Dealer stock feeds

Keep your dealer stock on Show Me The Motor from one complete CSV or JSON export. An administrator connects your public HTTPS feed URL or uploads your file after confirming your permission. Your account must be a dealer account with a full viewing postcode.

File format

UTF-8 CSV with a header row, comma separators and RFC 4180 quoting. Quote values containing commas, line breaks or quotation marks, and escape quotation marks by doubling them.
Alternatively, send a JSON array of vehicle objects with the same column names. JSON images and features may also be arrays of strings.
Maximum 20 MB, 10,000 vehicles and 20 photos per vehicle. Supply your complete current stock in every file. Empty feeds are rejected.
Keep a stable, unique ref for each vehicle. If omitted, a valid UK reg is used as the reference. At least one is required.

Columns

Required: ref or reg, plus make, model, year, price, mileage, fuel, gearbox, body, colour, images.

ref, reg, make, model, variant, year, price, mileage, fuel, gearbox, body, colour, doors, seats, engine_cc, co2, owners, service_history, description, features, images, battery_kwh, range_miles, write_off_cat, admin_fee, registration_date

Column	Value
`ref, reg`	Stock reference and UK registration. References must be unique within your feed.
`make, model, variant`	Manufacturer, model and optional derivative. Common make aliases such as VW and Mercedes work. A model such as Golf GTI becomes Golf with GTI as its variant. Unknown models are retained for review.
`year, registration_date`	Year from 1950 to next year. Optional first registration date: YYYY-MM, YYYY-MM-DD or DD/MM/YYYY. If supplied, its year is used as the advertised registration year.
`price, admin_fee`	Pounds, optionally with £ and commas, up to two decimal places. The displayed total is price plus admin_fee and must be at least £100. Omit admin_fee or set it to 0 when price already includes all mandatory fees.
`mileage`	Whole miles from 0 to 1,000,000.
`fuel`	Petrol, Diesel, Hybrid, Plug-in hybrid, Electric.
`gearbox`	Manual, Automatic. DSG, CVT and common automatic synonyms are accepted.
`body`	Hatchback, Saloon, Estate, SUV, Coupe, Convertible, MPV, Pickup. 4x4 and Cabriolet are accepted aliases.
`colour`	Black, White, Silver, Grey, Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Yellow, Brown, Beige, Purple. Metallic and similar finish words are ignored. An unmatched colour rejects the vehicle.
`images`	At least one public HTTPS photo URL. Pipe-separated in CSV, in the order you want them shown. The first is the main photo. URLs must work without authentication.
`description, features`	Up to 5,000 description characters. A short or missing description gets a basic factual description. Features are pipe-separated, up to 100 values.
`engine_cc, co2`	Engine capacity in cc, or litres such as 1.6. CO2 in whole g/km.
`doors, seats, owners`	Optional whole numbers: 1 to 7 doors, 1 to 9 seats and 0 to 30 previous owners.
`service_history`	full, partial or none. FSH and common equivalents are accepted.
`battery_kwh, range_miles`	Optional battery capacity from 1 to 250 kWh, rounded to whole kWh, and whole electric range from 1 to 700 miles.
`write_off_cat`	S, N, C or D where applicable. The category is disclosed at the start of the advert. Category A and B vehicles are rejected. Leave empty for no recorded category.

CSV example

This example uses placeholder photo URLs. Replace them with photos you are authorised to supply.

ref,reg,make,model,year,price,admin_fee,mileage,fuel,gearbox,body,colour,description,images
stock-001,AB12CDE,Volkswagen,Golf GTI,2012,8995,0,65000,Petrol,DSG,Hatchback,Metallic Grey,"Well maintained Golf with full service history.",https://dealer.example/photos/001-front.jpg|https://dealer.example/photos/001-rear.jpg

Existing export columns

Known aliases include VRM, Derivative, Transmission, BodyType, PictureRefs and ImageURLs. An administrator can map other header names to the standard columns without changing your export.

Stock updates and seller control

URL feeds refresh on the agreed schedule, at least 30 minutes apart. Uploaded files remain the same until an administrator replaces them. Replace uploads whenever stock changes and at least every 60 days. Old uploads cannot keep listings alive indefinitely. Listings missing from a successful, fully valid snapshot are marked sold. Any rejected rows or failed photos preserve existing live stock instead of retiring it.

Feed-managed vehicle details are changed in your stock system. You can still mark a car sold or withdraw it in My listings. An import will respect that decision and any moderation removal. Listings expire after 60 days without a successful refresh.

Permission and accuracy

You must authorise the feed and hold permission for every supplied description and photo. Your advert shows you as a dealer. Keep prices inclusive of all mandatory fees and disclose any insurance write-off category. Read the dealer stock feed terms and privacy notice before connecting.