SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Edmunds.com has released Edmunds MyAppraise, a tool that will give dealers the opportunity to build their used-car inventory by connecting to the hundreds of thousands of Edmunds users who use the site every month to appraise their vehicles.

According to its internal traffic data, about 500,000 people use its site every month to appraise their vehicles, Edmunds MyAppraise taps into this pool of active users who have shown that they are interested in selling their vehicle to generate possible new leads for partnered dealerships.

While users apprais their vehicle through Edmunds, the new tool will ask if they would like to solicit their vehicle to dealers that are partnered with the site. If the soliciation is accepted, the tool will guide users through the process of soliciting their vehicle to the available dealers.

The tool will ask users to enter their vehicle’s VIN, answer a few questions about the vehicle’s condition, and then take pictures of the vehicle at specific angles in order to give dealers an accurate representation of its condition.

“Edmunds MyAppraise combines many of Edmunds’ most popular car shopping innovations to deliver a concise product that makes it easier for shoppers to trade their vehicles and for dealers to engage these highly-coveted customers,” said Edmunds.com President Seth Berkowitz. “This isn’t just a lead-generation product. It also gives dealers a high-tech platform to deliver the customer service experience that consumers have come to expect in this era of mobile commerce.”

Once dealers collect all of the information provided by the Edmunds user, they can use it to come up with a specific quote for the vehicle and then send that quote to the user via a text message.