To kick off the nationwide launch on pre-sale third party inspections, OPENLANE also is offering an exclusive dealer promotion throughout November. The company said any dealer who purchases five vehicles with a third-party inspection (TPI) through OPENLANE’s iDEAL dealer-consigned program will receive a $250 American Express gift card. In addition, sellers will get another $250 gift card when they sell their first five iDEAL units with a third-party inspection.

A quality vehicle inspection is an essential part of the vehicle wholesaling process. Inspections help ensure buyers are aware of the vehicle condition when bidding online, thereby lowering the need for costly arbitration procedures that result from surprises on delivery. In a partnership with a premier nationwide vehicle inspection company, Alliance Inspection Management (AiM), OPENLANE recently completed a successful pilot of more than 1,000 inspections, primarily performed at selling dealer locations, and will now make the offering available to its national base of sellers. Inspections will be performed by trained and trusted inspectors at the vehicle location providing a consistent and accurate vehicle inspection report.

With an industry-wide need for increased efficiency and dependable reports, OPENLANE’s TPI service is intended to provide a convenient, easy-to-use solution that includes:

- A simple listing process for dealers
- Quick turnaround on inspection performance, with an inspector typically on site within two business days
- Assurance against unethical arbitrations
- Higher retention of vehicle value post-sale

“We are pleased to offer a service that provides an added layer of trust between buyers and sellers, and one that ultimately protects our customers by lowering the incidence of arbitrations and voids,” said Andrew Iorgulescu, vice president of business development at OPENLANE. “A dealer’s bottom line is selling cars. With the introduction of third-party inspections into our online selling process, we are demonstrating our commitment to our dealers by providing them with greater visibility, further enabling more efficient sales and increasing customer satisfaction.”

The company said that in addition to expediting the inspection process, OPENLANE’s new inspection service will create higher values for listings and improved sales rates. Recent data gathered by OPENLANE during a three-month pilot of 50 dealers who ordered TPIs demonstrated that sales rates were double that of cars without inspections. The pilot also revealed an arbitration rate of less than 3 percent and a 33 percent increase in dealer vehicle interest as measured by viewings per vehicle.