Switching from Lot Wizard: what changes, what doesn't, and how to make the move in an afternoon

If you've been on Lot Wizard for years, the thought of switching is the thing that keeps you on Lot Wizard. New software means re-typing every customer, re-shooting every vehicle photo, and explaining to your title clerk why the form she's been printing for ten years looks slightly different now.

I get it. I made the switch myself — for my own lot — and here's exactly what it looked like.

What stays the same

• The forms. Bill of Sale, FTC Buyers Guide, Federal Odometer Disclosure, MA RMV-1, MA Damage Disclosure. Same statutory disclosures, same federal language, same RMV-approved PDF for the title application. DealerVLO populates the official fillable PDFs — not custom lookalikes.
• Your title workflow. You still print, sign, attach the title and check, and take the packet to the RMV or your title runner the way you always have.
• Your trade-in process. Trade goes on the deal jacket. On completion, it auto-promotes to inventory the way you'd expect.

What changes (for the better)

• No more dongle. DealerVLO runs in the browser. Your phone is now a workstation.
• No more "the printer driver broke after the update." PDFs are generated server-side and downloaded — they print on anything.
• No more re-typing the customer onto the Buyers Guide. Every form fills from the deal data automatically.
• Photos are part of the deal. Drag and drop from your phone. They're resized, thumbnailed, and live on your dealer website by the time you walk back to the office.
• Your dealer website is included. Inventory syncs in real time. No separate plugin, no separate vendor.

What changes (that you'll need to adjust to)

• No more local data. Your inventory lives in the cloud. That's a feature — you can pull up a deal from your phone in the parking lot at the auction — but if your internet is out, you're stuck.
• Different keyboard shortcuts. Lot Wizard's F-key shortcuts don't carry over. DealerVLO is mouse + tab-based like any modern web app.
• The forms look subtly different. Same fields, same legal language, but the layout matches the current state-published versions of each form. If your title clerk has the old layout memorized, give her one to flip through before the first real deal.

The move, step by step

Estimated time: one afternoon for a 30-vehicle lot.

1. Sign up. Start the 14-day free trial. No card.
2. Add your dealership info. Name, address, license number, sales tax rate, hours. 10 minutes.
3. Add your inventory. Paste VINs. The form fills itself from NHTSA — year, make, model, engine, transmission, fuel type. You add price, mileage, and photos. About 2 minutes per car.
4. Add the customers you have open deals with. You don't need to backfill every customer who ever bought from you — just the ones with active deals or pending titles.
5. Re-create your open deals. Pick the customer, pick the vehicle, enter the terms.
6. Set up your website. Toggle "Public website enabled" in settings. Add a logo, hero image, and your hours. Point your custom domain if you have one.
7. Run your next sale through DealerVLO. Generate the forms, print, sign, file. Done.

What about my old data?

You can keep Lot Wizard running for as long as you want. It's where your historical deals and old customer records live. DealerVLO doesn't care.

For dealers who want a clean break, a CSV import is on the roadmap — drop me a note at support@dealervlo.com and I'll prioritize the format your data is in.

The numbers

• Lot Wizard typical pricing: ~$200/month + per-seat + setup — roughly $2,400+ a year before extras.
• DealerVLO: $19 a month — $228 for the whole year. Unlimited users. No setup fee. No contract.

I'm not trying to be the cheapest DMS in the world — I'm trying to be the one that takes you the least amount of friction to actually run. The price is what it costs me to run the infrastructure plus enough margin to keep building.

Try it on your next deal. If it doesn't save you 30 minutes, the trial costs you nothing.