About this plugin
Turn WordPress into a complete, self-hosted vehicle inventory system. Add and
organize vehicles, optionally decode VINs, publish searchable listings, and keep
every inventory record on the dealership’s own website. No LotPress account,
subscription, or page builder is required.
Built for independent dealerships:
- Own the data: vehicles, photos, settings, and engagement totals remain in WordPress.
- Manage the essentials: price, MSRP, mileage, condition, availability, specifications, features, photos, and video.
- Help shoppers browse: filter and sort by make, model, year, body style, price, and mileage in responsive Grid or List views.
- Present every vehicle: accessible galleries, detailed vehicle pages, related listings, featured-vehicle carousels, and contact links.
- Share polished listings: vehicle-specific Open Graph and large-image social-card metadata with a built-in visual preview.
- Arrange the experience: drag, reorder, move, or hide vehicle-detail sections with the visual Vehicle Display editor.
- Understand interest: see first-party vehicle views and inquiry-click totals without an external analytics account.
- Work with the site you have: use the bundled templates, shortcode, optional Elementor widget, or theme overrides.
- Save data entry time: decode a VIN on demand through the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) vPIC service.
LotPress Inventory works with standard WordPress themes and does not require
Elementor. Developers can extend the stable vehicle schema, add display sections,
or override bundled templates without moving inventory data into a theme.
Learn more and see a live example at:
com/lotpress-inventory/
com
Vehicle display editor
Open Inventory → Vehicle Display to arrange vehicle-page sections between
compatible regions, control optional sections, or restore the bundled layout.
Under Display options, Price placement moves the sale price and any higher list
price between Vehicle heading and Vehicle Details. When placed in Vehicle Details,
the price uses a normal specification row with modest typographic emphasis. The
default is Vehicle heading for existing and new layouts.
Add-ons such as LotPress Shopper Tools can register their own independently
movable sections. A tool must be enabled in its own settings and shown in Vehicle
Display to appear. Disabling a tool at its source prevents it from rendering even
if its layout section remains visible.
Shortcode
Use [lotpress_inventory limit="12" show_sold="no"] to display inventory.
Supported attributes:
- limit: Maximum number of vehicles to display.
- show_sold: Set to yes to include sold vehicles.
- featured: Set to yes to show only featured vehicles.
- carousel: Set to yes to use the carousel layout when multiple vehicles exist.
Theme overrides
Copy a template from the plugin’s templates directory into the active theme at:
- lotpress-inventory/archive-vehicle.php
- lotpress-inventory/single-vehicle.php
- lotpress-inventory/vehicle-card.php
Individual vehicle display sections can also be overridden under
lotpress-inventory/vehicle-sections/, using the same filenames found in the
plugin’s templates/vehicle-sections directory. A complete custom
php override remains in control and does not use the native
Vehicle Display layout.
md for the complete editor, responsive-layout, theme
override, and extension-section reference. Developers integrating inventory feeds
md.
Extend LotPress Inventory
Dealers can add inquiry forms, calculators, printable sheets, guided setup, a
dealership theme, and managed updates through the separate LotPress platform.
com/platform/
External services
This plugin can contact the NHTSA Product Information Catalog Vehicle Listing
(vPIC) API when an authorized inventory editor clicks the Decode button beside a
VIN. The request sends the entered VIN to NHTSA so the service can return vehicle
specifications. The request user-agent also includes the site’s home URL so NHTSA
can identify the requesting application. No NHTSA account is required, and the
service is not contacted automatically while browsing or editing other fields.
NHTSA vPIC API documentation:
gov/api/
United States Department of Transportation privacy policy:
gov/privacy
Use of the vPIC service is subject to NHTSA and United States Department of
Transportation policies. Decoded values remain editable and are saved only when
the WordPress user saves the vehicle.
When a dealership adds a YouTube video to a vehicle, that vehicle’s detail page
com
domain. The visitor’s browser therefore sends request information, such as its IP
address and browser headers, to YouTube when the page loads. No YouTube account is
required.
YouTube Terms of Service:
template=terms
Google Privacy Policy (including YouTube):
com/privacy
Privacy
On vehicle detail pages, the plugin records aggregate vehicle views and inquiry
button clicks in WordPress post metadata. A key in the visitor’s browser
sessionStorage prevents duplicate view counts during the same browser session.
To reduce automated or repeated submissions, the site retains a keyed, one-way
digest derived from the visitor’s network address for 30 minutes. The digest
cannot be reversed without the site’s private security salt and expires
automatically. Raw IP addresses and browser headers are not stored by the plugin.
This engagement information is not transmitted to LotPress or another analytics
provider. The plugin does not set tracking cookies.
See the External services section for the NHTSA VIN decoder and optional YouTube
player, including the data sent and the circumstances in which each is contacted.