Dealer-FX vs Xtime

What to check before you choose

Those numbers come from the vendors and measure different things, so they cannot be compared directly. The question for a service director is which system holds the repair order.

Dealer-FX describes shop management that replaces the repair order screens, while Xtime is typically a layer around the DMS. Ask each vendor what happens to the DMS repair order, who is the system of record and how a technician's clock time is captured.

Ask also about services around the software. Dealer-FX lists service marketing, a service CRM add-on with due-for-service and declined-service campaigns, plus BDC and training services, so its price may include people as well as software. Request a written scope and a reference at a franchise store of your brand, and compare cost per repair order, not cost per month.

A last question is who the system serves best. Dealer-FX describes itself as built for franchise dealerships and offers add-on BDC, marketing and training services, while Xtime sits inside Cox Automotive's family of tools.

Ask each about their roadmaps for the next twelve months and how existing customers are notified of price changes. Ask how many stores of your brand use each system in your region, and call two of them before the demo.

Compare how each handles the customer's approval, since that is where service revenue changes. Ask to see a repair order in which a technician sends a photo or video, the customer approves some lines and declines others, and the advisor updates the estimate.

Count the steps and note what the customer sees on a phone. Ask how approvals and declines are written back to the DMS and how declined work is tracked for follow-up.

Ask both vendors for the data behind their claims. Dealer-FX cites retention and cycle time improvements, and Xtime cites approval speed and dollars per repair order. Ask how each was measured, over what period and for how many stores, and whether the stores resemble yours.

Inside the shared categories, Dealer-FX fields 7 named lines against it (ONE Platform, Dealer-FX Scheduling, Digital MPI, Service CRM, and others); Xtime fields 6 named lines against it (Spectrum, Schedule, Engage, Inspect, and others).