviously, it’s common practice that when a sale falls through, the dealership or group offloads the vehicle in another sale as quickly as possible prior to the receipt of the manufacturer’s invoice. However, in this case, the vehicle was overlooked and remained in stock for over a year which sounds ridiculous but can easily happen.”
Autofinity’s ViHUB stock inventory management and publishing platform takes vehicle information from several disconnected systems to create one rich source of data before automatically feeding online marketing channels including Auto Trader, Motorway and Carwow. However, the platform also provides complete oversight of all vehicles – new, used, courtesy cars, staff cars, part-exchanges, auction vehicles and pipeline vehicles – in a way that’s easily accessible and highly visible.
There are several reasons why a vehicle could be ‘hidden’ from visibility if not utilising a platform such as ViHUB or not running reports on overage vehicles regularly. The most likely being when a sale falls through, a vehicle may not have been reclassified properly in the DMS, so it is shown as ‘sold’ even though no sale has been completed and no payment received.
“The DMS is essentially an accounting system that keeps track of assets. When deals fall out of bed, if the status of the vehicle is not updated, it does not appear on reports of actively retailed vehicles and unless someone is searching for erroneous vehicles, it is likely that it will remain ‘hidden’. Whilst the car will have a physical existence at a compound, employees will work off lists which will not generate a vehicle which has been ‘lost’ in such a way and there it will stay. That’s exactly what happened in this case. It wasn’t until a report was ran through our platform to flag overaged group stock that the vehicle was ‘found’. It had been parked at the compound for an unbelievable 400 days.
“Whilst this is an extreme example, the longer a car is in stock, the more it costs the business, and profitability is compromised. ViHUB ensures all cars in group stock are visible and when an overage vehicle is identified, action can be taken.”
