New Car Dealership Integration Manual

Developer guidance for integrating DecisioQ dealership decisions with CRM, DMS, inventory, sales, F&I, EV, service, compliance, customer experience, and management workflows.
1New Car Dealership Overview

The New Car Dealership sector in the DecisioQ Decision Catalog is identified by AUTO-NCD. It currently covers 100 decision types across sales, CRM, inventory, F&I, customer experience, compliance, EV and connected services, facilities, strategy, and performance management.

DecisioQ integrations should load sector, category, decision, Decision Preparation Model, and scenario metadata from the Decision Catalog. Do not hard-code old template names, static decision lists, or legacy request models.

Recommended first deployment: start with a measurable advisory workflow such as internet lead prioritization, sales consultant assignment, dealer trade approval, trade-in offer review, lender selection, protection package recommendation, or aging inventory action.

2Catalog Discovery Flow

New car dealership client applications should use the same discovery flow as the Business Decision Studio:

  1. Load GET /decisioncatalog through the approved server-side Decision Catalog gateway.
  2. Populate Sector from catalog.sectors[] and select AUTO-NCD for New Car Dealership.
  3. Populate Category from selectedSector.categories[]. Example categories include Compliance & Risk, Customer Experience, CRM & Lead Management, EV & Mobility, Finance & Insurance, Inventory Management, Facility Operations, Digital Services, and Business Strategy.
  4. Populate Decision from selectedCategory.decisions[] when available, or call /decisioncatalog/sectors/{sectorCode}/categories/{categoryCode}/decisions.
  5. Display Decision Name only in the dropdown while keeping decisionId as the option value.
  6. Load full decision detail from /decisioncatalog/decisions/{decisionId} before rendering Guided Data Collection.

Decision detail is the source of truth for criterion names, data guidance, scale, direction, profile options, scenarios, and overview metadata.

For regional deployments, keep DecisioQ technical identifiers stable and localize only user-facing labels and guidance. Unless the selected endpoint and decision schema explicitly support unit-qualified input, convert mileage, distance, pressure, temperature, mass, volume, speed, fuel consumption, and other measurements to the required canonical units before submission. Do not infer units or currency from locale.

3Dealership Use Cases
Use CasePrimary UsersTypical Inputs
Internet lead and CRM prioritizationBDC, sales managers, CRM automationLead source, engagement, vehicle interest, response age, purchase intent, appointment likelihood.
Sales consultant assignmentSales managers, BDC, showroom coordinatorsAvailability, product expertise, language match, workload, close history, customer preference.
Inventory allocation and dealer tradeInventory managers, sales desk, GSMVehicle demand, aging, gross objective, allocation constraints, model mix, customer fit, market velocity.
F&I recommendation and exception reviewF&I managers, sales desk, compliance teamsCredit tier, lender fit, payment target, product eligibility, risk, customer needs, policy limits.
Trade-in offer and lease-vs-purchase guidanceSales desk, appraisal managers, F&I teamsEquity, payoff, condition, market value, payment preference, mileage, ownership goal.
EV, mobility, and connected servicesEV specialists, sales consultants, customer experience teamsCharging access, commute pattern, incentive eligibility, feature adoption, subscription fit, range need.
Compliance and customer complaint resolutionCompliance managers, general managers, customer relationsComplaint severity, exposure, policy rule, customer history, remedy cost, documentation quality.
Business strategy and capital planningDealer principals, general managers, operations leadersROI, capital requirement, market opportunity, implementation effort, OEM alignment, operational risk.
4Business Data Mapping

Dealership integrations should map CRM, DMS, inventory, desking, F&I, service, OEM program, and customer-experience data into decision-specific Business Data. The selected decision detail defines which criteria are required and how each value should be measured.

Business Data SourceCommon UseIntegration Notes
Lead ID, customer ID, deal ID, VIN, stock number, appointment ID, or complaint case IDoptionId and audit correlation.Keep stable source-system IDs so recommendations can be traced back to CRM, DMS, inventory, and F&I records.
CRM and lead engagement dataLead priority, communication channel, follow-up sequence, appointment scheduling.Refresh response age, contact history, and engagement scores before execution.
Inventory and market dataDealer trade, allocation, stock order, aging inventory, pricing and discount decisions.Keep vehicle age, market velocity, incentive, gross objective, and model constraints distinct.
Desking and F&I dataFinancing plan, lender selection, protection product, credit exception, down payment decisions.Protect sensitive financial information and send only fields required by the selected decision.
Trade-in and appraisal dataTrade offer, equity review, lease-vs-purchase, EV trade-in opportunity.Separate condition, payoff, equity, market value, reconditioning cost, and customer preference.
Customer experience and complaint dataLoyalty offer, retention offer, complaint resolution, delivery experience.Capture severity, customer value, remedy cost, satisfaction risk, and policy constraints separately.
Strategy, facility, and OEM program dataCapital planning, growth strategy, facility improvement, product introduction.Use comparable financial, operational, and risk assumptions across candidate options.

Do not invent criterion IDs. Use the canonical criteria returned by /decisioncatalog/decisions/{decisionId}, including criterion overview metadata, unit, direction, scale, and data guidance.

5Preview and Execute Workflow

Production integrations should keep credentials and bearer tokens on trusted servers or server-side gateways. Browser pages should use same-origin proxy handlers or their own backend service.

  1. Trusted backend obtains a JWT token from identity.vinquery.com.
  2. Application loads catalog and decision detail metadata.
  3. User or system prepares Business Data for candidate leads, vehicles, deals, F&I options, offers, complaints, inventory actions, or strategic projects.
  4. Call POST /api/v1/validate to validate and prepare the decision input before execution.
  5. Call POST /api/v1/decide to return the authoritative Decision Result.
  6. Display the recommendation, ranked alternatives, warnings, assumptions, and Explanation of Decision Result.
  7. Keep execution trace and diagnostics available to integrators, but collapsed or hidden by default for business users.

Use /api/v1/decide for both Prepared Criteria Mode and business-data integrations that submit a businessData object. New public onboarding should prefer Preview Decision and Execute Decision terminology.

6Example Request Shape

The exact fields depend on the selected New Car Dealership decision. The example below shows the integration style rather than a guaranteed schema for every decision.

{
  "decisionId": "AUTO-NCD-004",
  "decisionPreparationModelId": "AUTO-NCD-PROFILE-STANDARD",
  "scenarioId": "AUTO-NCD-SCENARIO-INTERNET-LEAD-PRIORITY",
  "businessData": {
    "candidates": [
      {
        "optionId": "LEAD-48192",
        "name": "Retail customer interested in 2026 SUV",
        "values": {
          "engagementScore": 91,
          "purchaseIntentScore": 84,
          "responseAgeMinutes": 18,
          "vehicleMatchScore": 88,
          "appointmentLikelihoodScore": 79,
          "grossOpportunityScore": 73
        }
      },
      {
        "optionId": "LEAD-48207",
        "name": "Lease renewal customer interested in EV",
        "values": {
          "engagementScore": 86,
          "purchaseIntentScore": 89,
          "responseAgeMinutes": 42,
          "vehicleMatchScore": 82,
          "appointmentLikelihoodScore": 84,
          "grossOpportunityScore": 68
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "requestContext": {
    "correlationId": "dealership-crm-20260717-001"
  }
}
7Backend Call Pattern

This pattern belongs in a trusted backend, not directly in browser JavaScript.

async function executeNewCarDealershipDecision(decisionInput, jwtToken) {
  const response = await fetch(`${process.env.DECISIOQ_BASE_URL}/api/v1/decide`, {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": `Bearer ${jwtToken}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    body: JSON.stringify(decisionInput)
  });

  if (!response.ok) {
    throw new Error(`DecisioQ execution failed: ${response.status} ${await response.text()}`);
  }

  return await response.json();
}
8UI and Workflow Integration
UI ElementRecommended DisplayWhy It Matters
Choose a DecisionSector, Category, Decision, Profile, and Scenario selectors populated from catalog metadata.Users see business names while integrators retain stable IDs.
Selection OverviewSector, category, and decision overviews in one collapsible panel.Sales, F&I, inventory, and manager users understand the decision before entering data.
Guided Data CollectionCriterion label, field, data type indicator, summary, and expandable "More about this criterion".Improves CRM, inventory, finance, and customer-experience data quality.
Candidate CasesTwo fields per row where practical, editable option ID, and visible units or data type indicators.Dealership users can compare alternatives quickly inside familiar workflows.
Decision ResultRecommendation, ranking, confidence, and key drivers.Users need the answer and the reason.
Outcome Follow-upAccepted, Rejected, or Overridden; selected option and override reason when applicable.Connects the recommendation to the action actually taken.
Realized ValueOutcome status plus a consistently defined financial or operational metric.Measures adoption and business value without changing deterministic scoring.
ExplanationBusiness-friendly explanation without AI provider branding.Supports trust while keeping the UI provider-neutral.
DiagnosticsCollapsed technical panel for status, timings, warnings, and errors.Useful for integrators without distracting business users.
9Production Readiness
  • Store identity credentials, Decision API base URL, and proxy configuration in trusted server configuration or a secret manager.
  • Do not expose bearer tokens or integration credentials in browser code.
  • Use catalog metadata rather than hard-coded categories, decisions, criteria, profiles, or scenarios.
  • Validate Business Data before execution and show user-friendly validation messages.
  • Persist correlation ID, lead ID, customer ID, deal ID, VIN, stock number, decision ID, profile ID, scenario ID, selected option, score, and explanation for audit.
  • Retain the successful decision response requestId with the host business transaction, then call POST /api/v1/decision-outcomes when the action and realized result are known.
  • Require an overrideReason for overridden recommendations; never infer acceptance merely because a result was displayed.
  • Monitor GET /api/v1/decision-outcomes/summary for acceptance rate, override rate, and realized-value aggregates. Treat outcome feedback as reporting evidence, not automatic model training.
  • Redact customer identifiers, credit-sensitive data, lender details, deal notes, complaint notes, and sensitive margin information in logs and diagnostics.
  • Monitor catalog load failures, token refresh failures, API latency, validation failures, account verification failures, and unusual exclusion rates.
  • Define fallback behavior so CRM, sales, inventory, F&I, and customer-service workflows remain usable when DecisioQ is unavailable.
  • Review Decision Preparation Models and scenario assumptions with sales, F&I, inventory, compliance, and management owners when dealership policy or OEM programs change.
10Troubleshooting
SymptomLikely CauseFix
Category list is empty.The catalog response does not include categories for the selected sector, or the client is reading an old category layer.Use selectedSector.categories[] from /decisioncatalog.
Decision dropdown shows IDs only.The client did not load decision detail or category decision names.Display Decision Name as the label and keep decision ID as the option value.
Criterion guidance is missing.Decision detail lacks criterion overview metadata or the page is not rendering it.Read criterion overview from /decisioncatalog/decisions/{decisionId} and show available summaries.
Secure session could not be refreshed.Token proxy or identity service configuration failed.Check server-side identity configuration and proxy logs; do not request tokens directly from browser JavaScript.
Decision execution failed.Decision API unavailable, invalid Business Data, authorization failure, or account verification issue.Check response envelope, HTTP status, correlation ID, Decision API health, and server logs.
Unexpected recommendation.Scale, units, direction, or values do not match catalog criterion guidance.Compare Business Data fields against criterion overview and validation metadata.
Lead, vehicle, or F&I recommendation seems stale.CRM activity, inventory availability, incentive data, or lender rules changed after the decision input was prepared.Refresh source-system context close to execution time and include data freshness where available.