Add a car from its photos
Drop the photos of one car: the VIN is read off them, the car is decoded or found in your inventory, and nothing is added until you say so.
Last updated
The quickest way to add a car: take its photos, drop them on the page, and check what was read off them. The VIN comes from the VIN label (door jamb or windshield) or the title, and the year, make, model and trim come from the VIN. Some VINs fit more than one trim (a 2017 Prius VIN fits the Two Eco, Three, Three Touring, Four and Four Touring), and then the car is added with no trim: set the right one on the car's page.
Add a car
- Go to Inventory and click Add from photos (or Start from photos at the top of the Add vehicle form). You can also drop the photos anywhere on the Inventory page.
- Drop the photos of one car on the page, or click to pick them: up to 60. Include the VIN label or the title, and the odometer.
- The photos upload and are read. The page says how far it got ("Reading the photos: 12 of 20").
- Check What I see: the car, its VIN and where it was read, the mileage, the color, any damage, and the papers among the photos.
- Pick what the photos are for, fill in where the car came from and what you paid (or Later for either, when you don't know yet), and, if you like, the asking price. If you ran Price range, its low, median and high are one click away under the asking price.
- Leave the boxes under Fill in with AI when the car is added ticked to have the features and the listing description written for you (see below), then click Add car.
- The car's page opens. A message says what was added: the photos, the papers on its documents, how many features came from the VIN, and whether the description was written.
What the AI fills in
Everything the page read or worked out goes on the car, so you don't type it twice:
- The car's details from the VIN: year, make, model, trim, body, engine, transmission, drive and fuel, plus the mileage from the odometer photo and the color.
- Features and options (ticked by default; offered for a VIN read off the photos and decoded, or one you type, which fills them only if it decodes): what NHTSA's decode lists as standard for the VIN, plus the standard equipment of that model and trim. When the VIN fits more than one trim, only what every one of them has. Nothing is guessed for a car whose VIN did not decode: its features stay empty.
- A listing description (ticked by default): written from the car's details and its features, the same way as the Write with AI box on the car's Edit page. It is saved on the car, and shoppers see it only once you publish the car.
- The price range, if you ran it: it shows on the car's Price card.
- The damage the photos showed: a note on the car, for the recon.
Check the features and the description on the car's page before you publish it. If the AI is off or the month's allowance is used up, the car is still added: its features are only what NHTSA's decode lists as standard, and it gets no description.
What you can do
What the page offers depends on what the VIN says:
- Not in your inventory: the add form. The stock number defaults to the VIN's last 6 characters, the mileage comes from the odometer photo and the cost from a bill of sale among the photos, all editable.
- In stock: "This is stock A1234. Add these 18 photos to it?" The photos go on that car.
- Sold: the page says when you sold it, and links the car and its deal. Nothing is added. If the car came back (repossessed, bought back), click Bring it back into stock: the sold car opens with the Bring back dialog, and once it is back you land on this batch again, where the photos go on the new record. See When a sold car comes back.
- Price range: for a car read from its VIN, Price range shows what comparable cars ask near you on listing sites (Cars.com, Autotrader, CarGurus and others): the low, median and high, and each listing with a link to its page. It needs three listings or more to show a median. Each check is a web search that uses your AI allowance, so it only runs when you click. Its low, median and high become one-click asking prices on the add form, and the range shows on the car's Price card once the car is added. For a car already in your inventory, it also says where your asking price sits.
- Two cars: photos with two different VINs cannot be one car. The car is the one whose VIN label you photographed (a title or bill of sale of another car mixed in does not change it); the page marks the other car's photos, so click Remove them, then add this car. Removed photos wait 14 days for their own upload.
- No VIN: type the VIN from the car or its title. The page warns when a VIN fails its check digit, which usually means a character is misread. Without a decode, the year, make and model the photos show are filled in as a guess for you to check.
More about this car
When the car was decoded from its VIN, More about this car looks up the rest from NHTSA: the body, engine, transmission, drive, fuel, where it was built and its standard safety features, and the NHTSA recalls for its year, make and model, with a Do not drive or Park outside warning when NHTSA gives one. It is free and uses no AI allowance. The recalls are for the model, not this car, so they do not show whether a recall is still open on it and some may already be repaired: check the exact VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls. There is no history report.
What the photos are for
The same question the Photos card asks: auction, transport or recon photos stay private (only your team sees them) with that tag; ready to publish photos go on your website and feeds, tagged Complete, when you click Add car. The page preselects its guess and says why ("4 of 4 look like the lot"). For ready to publish it suggests keeping a photo private when a person is in it, it is blurry or the car is cut off; untick any you want public.
The photos go on the car in listing order: the listing photo first (the driver-side front corner, or the side you picked in Settings, Photos), then around the car, the inside and the details.
The papers among the photos
- The car's own papers (a title, MCO, registration, bill of sale, odometer statement, lien release or window sticker) go on the car's Documents card when you add it, never on the website.
- Anything else (a driver's license, a receipt, a dealership paper) is not the car's, so it is never filed on it. It stays out; file it from the assistant if you need it.
Come back later
Photos you dropped but did not add are kept for 14 days. The Inventory page shows Continue: 2019 Civic, 18 photos, and so does Add from photos. If a photo did not make it when you added the car, open the batch again from there: it now finds the car in stock, and Add the photos puts the rest on it.
FAQ
What if the assistant is off, or the month's AI allowance is used up?
The photos are not read, so there is no VIN, no guess and no papers found. The page still works: type the VIN, answer what the photos are for, and add the car.
Can two people work on the same photos?
No. The photos you drop are yours until they are on a car, so only you see the batch.
Does it cost anything?
Reading the photos uses your plan's AI allowance, like the Photos card. Adding the car uses a little more only for what you leave ticked under Fill in with AI (the features and the description); untick both and adding the car uses none.