Patent US 7,865,409

A method of providing a periodic vehicle order count recommendation for supplementing an inventory of a motor vehicle dealership to satisfy periodic market demand. The method includes the steps of converting a sales history database and an inventory database for the dealership into a dealership data structure, and obtaining from an agent of the dealership, query parameters including a specified sales history period, a forecast period, and a market region specification. The method also includes the steps of accessing a database of VIN numbers registered with a government agency, decoding VIN numbers registered within the market region, and storing resultant registered vehicle information into a regional vehicle registrations data structure. Then, estimating a periodic vehicle order count to satisfy market demand within the market region during the forecast period based on the dealer database structure of inventory and sales history over the specified sales history period, and the regional vehicle registration data structure.