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VETTX vs. Vehicle Acquisition Network
Both of us help dealers buy cars from private sellers. VAN is a good option if you want to buy a handful of cars a month. If your goal is a scalable, repeatable, sustainable street purchasing program, there isn't even a question.
“This is way different, in a good way.”
A dealer comparing the two, in their own words.
The two models
Their buyer, or your buyer.
One is a service you buy. The other is a department you build. Both put cars on your lot. They do not leave you in the same place.
The managed buyer model
Someone else runs acquisition for you.
A dedicated full-time buyer, employed and managed by the vendor, calls sellers and books appointments on your behalf. Their page puts the appeal plainly: “No need to hire, recruit, or train.”
The buyer works for the vendor, not for your store
The seller relationships live inside their service
The buying capacity belongs to the vendor, not to your store
Year three looks exactly like year one
the vettx model
We build the buying operation inside your store.
We recruit a buyer onto your payroll, train them, coach them on a set cadence, and work store-level strategy with your leadership. Every month they get better and the operation gets deeper.
Your buyer, your payroll, your building
Every seller becomes your customer, your trade, your service work
The buyer, the process, and the relationships belong to your store
Add a second buyer whenever you want one and we onboard them too
The question is what your store looks like a year later.
We ran a managed buyer program, and we shut it down.
Before any of this, VETTX had a physical office in California, a floor of buyers making calls on behalf of dealers. We closed it in 2021. Dealers did not want people who were not their employees speaking for their store, and it showed up in the offers and in the appointments that fell apart.
So we stopped hiring buyers and started building software, and we have not looked back since.
It's true that VAN has been at this longer than we have, and let us be clear about one thing. Put their managed buyer on your market and you will buy cars. We have no doubt about that. At roughly $6,000 a month, having someone pull the best cars in your market is worth the money.
That works while street cars are a side channel. Once they are how you stock the store, the buying, the sellers and the people doing it cannot live inside someone else's company. That is the part you have to own.
VETTX vs VAN, side by side
What is actually different.
Every line in the VAN column is drawn from their own public pages. Go read them, then hold us to ours.
The question
VAN
VETTX
Answering a seller when you are not at your desk
No mobile app appears in their published plans or feature matrix. Their notification row reads "In-App Bell," and marketplace conversations run through the VAN Loop Chrome extension, which needs a desktop browser.
VAN pricing page, Inventory features
The VETTX iPhone app, live on the App Store. Your pipeline and every seller conversation travel with your buyer, with a push notification the moment a seller replies, so they answer in minutes instead of when they get back to a desk. Plate to VIN and dealer detection work the same as they do on the desktop.
The VETTX iPhone app, live on the App Store. Your pipeline and every seller conversation travel with your buyer, with a push notification the moment a seller replies, so they answer in minutes instead of when they get back to a desk. Plate to VIN and dealer detection work the same as they do on the desktop.
How a listing turns into a car on your lot
Their published feature list is built around views, filters, global search, and unlimited saved searches.
VAN pricing page, Inventory features
A buying pipeline, not a list. We ran the sales funnel backwards, so every seller is a deal with a stage, a next action, and an owner. Sixth version of our software in seven years, rebuilt each time around what buyers actually do all day.
A buying pipeline, not a list. We ran the sales funnel backwards, so every seller is a deal with a stage, a next action, and an owner. Sixth version of our software in seven years, rebuilt each time around what buyers actually do all day.
A listing with no VIN
Their feature matrix lists “Manual Plate to VIN.”
VAN pricing page, Inventory features
VETTX AI decodes the plate to a VIN automatically, then enriches the record. Most private listings have no VIN, so this is not an edge case.
VETTX AI decodes the plate to a VIN automatically, then enriches the record. Most private listings have no VIN, so this is not an edge case.
Who employs the buyer
A “Dedicated Full-Time Buyer (40 hrs/wk)” employed by VAN, on their $5,995 a month plan.
VAN pricing page, Managed Buyer plan
You do. We recruit, screen, and train, and the buyer is a W-2 on your payroll, in your building. Four focused hours a day runs about 20 acquisitions a month, so the work does not need forty, and every hour you pay for belongs to your store.
You do. We recruit, screen, and train, and the buyer is a W-2 on your payroll, in your building. Four focused hours a day runs about 20 acquisitions a month, so the work does not need forty, and every hour you pay for belongs to your store.
Who coaches your buyer
Their plans include a dedicated Acquisition Coach for support, training, and coaching on the platform.
VAN pricing page, Professional plan
Your coach gets on live calls with your buyer. The work is seller psychology, how to open, how to hold the price conversation, and the buying philosophy behind the offer. Walking through the software is the smallest part of it.
Your coach gets on live calls with your buyer. The work is seller psychology, how to open, how to hold the price conversation, and the buying philosophy behind the offer. Walking through the software is the smallest part of it.
Who works with your management
Their published support is coaching, training, and email support.
VAN pricing page, Support features
A Strategic Advisor works alongside your leadership on what actually stalls a buy center: pay plans, where the buyer sits, who appraises, and how the department gets defended internally. See what that looks like.
A Strategic Advisor works alongside your leadership on what actually stalls a buy center: pay plans, where the buyer sits, who appraises, and how the department gets defended internally. See what that looks like.
What we will teach you for free
They publish a resource library on their site.
VAN site, Resources
The Private Party Playbook is the best source of truth on private-party acquisition anywhere, and you do not have to be a customer to read it. Download it free.
The Private Party Playbook is the best source of truth on private-party acquisition anywhere, and you do not have to be a customer to read it. Download it free.
Where each company is betting
Their flagship plan is a full-time human buyer they hire, train, and employ.
VAN pricing page, Managed Buyer plan
We invest into the product not headcount. One trained buyer on VETTX does the work of three buyers without it. That is the bet: software that multiplies one good buyer, instead of a service that rents you more of them.
We invest into the product not headcount. One trained buyer on VETTX does the work of three buyers without it. That is the bet: software that multiplies one good buyer, instead of a service that rents you more of them.
Pulled from VAN's public pricing and comparison pages in September 2026. Vendors change their plans. Confirm both columns with both companies for yourself.
Listing sources
We only pull from the best sources. Intentionally.
Listing Sources
Where the private-party cars actually are
VETTX is built for volume, not for the one-off high-end flip.
If you want rare finds, VAN is the right choice. If you want to buy cars at scale, that is what we do.
Facebook Marketplace is over 80% of private party on its own. Add Craigslist, Autotrader, Cars.com and the other main channels and you are close to 95% of everything out there.
So yes, with VETTX you are not going to see collector cars off sites like Cars and Bids or Bring a Trailer. That is intentional. VETTX is not built for the one-off special or the high-end flip. It is built for volume.
If you are looking for rare finds, VAN is the right choice for you. If you are looking to buy cars at scale, click here and we will get you set up right.
Market size and territory
Your market is sized to your goal, not to a map.
Zero territory restrictions. No radius you are locked inside, no shape you have to accept, and nothing to renegotiate when you grow.
Start with the goal
You tell us how many cars a month you want to buy off the street. That number is the input, not an afterthought.
Work backwards
We size the market by population until it carries enough private-seller volume to hit that number every month.
Scale with it
Move the goal from 15 a month to 40 and the market moves with it. There is no ceiling built into the model.
Dealer results
Stores that built the operation instead of renting it.
They tried it without a dedicated person and it went nowhere. A VETTX-recruited buyer now runs 20+ cars a month.
Evans Auto Group
Off the street in a single year. The one recruited buyer they started with grew into a team of three.
Dennis Dillon Auto Group
“I bought ten cars in the entire first year that I was here. With my first month with VETTX, I bought 17 cars.”
Tarynn Theobald, Cronin Auto Group
Low-cost acquisition tools
What about the low-cost listing tools?
If VAN is not the only other name on your list, you are probably also looking at a handful of cheap tools that scrape listings and hand you a message box. Here is the honest answer on those.
The product has scars
VETTX has been buying cars off the street with dealers for almost a decade. That is not trivia, it is development time: the plate decoder, the dealer detection, the security, the thousand edge cases a tool built last year has not met yet.
Software alone gets you cars to look at
It does not get you a buyer, a process, or anyone accountable when week three stalls and the login goes quiet. That is the half these tools do not sell, and it is the half that decides whether you are buying 20 a month or zero.
VETTX vs VAN, common questions
Questions dealers ask us about VAN.
VAN's flagship plan puts one of their own full-time buyers on your market for roughly $6,000 a month. VETTX recruits a buyer onto your payroll, trains them, and coaches them, so the buying operation and the seller relationships belong to your store rather than to a vendor.
It depends on scale. If you want a handful of cars a month without adding headcount, VAN's managed buyer is a real option and worth the money. If street cars are going to stock your store, the operation needs to live inside your dealership.
VAN provides the buyer. Their pricing page describes a dedicated full-time buyer, 40 hours a week, employed by VAN and working your market on your behalf. With VETTX you make the hire. We recruit, screen and train, and the buyer is a W-2 on your payroll.
VAN publishes three plans: Professional at $1,695 a month, Accelerate at $2,495, and Managed Buyer at $5,995, which is the plan that includes their buyer. Confirm current pricing directly with them, because vendors change their plans.
Yes, and we recruit them for you. We source, screen and train the candidate, you make the hire, and they sit on your payroll. Most stores start with one. If you already have someone buying cars part time, that person is usually the right place to start.
VAN and Vehicle Acquisition Network are trademarks of their respective owner. VETTX is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by them. Statements about VAN on this page reflect information published on their own website in September 2026 and are quoted or summarized from it. Plans and features change, so confirm current features, pricing, and terms directly with each vendor before making a decision.