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Import vehicles from an auction (CSV or VIN list)

Bulk-add inventory from an auction CSV export or a pasted list of VINs — map the columns, review every row, fix errors, then import.

Who: Any signed-in dealer userPlan: All plans (subject to your plan's vehicle limit)

Bought a batch of cars at auction? Import them all at once instead of typing each one. Upload the auction's CSV export — or just paste a list of VINs — review what we found, and add the ones you want to inventory.

Nothing touches your inventory until you click Import. You review every vehicle first.

Start an import

  1. Go to Inventory → Imports and click New import.
  2. Pick how you're bringing cars in: Upload file or Paste VINs (the toggle at the top).
  3. (Optional) Choose an Auction to tag every car with where it came from. Leave it on — No auction selected — if you'll set it later.

Tagging cars with an auction links them to that vendor for cost tracking. Auctions are just vendors of type Auction — add them under Vendors first, or let the import create them for you (see below).

Option A — Upload an auction CSV

Use this for a purchase list, run list, or any spreadsheet export.

  1. In your auction portal (Manheim, ACV, OPENLANE, etc.), open your purchases or run list and export to CSV.
  2. On the Upload file tab, click Choose a .csv file and pick it.
  3. Click Upload & continue. We read the file and auto-match its columns.
  4. You land on the review screen with every vehicle staged.

Limits: 10 MB and 500 rows per file. A bigger file is rejected — split it and import in parts. Only .csv works today; .xlsx (Excel) is not supported yet, so export as CSV. Common columns (VIN, year, make, model, odometer, price) are matched automatically; you can fix any match on the review screen.

Option B — Paste a list of VINs

No spreadsheet? Just paste the VINs.

  1. On the Paste VINs tab, type or paste your VINs — one per line, or separated by commas.
  2. Click Decode & continue. We decode year/make/model from each VIN.
  3. You land on the review screen. Fill in price and any missing details there.

Only valid VINs (11–17 characters) are kept, and duplicate VINs in your pasted list are collapsed. A VIN-paste import has no price — you add Purchase price and Asking price per car in the review grid.

Review the rows

Every staged car gets a status badge. Read these before importing:

  • Ready — good to go; selected by default.
  • Duplicate — the VIN or stock number already exists in your inventory (or appears earlier in this file). Not imported.
  • Needs fix — missing/invalid VIN, or the VIN didn't decode to a year/make/model. Fix it to make it Ready.
  • Skipped — you chose to leave it out.
  • Imported — already added (after you import).
  1. Check the count badges up top: N ready, N duplicate, N need fixes, N skipped (each badge only shows when its count is above zero — except ready, which always shows).
  2. To fix a row, click the pencil icon. Edit VIN, stock #, year, make, model, mileage, Purchase price, Asking price, transmission, title status, and more, then Save. The row re-checks itself instantly.
  3. To leave a car out, click the ban icon to Skip it (click again to restore).
  4. Tick or untick the checkbox on each Ready row to choose what gets imported. Use the header checkbox to select/deselect all ready rows.

In the edit dialog, leaving a field blank clears it. If a cell didn't decode (e.g. an odd title status), the box may show the raw text from your file as a hint — don't wipe it unless you mean to.

Fix the column matching (CSV only)

If a column landed in the wrong field, you don't have to re-upload.

  1. On the Column mapping card, click Adjust.
  2. For each of your file's columns, pick the right field from the dropdown (or — Ignore — to drop it).
  3. Click Apply mapping. We re-read the file with your mapping and re-stage every row.

Create the auctions referenced in the file

If your CSV names auctions you don't have as vendors yet, a panel appears: "N new auctions in this file."

  1. Review the auction names listed.
  2. Click Create N auction vendors. We add each one as an Auction vendor (name only — fill in contact details later under Vendors).
  3. On import, each car links to its own auction automatically.

If you skip this step, cars whose auction has no vendor still import — but they fall back to the single auction picked at the top (or no auction link at all), and there's no retroactive fix short of editing each vehicle. When you click Import, we'll warn you and let you proceed or go back. Use Create N auction vendors first to keep each car linked to its own auction.

Import the vehicles

  1. Confirm your Ready rows are checked.
  2. (Optional) Set the Auction dropdown at the top to apply one auction to any car that doesn't name its own.
  3. Click Import N vehicles.
  4. Each selected car is created in your inventory with acquisition source Auction. You'll see "N vehicle(s) added to inventory" and a View inventory link.

Only Ready rows you've checked are imported — Duplicate, Needs-fix, and Skipped rows are left alone. Photos from a CSV import (where the file included photo URLs) are pulled in the background after import — a progress bar shows how many are still downloading. New cars import in your normal vehicle state; set each to Available to publish it.

Imports are per-row safe to re-run. If something fails partway, just import again — cars already imported are skipped, not duplicated, and any failed photos retry.

FAQ

Does importing publish the cars on my storefront?

No. Importing only adds them to inventory. Set each car's status to Available (under Inventory) when it's ready to show.

Why is a car marked "Duplicate"?

Its VIN or stock number already exists — either elsewhere in this same file, or already in your inventory. Duplicates are never imported, so you can't accidentally create the same car twice. Remove the existing one (or change the VIN/stock if it was a typo) if you really need to re-add it.

A row says the VIN "did not decode" — what do I do?

The VIN was missing/invalid, or it returned no year/make/model. Click the pencil, correct the VIN (or fill year/make/model by hand), and Save. Once it has a valid VIN and a year/make/model, it flips to Ready.

My file has more than 500 rows. What now?

Split it into files of 500 rows or fewer and import each separately. Files over 500 rows (or 10 MB) are rejected.

Can I import an Excel (.xlsx) file?

Not yet — Excel import is coming. For now, in Excel use Save As → CSV and upload that.

My import got stuck or failed — am I out of luck?

No. A stuck or failed batch shows a red banner with Retry parse (for file uploads only) and Discard. Retry re-reads the file; Discard removes the upload and staged rows. Any cars that already imported stay in inventory.

Some rows flipped to "Needs fix" right after I clicked Import — why?

If importing a car would push you past your plan's vehicle limit, that row fails during import and is marked with the error (it isn't created). Free up a slot or upgrade under Settings → Billing, then import the remaining rows again — already-imported cars are skipped.

Where do the purchase costs come from?

From your file (if it has a price column) or what you type in the review grid as Purchase price. When neither is set, the cost defaults to $0.00 — set the real number per car in the grid. Costs are internal only — they never appear on your storefront or in any marketplace feed.