Changelog

We’re kicking off 2025 with a milestone update, packed with hundreds of changes and improvements to dealership websites and the page building experience. We’re just getting started, and this refresh sets the stage for an exciting year ahead

Dealership Website Refresh

We’ve gone back to the drawing board and updated every single Page Builder row. That includes both foundational and visual improvements to more than 65 components. This massive overhaul includes:

• Visual Enhancements: Sharper, cleaner, and more consistent designs that elevate your dealership’s brand presence.

• Technical Upgrades: Bug fixes and improvements applied to every component to ensure smoother functionality and reliability.

• Rich Text Editor Support: Most text-based fields in the Page Builder now support rich text editing, allowing for more dynamic and engaging content creation.

There is no action required from dealers – all changes have been automatically applied across all Driverseat dealers. We’re really excited to finally ship this update, and will continue to raise the bar moving forwards.

Improvements

• Redesigned Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs) for improved readability and shopper engagement.

• Resolved an issue preventing users from dragging images into certain upload fields.

• Fixed a bug with phone number autocompletion for entries starting with country codes (e.g., +1).

• Improved tag filtering logic—inventory tags are now additive, so only vehicles matching both tags will appear in results.

• Added a filter for vehicles with 3rd-row seating, making it easier for shoppers to find family-friendly options.

• Expanded ASC coverage to help your dealership leverage even more customer insights

• Additional Bug Fixes and Improvements: Numerous other refinements to keep the platform running smoothly.

We’re thrilled to start 2025 with such a significant release, and this is only the beginning! Thank you for trusting Driverseat to power your dealership’s online presence. Your feedback fuels our progress, so keep it coming.

Over the last few months we’ve been hard at work on making Driverseat even better. Aside from many platform improvements, we’ve also relaunched our website, published a complete feature list, and began offering managed services such as copywriting, social media management, and paid search advertising.

Authentication got an upgrade

We’ve upgraded our authentication system to Clerk, delivering a smoother and more secure experience. Clerk is SOC-compliant, so your data is handled with industry-leading security standards. Here’s what’s new:

• 2FA: Two-factor authentication for stronger account protection.

• Manage active sessions: easily view and control all your logged-in devices.

• Multiple verified emails: add and manage multiple verified emails for your account.

• Passkey support: enjoy fast, secure login with passkeys.

This update makes logging in simpler while keeping your Driverseat account safer than ever.

Improvements

• Enhanced search: you can now search the inventory by features (e.g. “sunroof” or “Apple CarPlay”) directly in the search input, not just with checkbox filters.

• Page builder warning: added a confirmation alert when deleting a content row in the page builder to prevent accidental removals.

• Reviews1: added a new row type (Reviews1) in the page builder, letting you showcase reviews from Google, AutoTrader, KBB, and cars.com, complete with total counts and star ratings.

• Search1: added a new row type (Search1) to the page builder, allowing you to place an inventory search bar anywhere on your site.

• Added support for Repuso reviews.

• Added an optional setting to hide the search box in Hero5 (page builder).

• Added an option to maintain aspect ratio on images in the CTA10 page builder row.

• The FAQ page builder row now automatically generates Google schema JSON for better SEO and structured data compliance.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where sharing the inventory using the native iOS share sheet would clear applied filters.

• Fixed an issue with the image Lightbox viewer on the VDP where the layout was sometimes broken on the first slide.

• Fixed an issue where icons would render incorrectly in Hero4.

• Fixed and issue where pasting an image into the text editor would cause an error.

• Find an issue where it was sometimes impossible to change the SEO description of a homepage in the page builder.

Introducing DealerDB (in public Beta)

Many vendors claim to be "the best," but such statements are often just talk. That’s why we built DealerDB – an open-source dealership database that helps back our claims with data. DealerDB analyzes over 12,000 dealers and nearly all website providers, monitoring their performance over time.

DealerDB’s primary metric is the “performance score” – a weighted calculation of key Web Vitals, including First Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, Time to First Byte, and Interaction to Next Paint.

The performance score provided by DealerDB offers a comprehensive view of a website's health, focusing on elements that directly affect user experience. Improving these metrics can lead to better user engagement, satisfaction, and ultimately, higher conversion rates.

While working on DealerDB, we made sure to further optimize Driverseat websites to make sure that our dealers consistently outperform the competition. Try DealerDB today and see how your dealership stacks up!

Other Improvements & bug fixes

• Added a new page builder row (Contact 4)

• Added the ability to add inventory segments via the page builder

• Added the ability to export as CSV for submissions captured via custom forms

• Added support for even more ASC standard GA4 events - for complete coverage

• Added support and parsing for HTML vehicle descriptions

• Changed info tooltips to use a contextual help popover in order to ensure it works correctly on even more mobile devices

• Updated the design of the Vehicle Highlight 2 page builder row for consistency

• Improved account switching behavior for users with access to multiple dealerships. Instead of automatically resetting your view to “Home” when switching accounts, the previous dashboard view persists across dealerships.

• Made improvements to the the AI blog editor

• Improved ADA compliance by adding aria-label descriptions for icon-only buttons, aria-labels for links that open in a new tab or window, and more miscellaneous improvements

• Fixed several UI bugs on the page builder and page builder components

Introducing Automatic OEM Rebates

Starting today, all dealerships on the Driverseat platform have access to OEM Rebates and Incentives. We’re happy to offer this functionality free of charge for all current users. If you’d like to enable rebates for your dealership, please reach out to support and we’ll be more than happy to get you set up.

Improved Navigation

The navigation bar has been updated with better support for dropdowns across all screen widths. As of this update, instead of simply combining all pages under the “More” tab, your site will maintain its original hierarchy by nesting entire tabs (including the title) under “More.”

No action is required by dealers.

New Page Builder Row

We’ve introduced a new CTA page builder row, which allows for a heading, subheading, a disclaimer, an image, and a a CTA.

Other Improvements

• Improved CLS across all elements

• Added more automatic H2, H3, and H4 elements for page builder rows

• Added the option to only display vehicles with photos in VehicleHighlight page builder rows

• Added an HTML page builder row with the ability to create custom sections

• Added the option for dealers to blur out pricing on the SRP

• Updated the sitewide banner to support a CTA

• Added support for simultaneous image uploads to the media library

• Added support for image cropping on upload

• Fixed an issue where filtering by new + commercial at the same time wouldn’t save the state in the URL

• Fixed a bug where you couldn’t delete the first slide in a carousel

• Several technical SEO improvements

Enhanced Platform Features

Over the last several weeks, we have introduced a number of new features to improve the overall functionality and user engagement on dealership websites.

General Improvements

• JSON+LD Structured Data Integration: We've implemented JSON+LD structured data on both inventory and home pages for all dealerships. This update is designed to enhance content visibility and interaction through richer search results in Google SERPs. Learn more about structured data.

• Enhanced Text Editor: The text editor now supports embedding YouTube videos and creating tables, offering more versatility in content creation.

• New CTA(9) Page Builder Row

Granular Dealership Control

• Lock Pricing Options: Dealers can now choose whether or not they want to display pricing on their website - providing greater flexibility and control over how pricing information is displayed.

• Validating Lead Emails and Phone Numbers: To ensure higher quality leads, we've added the capability to validate lead emails and phone numbers directly through the site settings.

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

• Auto Image Alt Text Improvement: Our auto alt text for images has been enhanced to exclude brand names and pricing information, reducing the likelihood of an incorrect caption.

• API Caching and Server Performance: Significant improvements have been made to API caching and server performance, reducing Time to First Byte (TTFB) and enhancing overall site responsiveness.

• Balanced H1 Texts: Automatic balancing of H1 texts across pages has been improved, ensuring better SEO and user readability.

• Inventory Navigation Bug Fix: Resolved an issue where navigating between inventory pages with different filters caused display errors.

• Blog Post Image Saving Fix: Resolved an issue that prevented blog posts from saving correctly when adding inline images.

Commercial Inventory

Previously: The platform had limited filtering options for commercial vehicles, which may have made it challenging for dealers to showcase their commercial inventory effectively and for customers to find vehicles that meet their specific needs.

Now: The platform has significantly expanded the range of filters available for commercial vehicles. This enhancement means that dealers can now offer more detailed and tailored commercial inventory pages. Customers can filter vehicles by various attributes, such as:

• Max Payload: The maximum weight a vehicle can carry.

• Towing Capacity: The maximum weight a vehicle can tow.

• Ground Clearance: The distance between the ground and the lowest point of the vehicle, important for off-road capability.

• Bed Size: The dimensions of a vehicle's cargo area, crucial for transporting goods.

• much more…

This expansion allows for a more customized search experience, enabling users to find vehicles that precisely match their commercial needs.

SEO URLs and Dynamic H1 Headings

Previously: Inventory pages might have had generic or less search-engine-optimized URLs and static H1 headings, which could affect the site's search engine visibility and user experience.

Now: The update introduces more SEO-friendly URLs and dynamic H1 headings for inventory pages. This means that:

• URLs are now structured in a way that is more understandable and relevant to both users and search engines. For example, new inventory pages are accessible via “/inventory/new,” making them easier to find and share.

• H1 headings on these pages dynamically match the page content, such as “New Inventory” for new inventory pages, enhancing page relevance and potentially improving search engine rankings.

Other improvements

• Added support for helper text to the custom form builder

• Added a new page builder row (CTA8)

• Added support for fine tuned rotate speed to the Image2 page builder row

Introducing AI Copywriter (Beta)

Starting today, all dealerships on the Driverseat platform have access to powerful generative content capabilities at no extra cost.

We're thrilled to provide dealers with innovative tools designed to enhance their content creation efforts. The AI Copywriter beta is available immediately, and we invite you to explore it within the blog post editor on the Driverseat dashboard.

Media Handling Improvements

Key Highlights:

• Added automatic AI-Generated Alt Text for all images for further improvements to search engine visibility and accessibility. Alt text descriptions can also be edited from the dashboard.

• Introduced Image Placeholders to accelerate page load times, further improving the browsing experience for car shoppers .

• Images are now optimized based on the visitors’ screen size, to further increase loading speeds

• Introduced an Enhanced Media Library Picker - allowing dealers to re-use previously uploaded photos, edit meta data, and more.

Rich Text Editor Improvements

Key Highlights

• Greatly improved performance of all rich text fields across the dealership dashboard. Writing long form content should feel much more pleasant.

• Added support for inline images across all rich text inputs

• Fixed several bugs, including:

  • inconsistent behavior of the pop up page builder text editor

  • being occasionally unable to add hyperlinks in text body

  • incorrect list and numbered list styling

Bug fixes and other improvements

• Reduced JS Bundle: Reduced the JS bundle by approximately 30%, resulting in significantly improved web vital scores and overall performance.

• Updated Page Builder Rows: Page builder rows with images now utilize a set aspect ratio to minimize layout shift.

• Inventory Segments Filter: Inventory segments can now be filtered by year, odometer, and price for easier navigation.

• Improved Image Carousels: All image carousels now use native scroll functionality, enhancing performance and responsiveness.

• Additional Features: Added TradeIn1 page builder row and support for mobile image variants for Hero2.

Refreshed Inventory Pages

Over the last few weeks we began rolling out updates to inventory pages for all Driverseat dealerships. This refresh includes several enhancements designed to improve visibility and interaction, especially on mobile devices.

Key Highlights:

1. Enhanced Mobile Visibility: More vehicles are now visible on mobile devices, providing a richer browsing experience.

2. Improved Photo Browsing: Users can now scroll through vehicle photos directly on the Search Results Page (SRP) without needing to visit the Vehicle Details Page (VDP).

3. Direct Lead Submission from SRP: It's now possible to send a lead directly from the SRP, making it easier and faster for customers to express their interest.

4. Better Keyboard Navigation: Navigation via keyboard has been improved, making our platform more accessible, especially for users with disabilities.

5. Advanced Filtering Options: We've introduced more refined filters to help users quickly find their desired vehicles.

6. Clearer Pricing Information: Pricing details are now presented in a more digestible format, enhancing transparency and comprehension for users.

7. Additional Enhancements: These updates come alongside various other improvements aimed at creating a more intuitive and efficient user experience.

Impact:

• Improved User Experience: These changes are designed to make browsing and selecting vehicles more convenient and enjoyable for users.

• Increased Accessibility: With better keyboard navigation and clearer information presentation, our platform becomes more accessible to a wider range of users.

• Enhanced Efficiency: The ability to send leads directly from the SRP and the improved photo browsing feature streamline the user journey, potentially increasing engagement and conversion rates.

Lead Data Encryption

We are pleased to announce an important security enhancement in Driverseat. All lead data submitted through Driverseat dealer websites is now encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with a 128-bit key length. This update significantly enhances the security and confidentiality of sensitive customer information, aligning with our commitment to data protection and privacy.

Impact:

• Increased Security: Lead data, including personal and sensitive information, is now more secure against unauthorized access and data breaches.

• Compliance: This update helps in complying with various data protection regulations, ensuring that we maintain high standards for data privacy.

• No Action Required by Dealerships: The encryption process is fully integrated and automated within Driverseat, requiring no additional action or changes from our dealership partners.

Other improvements

• Added the ability to search through VINs in VehicleHighlight filters

• Added support for Chevrolet window stickers

Large Framework Upgrade

Last week, we have upgraded to the latest release of Next.js (a React framework) which brings a lot of exciting performance improvements to every Driverseat dealership.

With this update, we’re able to offload more website rendering work to the server – further reducing the amount of JavaScript that needs to load with your website.

This results in faster initial page loads and improved performance, especially on slower network connections or less powerful devices. Due to the savings in processing time, we expect that our dealers will see improvements to their Google Vitals & overall customer satisfaction.

Digital Business Cards

With this update, every dealership employee will automatically have a digital business card that they can share with their customers. Digital business cards include the employee’s Name, Title, Department, Dealership Name & Address, as well as an “Add to Contacts” option.

You can retrieve the URL for a specific employee’s business card from the “Employee” view on the Driverseat dashboard.

Bug fixes & Improvements

• Added the ability to filter by VIN for all VehicleHighlight page builder rows

• Added an option to filter by “has photo” for the VehicleHighlight1page builder row

• Added mileage display for new vehicles

• Added an option to “clone + edit” for custom forms

• Vehicles with no price will now show up last when sorting by price (for both ascending and descending sorting view)

• Improved the placeholder content for several page builder rows

• Fixed a bug where making changes to the Privacy1 page builder row sometimes prevented page from saving

Custom Forms

With this update, your dealership can create form templates which can be used inside of the page builder.

You can create your first custom form by going to the “Forms” page (found under the Website section of the sidebar).

Once your templates are created, you can chose the style and form you’d like to use under the “Form” content section found in the insert menu of the page builder.

All form submissions are sent to your CRM by default, but you can also choose to receive submissions via email.

This is our first take on custom forms, and we’re open to dealer feedback. Please let us know how we can make the form builder better tailored to your needs.

Support for ASC Specification (GA4)

The Automotive Standards Council (ASC) created a set of universal event tracking standards and guidelines for the transition to Google Analytics 4.

As of this update, Driverseat fully supports the ASC Event Standard for GA4.

We will publish a more detailed blog post on the implications of the ASC specification, but long story short - this update helps your dealership better understand the performance of your website and the behavior of your shoppers.

Bug fixes & Improvements

• Added support for mobile image variants to Hero1 and Hero5page builder rows

• Added an option to lock the aspect ratio of images used in the Text6 page builder row

• Improved the reliability of our sync service with Google Merchant

• Fixed a bug where restoring an archived blog post wouldn’t show up under user activity

• General performance improvements and bug fixes

Rebates & Incentive Breakdown

Driverseat dealerships now have the option to configure and display incentive & rebate information on their SRP or VDPs.

If you’d liked to enable the incentive breakdown for your dealership, please contact us and we’ll help you get it set up.

Google Vehicle Listings

Display your inventory across various Google surfaces, including your dealerships’ Business Profile and Google Search. With this update, Google users can search, filter, and learn more key information about your vehicles before hitting your website.

Bug fixes & Improvements

• Improved price display and readability on the SRP vehicle cards

• Improved support for GA4

• Improved SRP search and filter performance

• Added additional checks to monitor and alert of dealership inventory sync errors

• Fixed a bug where the “vehicle detail view” on the dealer dashboard would become unresponsive

• General performance improvements and bug fixes

Shopper Alerts

Your website shoppers now have the option to configure two types of alerts: price change notifications, and search alerts. Both of these are enabled by default for every Driverseat dealership.

Any user with an account at your dealership can sign up to receive an email every time the price of their watched vehicle changes (they will also be notified when the vehicle is sold). Additionally, shoppers can set up custom search alerts for any query on the SRP and be notified when new vehicles matching their search parameters have been added to the inventory.

Payment Calculator Component

A standalone payment calculator is now available as a page builder row. You can find it under the “Misc” category in the page builder Insert menu.

Bug fixes & Improvements

• Added a disclaimer to the settings panel of the “Team 1” page builder row when no departments have been configured

• Added the ability to customize the lead form CTA text and description to the “Site Settings” on the dashboard

• Improved the behavior of the “Continue where you left off” toast. It will no longer show up on VDPs, and be overall less intrusive.

• Fixed a bug where sharing a VDP via the mobile share sheet would send the link to the homepage of the dealership instead

• Fixed a bug on the VDP where the “Vehicle Description” section was visible even when no description was provided in the inventory feed

• Fixed a visual bug where the list view of dealership accounts would sometimes be displayed in the wrong order

2023 is ramping up, and we’ve been busy. This month we shipped a few exciting updates and squashed some bugs 🪲

What’s New

• Improved VDP URL structure to include vehicle condition

• Improved “Sync Activity” tab on the dashboard (faster loading, quick search, UI tweaks)

• Redesigned VehicleFinder1 page builder row to be more versatile

• Added a new CTA row to the page builder

• Added background color options to CTA6

• Added the ability to configure a percentage-based downpayment amount for the payment calculator

• Added the ability to filter by Tags

• Added support for Google Analytics 4 (dealers are encouraged to start thinking about switching over)

• Added price estimates to owned vehicles in customer accounts

• Minor improvements to various page builder components to further unify design consistency

Bugs

• Minor visual bugs on dashboard settings

First product update of 2023, and it’s a good one! This month we shipped a few exciting updates and squashed some bugs 🪲

What’s New

• Improved the home for user accounts, and greatly expanded the functionality

• Added the ability for customers to add vehicles they own to their account

• Added the ability for customers to submit owned vehicles as “trade-in”

• Added the ability to see customer accounts stats and user details

• Added “pick up where you left off” session continuity for returning users

• Added weekly digest emails for dealers that have missed notifications

• Added more vehicle models that can appear in Vehicle Highlight 3

• Added a “recently viewed” override option to Vehicle Highlight 2

• Added a disclaimer to the payment calculator

• Removed ambiguity around removed users on the dealer dashboard

• Decreased the amount of Javascript on websites, improving performance

• Unified design of mobile titles across several page builder components

Bugs

• Fixed a bug where the VIN Explorer would fail to decode a correct VIN

• Fixed a bug where adding a hyperlink to the sitewide notification banner would cause it to be larger than it’s supposed to be

• Fixed a visual bug on the “page details” screen inside of the page builder where long page URLs weren’t truncated

• Fixed a visual bug where content was missing padding in component settings on the page builder

Final product update of 2022! This month we shipped a few exciting updates and squashed some bugs 🪲 Here’s what’s new:

Hero 5 row

Shipped a new Hero page builder component – perfect to switch things up going into the new year.

More dealer-configurable settings

We’ve given dealers more options to control how their site looks to shoppers. You can now customize dealer fees, payment calculator defaults, inventory display, and call-to-actions.

More

• Added support for powersports vehicles

• Added Window Stickers for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram vehicles

• Added a new rolling Logo Cloud row to the page builder

• Added a new Contact row to the page builder

• Added support for more slides in CTA4 page builder row

• Added the ability to search by any part of the VIN

• Added the ability to filter inventory by monthly payment

• Added a “Read All” button to dashboard notifications

• Added the ability to customize what inventory segment applies to “commercial” vehicles. Contact us to set this up.

• Added a toast message when updating a page that’s already published

• Unified design across several page builder components

• Improved bot traffic detection and filtering

• Improved Schedule Service 1 page builder row UI

• Improved the way social media links are displayed in dealer group footers

Bugs

• Fixed a bug where the KBB trade-in form would sometimes overlap filters on the inventory

• Fixed a bug where the “Key Features” section would show up on the VDP when it contained no content

• Fixed a dashboard bug where employee bios would fail to save

• Fixed a visual dashboard bug in activity history where the page title was crossed out instead of the row for row deletions

• Fixed a dashboard bug where clicking on the page title in notifications would not clear the notification

• Fixed a dashboard bug where clicking on a vehicle from activity history would lead to a 404 page

• Fixed a dashboard bug where Hero1 images would sometimes fail to preview in the page builder

• Fixed a dashboard bug where monthly dealership reports would be stuck on “generating”

Our team kept busy in September. This month we shipped a few exciting updates and squashed some bugs 🪲 Here’s what’s new:

Notifications

We launched notifications for every dealership to ensure that you always stay in the loop. Notifications include updates on pages and posts you collaborate on, as well as relevant performance metrics that will help paint a picture of your website's health.

Every DS user will also begin receiving a weekly round-up of missednotifications in their inbox (you can turn it off in settings).

Inventory Segments for Page Builder Rows

Vehicle Highlight page builder rows just got smarter! We rolled out the first version of inventory segmentation, which allows for basic refinements. We will be expanding on the number of filters and functionality over time, stay tuned.

More

• Added the ability to re-send and revoke invites

• Sitewide accessibility improvements

• Added support for powersports vehicles

• Improved skeleton loaders across dealership websites and dashboard

• Performance improvements (upgraded to React 18)

• Improvements to how actions by removed users are displayed

• To learn more about the new settings, activity history, and managed services, read our mid-month release notes here

Bugs

• Fixed a visual bug on the dashboard where it looked like an old inventory sync was still in progress even after it was complete

• Fixed a bug with how percentage change was calculated on the 30-day graph on the dashboard

• Fixed a bug where some search inputs would throw an error

• Fixed a bug where autocomplete would sometimes not work on the trade-in form

• Removed CTAs from dropdown menus on reserved vehicle cards on the SRP  

We’ve had a productive start to our September here at Driverseat. Check out everything that’s new:

Activity History

The Activity History view has received some much-needed attention. Aside from better (more intuitive) organization, we’re now also tracking many more events. Check it out for yourself under “Team” > “Activity” in Settings.

New Settings UI

The entire Settings UI has been refreshed and reorganized for usability. It should now be easier to find the settings/configurations that you’re looking for.

Managed Services (SEM, SEO, SMM, Copywriting)

You might have noticed a couple of call-to-action banners sprinkled around your dashboard. Don’t worry, we’re not going to pester you – just remember that Driverseat is well equipped to help you with your unique content needs.

More

• Added "Reports” settings that allow you to manage who gets to receive monthly performance reports for your dealership

• Upgraded to React 18, which should translate to some overall performance improvements

• Improved skeleton loaders on both dealership websites and dealership dashboard

• Minor UI tweaks to a few page builder components to improve design language consistency (Image 2, LogoCloud)

Bugs

• Fixed an issue where deleting a user would provide no feedback

• Improved number formatting in various places across the dashboard

• Fixed a bug where changing dealership nickname threw an error until a refresh

This month at Driverseat we squashed some bugs 🪲 and shipped a few exciting updates – here is what’s new:

Pre-Order Bank

Set up countdowns for vehicle pre-orders and keep your customers in the loop. This feature comes with 2 page-builder components that you can use throughout your website, as well as a smart Inventory CTA.

Team Page got more personal

You can now add short bios and Facebook page links for all of your team members.

Quick Actions from SRP Cards

With this new quick-action drop-down, your shoppers can do more without visiting the VDP.

More

• Added the ability to add content sections below the inventory feed on the SRP

Bugs

• Fixed a bug that would cause the Inventory page to sometimes become unresponsive

• Fixed a bug where the “show cars” button in mobile filters was not always visible across all devices

• Fixed a bug where the VIN Explorer would sometimes fail to decode vehicles

This month at Driverseat we shipped a few exciting updates, and squashed some bugs 🪲 Here’s what’s new:

FAQ Component

You asked, and we listened. The new FAQ component lets you answer your visitors’ most common questions with ease.

Go-Live Checklist

Dealership onboarding has received some love. Those joining Driverseat will now see a checklist of everything that needs to be done prior to going live – right from on their dashboard.

Spacer Component

Sometimes you need more space, we get that. That’s why we shipped a new customizable spacer component that lets you place a gap anywhere on the page to really fine-tune the look and feel of your design.

More

• CTA 3, CTA 5, and Text 7 page-builder components received a fresh coat of paint to better match even more configurations

• Above fold UI on the mobile inventory page was refreshed to better optimize for screen real estate and consistency

• Added a shortcut to quickly clone and edit pages and blog posts

• Many improvements to user accounts

Bugs

• Fixed a bug with how “percentage change” was calculated on the 14-day graph on the dashboard

• Fixed the bug where the “sessions / user” metric was rounded on dashboard grids

• Removed the “warranty” tab on pre-owned vehicles with mileage higher than the OEM warranty

• Fixed a page builder bug where the content blocks in the sidebar editor would disappear after saving in the large editor

Today we’re excited to announce that user accounts are here, and automatically enabled for every dealership 🎉

With accounts, dealerships can automatically offer a more personalized shopping experience to every visitor. Here’s what’s new:

For Everyone:

• Can “like” up to 4 vehicles to save them for later

For Logged In Customers:

• Can “like” an unlimited number of vehicles to save them for later

• Can view their browsing history and pick up where they left off

• Can see which of their liked or viewed vehicles have been sold

• Can view their inquiry and trade in history

• Can configure their ZIP code to personalize market-based pricing (for participating dealers)

• Can configure their payment calculator with their preferred term, trade-in value, and down payment

• Can submit inquiries without needing to fill out any lead capture forms

We’re very excited to launch accounts and continue helping your dealership increase customer engagement and satisfaction. We have a lot of additional functionality planned for upcoming releases, so keep your eyes peeled.

Today we’re excited to announce that our VIN Explorer tool is available to every dealership in Early Access 🎉

VIN Explorer allows you to decode any VIN and get the most accurate information on that vehicle from over 2 dozen sources.

Every dealership on the Driverseat platform should see a new tab on the sidebar called “VIN Explorer,” which will let you enter and decode any VIN. When a VIN has been decoded you will be able to view the vehicle’s original window sticker and see 7 categories of information for each vehicle:

1. Pricing

The pricing section includes the vehicle’s MSRP, as well as more pricing data sourced from KBB, JD Power, CarGurus, Edmunds, and third-party marketplaces like Vroom, Carvana, and Carmax.

This section should help your dealership price trade-ins, and see how you could compare to third-party marketplaces.

2. History

The history section includes odometer readings and estimates, ownership information, and a selection of the most relevant data from Carfax and Autocheck.

3. Recalls

This section is pretty self-explanatory – if this vehicle has any recalls, all of them along with their details will be listed here.

4. Basics

The “Basics” section includes all of the basic specs for this vehicle (down to the Sub Trim, if available).

5. Warranty

This section provides information on the manufacturer’s warranty.

6. Options & Equipment

These 2 sections go into much more depth than the “Basics,” – displaying all of the options and extras that are configured for this vehicle.

We’re very excited about this launch, and VIN Explorer will remain free for every dealership while in Early Access. We hope that it’s useful for your dealership, and are eager to learn about how we can continue to improve it.

This week at Driverseat we squashed some bugs 🪲 and shipped a few updates to the dealer dashboard – here is what’s new:

Dashboard Improvements

• New, better organized sidebar (Improved grouping of actionable items, a better way to select a dealership for those with multiple accounts, and an easier way to get in touch with support)

• New Video 3 component (support for 2 side by side videos)

• New way to favourite a dealership for those with multiple accounts. To configure a favorite dealership, visit your Profile settings.

• Added a setting for primary and accent dealership colors. Configuring these will unlock additional personalization options for sitewide notification banners and CTA 6.

• Added the ability to send reports via email directly from the Reports tab

• Added the ability to add a nickname to a dealership

Bugs

• Fixed a bug where inquiry comments would have “false” added to the end of the message

• Fixed a bug where saving a blog post would cause the title and image to disappear until a refresh

• Fixed a bug that caused backdated blog posts to be off by 1 day

• Fixed a bug where clicking on “Back to Results” on the VDP would clear previously selected filters

Today we’re excited to launch reports for every dealership 🎉

You will notice a new tab on your sidebar titled “Reports” where you can easily generate performance reports for any time period.

These reports are designed to deliver the most relevant information to your dealership, at a glance. This currently includes a breakdown of where your leads come from and their performance for the selected time period, as well as a summary of the most relevant website metrics.

We know you’re keeping busy, which is why Driverseat will automatically generate and email you a dealership performance report every month, so you can stay in the know.

This week at Driverseat we squashed some bugs 🪲 and shipped a few updates to the dealer dashboard – here is what’s new:

Dashboard

• New Image 2 component (supports dynamic height, and multiple slides)

• New iFrame component

• Ability to move employees between dealerships

• Improvements to the VIN explorer

Websites

• Slight UI tweaks for the Hero 4 component (reduced height, increased readability, and added a more actionable CTA)

• Improved the display of vehicles with an electric motor on the VDP

• New row of tags for the VDP

Misc

• Status page is now publically available (can monitor up-time of all Driverseat services live)

• Fixed a bug where dealership address wouldn’t save on the dashboard

• Fixed a bug where deleting footer links would delete the wrong one

• Improved organization of page builder components

• Fixed a bug where it was possible to publish a new page with an incorrect slug

• Improved inquiry filter drop downs to be smarter across the different inquiry types

• Fixed a bug where going back to the page list view after publishing a page would not show the new page until a refresh

Today we’re rolling out the ability for dealers to implement market-based pricing across their website.

This feature allows dealers to segment their site visitors into what they define as “In-Market” or “Out of Market” customers, and markup or discount accordingly. When configured, all visitors will be prompted to enter their zipcode to view vehicle pricing.

Once complete, customers will be told whether or not they fall into the “In-Market” category, and the pricing breakdown on the VDP will include a new line with the market adjustment.

Customer status, along with the modified price will be sent over to your CRM upon a lead submission.

We’re starting this week off by shipping a couple of new features and a few quality of life updates.

Here’s what’s new:

1. Driverseat now supports Facebook Feed Syndication. This means that dealers can now set up a new auto catalog through Facebook, which will remain in sync with their feeds. This is a great way to utilize your available inventory in FB’s Automotive Inventory Ads.

2. Caching improvements – page builder / site changes will reflect much faster than before.

3. New page builder component - Image 2 (full width image row with 2 style options - thin/thick)

4. Ability to request a new component. If there’s a component you think that we’re missing, you can make a suggestion right from the page builder (while we might not build everything, your suggestions help us improve driverseat for everyone)

5. Added the ability to update your dealership’s location settings.

As our component library continues to grow, we realized that there needs to be a better way to organize all of the available rows. Today, we shipped an update that does just that – check it out in your page editor.

Also, we’ve added a warning pop-up when trying to publish a page without updated meta details. This should help prevent any accidental publication of pages that aren’t quite finished.

Today we shipped an update that added more functionality to the dealership dashboard and squashed some annoying bugs 🐞

What’s new

• Added ability to sort by lead type under inquiries

• Linked up VDP view counts under vehicle interest

• Improved analytics graphs readability

• Added an intermediary step when enabling the sitewide banner

• Added the ability to add social profile links in settings

• Removed the ability to add meta keywords, since Google no longer considers this for SERP placement

• Improved “no results” pages across all list views

• Added a redirect for new users accepting a dealership invite to take them to the home page

• Fixed a bug where the default analytics view appeared unselected in the UI

• Fixed a bug where the page would sometimes crash when switching between time periods on the lead view

• Fixed a bug where users would get an error when switching between dealerships

• Fixed a bug where analytics graphs didn’t match Google Analytics due to dealer time zone

Today we’re excited to announce that we shipped yet another update to the page builder.

What’s new

• Introduced an image size upload limit of 2MB to reduce page load times on custom pages

• Introduced a 160 character limit to meta descriptions to match what is going to be displayed by search engines

• The sidebar navigation is now hidden when editing a page, to allow for a bigger canvas to work with

• Added an icon picker to page builder components with icon support

• Improved Vehicle Highlight components

• Added a new CTA row with different theming options

• Added the ability to collapse nested children pages on the pages list view

• Added a tool tip explainer to the “Sitewide announcement banner”

• Improved the UI of the “Sitewide announcement banner” settings to better match the rest of the dashboard

• Improved the way that rows without user-configurable settings are displayed

• Added a warning when attempting to publish a page with incomplete metadata

• Fixed an issue that prevented CTA2 from being edited or ordered

This month we’ve shipped many quality of life updates and performance improvements.

What’s New

• Cleaned up the “Sync Activity” view in the dashboard to provide additional information

• Added a new page builder component to display Google Reviews

• Added a “you have reached the end” text to the bottom of SRP when no more vehicles are found

• Added a monthly payment on hover to inventory vehicle cards

• Added additional info to page details tab on the page builder

• Added the ability to “clone and move” a page or blog post from one dealership to another

• Improved validation on the inline lead capture form on the VDP

• Improved the UI of the Trade-In Tool for small screens

• Fixed the Privacy Policy component overflow issue on mobile

• Fixed an issue that would cause an incorrect lead count to be displayed in the analytics charts on the home page of the dashboard

• Fixed an issue that prevented analytics charts from loading on the home page of the dashboard

• Fixed an issue that would prevent mobile modals from working properly at times

Today we shipped an update that focuses on improving the browsing experience for the customer.

• Added smart vehicle category groups to inventory & removed inventory banner to optimize engagement

• New search bar placement that remains sticky as the user browses

• Fixed a bug that would cause “new” and “used” filters to be stuck when using the navbar to switch selected vehicle condition while on the inventory

• Added support for multiple tags to be displayed on the vehicle card

Today we shipped an update that added additional functionality to the dealership dashboard

What’s new

• Improved meta settings on the page builder

• Added a site wide notification banner that is user configurable

• Added the ability to create custom analytics views

• Added ability to edit navbar and footer settings from the page builder

• Improved image upload and added clearly defined states

• Added the ability to upload an avatar

• Added the ability to upload a dealership logo

• Introduced a large text editor for the page builder components that have a rich text editor

• Introduced 2 new page builder rows

• Added additional settings to allow for further tweaking on several page builder components

• Fixed a bug that would prevent the “save” button from sticking to the bottom of the screen in component settings

• Fixed a bug that would prevent editing rich text in blog posts

• Fixed the bug where “last update at” wouldn’t change for new pages

• Fixed a bug that would cause testimonials to be out of order

This update includes an all-new top bar that follows users as they scroll down the VDP, allowing them to interact with the various CTA’s regardless of where they are on the page.

What else is new

• Added a hover overlay to images to make it easier to distinguish which image is being selected

• Added “hot vehicle” tags for popular cars

• Fixed the issue where vehicle location wouldn’t display correctly on smaller screens

• Set the first vehicle image as the meta image for every VDP

• Add the like button to mobile VDP

🎉 We’re excited to announce that our Trade-In lead capture has shipped. This new lead capture form allows users to either enter their VIN to decode the vehicle or manually input their car.

From there, customers can provide additional information regarding their vehicle:

• mileage

• cosmetic and mechanical condition

• report any accidents or body-work

• add comments and vehicle photos

This information is automatically connected to the lead and passed through to your CRM.

We’ve shipped a new less intrusive lead capture form that lives at the bottom of every VPD. This form will allow the customer to request additional information about the vehicle, confirm availability, or schedule a test drive.

Dealers have asked for it, and we delivered. Lightbox image viewer is here, along with performance improvements and bug fixes.

• added light-box image viewer for all VDPs – accessible through the image gallery

• launched price alerts via mobile wallet for every lead

• brought back top bar with dealer contact information

After months of tweaking and iterating in a closed beta with trusted dealership partners, driverseat is excited to change the way next-generation dealerships run their online business.

When we released the first version of driverseat, the modern web framework world was the wild west with no true winners. Most big companies were implementing DIY solutions, and it was hard to follow the leaders. Over the last year, a clear winner was established – Vercel.

With this in mind, we decided that it was time for us to differentiate ourselves even further, by improving our performance scores to be the best in the biz, refreshing our design, and setting ourselves up to easily add additional features in the near future (user accounts, consignment, AI engine recommendation, etc)

Speed & Stability

Rewrote the platform using Nextjs and hosting is now done on Vercel which is used by the biggest silicon valley companies like Netflix, Uber, and Ticketmaster

• More tests → we've written 4x the tests and now use a static language (Typescript) to catch potential bugs at build time before sites are deployed

• Google Lighthouse scores greatly improved. Set a new target of 90+ for every release moving forward

• Optimized from the ground up for the new Google Web Vitals, which will improve dealer search engine performance

• The entire website is now cached at the edge, ensuring that it will never go down even if the API fails

• Navigation and page loading is even faster as a result – making dealership websites more accessible even on the slowest networks

• GTmetrix scores have far surpassed every other dealership website provider

General Improvements

Complete facelift on the home page, to bring the sites in line with the latest trends while improving the user experience

• Improved the above fold content to provide more actionable items for shoppers

• Improved the use of space by redesigning some existing sections

• Implemented a new way to search for a vehicle by determining shoppers' wants and budget

• Smarter 404 pages, with similar vehicle suggestions when a car has been sold

• Converted every section into a standalone component that will be editable via the dashboard, allowing for instant on the fly changes

• Improved the "meet our team" page with a greater focus on profile images and a better way of sending a message

• Redesigned the blog list and post views to improve readability, as well as fix any display issues across content types

• Dozens of improvements to other existing pages to unify the design language and performance. The browsing experience should now be improved for customers across all screen sizes

• Improved OpenGraph images cross the main pages to provide more context when shared

• Improved meta descriptions for primary pages to optimize for some long-tail search queries

VDP

• Price alerts via Mobile Pass are now default on every lead submission, providing dealers with an additional channel to engage with potential buyers

• Added new component with additional vehicle photos towards the bottom of the page to keep customers engaged

• Optimized vehicle recommendations for "Similar Cars"

• Refreshed the above fold layout

• Testing more "bold" buttons on important CTAs

• improved clarity around which dealership the vehicle is located

• improved readability of additional vehicle features and specifications

Inventory

• Added a small hero with title and vehicle counts (+ points to technical SEO for now adding an H1 title to inventory)

• Used the analytics from the last year to determine most popular queries, and optimized new filters visible right away

• Ability to quickly remove individual filters, or clear the entire search

• A new way to apply multiple filters that's more reliable and user friendly

• Replaced filter sliders for pricing and mileage categories with more intuitive filter groups

• Optimized vehicle cards for screen real estate by removing bulk

• Filtering by year is now easier

• Infinite scroll is back for vehicle cards – now works correctly, and remembers position when navigating back from the VDP

• Improved search functionality (ex, results no longer populate mid-word, but rather wait for a break in typing input)

• Mobile feed is much faster and easier to swipe through images without going to the VDP

• More user-friendly "empty state" for when no results are found

• Bug fixes and general improvements (i.e. filter modules no longer scroll in the background, sorting works as expected on mobile, language changes on sorting drop-downs, etc)

Today’s update shipped a few tweaks to the VDP and the page builder.

• Improved the pricing breakdown UI on the VDP

• Added a link out to Google Maps when clicking on the dealership name on the VDP

• Added explainer tooltips to the page builder UI and page list view

• Shipped 2 new page builder components

• Fixed issue where CTA5 was not editable in the page builder

• Changed Hero 2 to allow for 2 CTA buttons