At a glance
- What you set up
- A template link that opens the car's Car Page, and an address for ADF/XML leads
- VIN merge field
- [VEHICLE VIN], as iPacket's public VinSolutions guide writes it
- You'll need
- Car Pages Pro at $149 a month per rooftop, and access to your VinSolutions templates
- What it isn't
- A certified VinSolutions integration: it's a link in your templates and a lead email
On this page
- How Car Pages and VinSolutions work together
- Add the Car Page link to a VinSolutions template
- Your VinSolutions link
- Send Car Page leads to VinSolutions as ADF/XML
- A sample ADF/XML lead
- What your team sees, and where
- Test it before the whole team sends it
- What this setup is, and what it isn't
- Common questions
- Sources
How Car Pages and VinSolutions work together
There are two halves, and neither needs an API or a partner agreement. Going out, your salespeople keep sending the emails and texts they already send from VinSolutions, and the template adds a link to the car's Car Page: its studio photos, walkaround video, window sticker, the model's recalls, history link and price with your fees. Coming in, a shopper who asks a question on a Car Page becomes a lead in VinSolutions, delivered by email in ADF/XML.
Both halves come with Car Pages Pro, which is $149 a month per rooftop with the plan's photos included. On the plan alone, a salesperson can still copy a shopper's personal link from CarShots and paste it into any VinSolutions message by hand.
Add the Car Page link to a VinSolutions template
Every template link has three parts: carshots.ai/c/d/, then your dealer key, then the car's VIN. You type the first two once, and VinSolutions fills in the VIN each time the message goes out:
Copy your link from CarShots
On Car Pages Pro, CarShots shows your template link with your dealer key already in it.
Open the template your team sends
Pick the email or text template salespeople use when a shopper asks about a car. For an email with a button, work in a view that takes HTML; iPacket's guide pastes its whole email body in as HTML.
End the link with the VIN field
Put [VEHICLE VIN] right after your dealer key and a slash. That's the field iPacket's public guide uses for the vehicle's VIN.
Name the car in the subject
The same guide builds its subject line from [VEHICLE YEAR], [VEHICLE MAKE] and [VEHICLE MODEL], so the shopper sees which car the email is about before opening it.
https://carshots.ai/c/d/{your dealer key}/[VEHICLE VIN]
- For example
- https://carshots.ai/c/d/k7m2qx/[VEHICLE VIN]
- The VIN merge field
[VEHICLE VIN], as iPacket Help Center: How to set up your VinSolutions integration writes it. Pick it from VinSolutions's own list of merge fields if yours looks different.- A subject line that names the car
[VEHICLE YEAR] [VEHICLE MAKE] [VEHICLE MODEL] at [DEALER NAME], from the same guide.
This is a link you paste into your own templates, not a certified VinSolutions integration, and VinSolutions doesn't endorse it. Car Pages Pro shows your link with your dealer key filled in. Send a test to yourself before your team uses it.
Send Car Page leads to VinSolutions as ADF/XML
ADF stands for Auto-lead Data Format. It's an XML layout for a car shopper's lead, with places for the customer, their contact details, their message and the vehicle they asked about, and it's how listing sites and other lead sources hand leads to dealer CRMs by email.
To route Car Page leads into VinSolutions, ask your VinSolutions administrator or support team for your store's ADF lead address, and ask them to name the lead source CarShots so these leads report on their own. Then enter that address in CarShots, in your Car Pages Pro settings. From then on, each question a shopper sends from a Car Page arrives in VinSolutions as a new lead with the car on it, alongside the email CarShots already sends you for each question.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?adf version="1.0"?>
<adf>
<prospect status="new">
<id sequence="1" source="CarShots Car Pages">4821</id>
<requestdate>2026-10-30T19:05:00+00:00</requestdate>
<vehicle interest="buy" status="used">
<year>2021</year>
<make>Toyota</make>
<model>RAV4</model>
<vin>2T3P1RFV8MC000000</vin>
<stock>T1234</stock>
<trim>XLE</trim>
<odometer units="mi">38412</odometer>
<price type="asking" currency="USD">27995</price>
</vehicle>
<customer>
<contact primarycontact="1">
<name part="first">Jordan</name>
<name part="last">Lee</name>
<email>[email protected]</email>
<phone type="voice">512-555-0100</phone>
</contact>
<comments>Question from a CarShots Car Page. Message: Is it still available? Car Page: https://carshots.ai/c/2021-toyota-rav4-xle-4kq9</comments>
</customer>
<vendor>
<vendorname>Your Dealership</vendorname>
<contact primarycontact="1">
<name part="full">Your Dealership</name>
</contact>
</vendor>
<provider>
<name part="full">CarShots Car Pages</name>
<service>Car Pages</service>
<url>https://carshots.ai</url>
</provider>
</prospect>
</adf>What your team sees, and where
In VinSolutions, a lead from a Car Page looks like any other internet lead: the shopper's name and contact details, their question, and the car they asked about. In CarShots, the car's page counts every visit. Visits through the template link count too, but they aren't tied to a named shopper, because the same link goes to everyone that template reaches for that car.
To follow one shopper, send them a personal link from CarShots instead. Car Pages Pro then shows who's looking, with a hot score, and sends a live alert by email or text when that shopper opens the page or comes back.
Test it before the whole team sends it
Make a test customer in VinSolutions with your own email address and, as the vehicle they're interested in, a car you've already shot in CarShots. Send them the template, then check three things: the subject names the right car, the link opens that car's Car Page, and a question you send from that page shows up in VinSolutions as a new lead. If the link says the car isn't available, CarShots has no live page for that VIN, so shoot the car or check the VIN on the customer's record.
What this setup is, and what it isn't
This is not a certified VinSolutions integration, and VinSolutions hasn't reviewed or endorsed it. Nothing connects the two systems directly: no API, no data sync, and nothing from your DMS. It works because VinSolutions templates can hold a link with a merge field in it, and because VinSolutions takes leads by email in ADF/XML, the same way it takes them from listing sites.
The VIN field above comes from iPacket's public setup guide, since we couldn't find a field list that VinSolutions publishes. If your template editor offers a different field for the vehicle's VIN, use that one. Dealers who used iPacket will recognize the setup; our CarShots vs iPacket comparison covers what else differs, and the pricing page has both Car Pages plans.