Is Elead CRM the same thing as CDK CRM, and what does it cost a dealership?
Summary
Elead is a CDK Global trademark, and CDK now sells the dealership CRM under the name CDK CRM. The old eleadcrm.com login portal still runs for existing clients, and CDK's API page calls its CRM API suite "CDK Elead APIs." CDK doesn't publish prices or package names, and the product page sends buyers to a demo request.
Where the Elead name still shows up
Go to eleadcrm.com and you get a client login portal. The footer reads "Elead/Elead1one/Elead CRM is a trademark of CDK Global, LLC," and the page says it's for Elead clients only, under each client's contract.
The other place is the API page on www2.cdkglobal.com. It describes "our suite of CDK Elead APIs," built for Fortellis, CDK's automotive API exchange. Every API in the list carries the CDK CRM name:
- CDK CRM Direct Post
- CDK CRM Product Reference
- CDK CRM Sales Bundle, which holds Sales Opportunity, Sales Activities, Sales Customer, and Product Reference
They cover four jobs: getting records, pulling sets of historical records, creating or editing records, and receiving real-time updates. The page says nothing about API fees.
What CDK lists on the product page
The AI tools get the most space. AIVA, the AI Virtual Assistant, engages every incoming lead in conversation, routes it, and follows up, and CDK's update page adds that it answers by text and email in real time. AI Writing & Summaries condenses conversations and drafts replies. The Unified Customer Inbox puts email, text, and chat in one place, and CRM Video Messaging lets salespeople record personal videos for shoppers.
The rest is dealership plumbing. There's integrated desking, a marketing module that flags the customers most likely to buy today (it links to CDK's equity mining page), reporting dashboards, and a Built-In CDP that shows customer data inside the CRM. CDK lists the CRM as part of its Modern Retail Suite.
What changed in August and September 2026
Two updates are dated August 12, 2026. Lead Assignment got a new interface that shows the assignment order and makes routing rules easier to change. AI Summary now pulls in vehicle, source, and trade-in details along with messages, salesperson notes, and browsing history, and CDK says it works out of the box with all CDK CRM packages.
On September 18, CDK added an AI Writing Assistant inside the CRM for adjusting the tone and clarity of emails before they go out. The update mentions email only, not text. The same day, Report Builder gained report templates with customizable columns.
Pricing
No price appears on the CDK CRM page, and no package names either. You get "Request Demo," "Talk to An Expert," and a sales number, 833.620.2129. Our article on demo requests and unpublished pricing covers how to get a quote from a vendor that works this way. For CDK specifically, the AI Summary update confirms there's more than one package and that AI Summary comes with every one of them. How many packages exist, and what separates them, isn't published anywhere on CDK's site.
Sources
- https://www.cdkglobal.com/automotive-crm
- https://www.eleadcrm.com/
- https://www2.cdkglobal.com/api-solutions-crm
- https://www.cdkglobal.com/product-updates/crm/lead-assignment-update-cdk-crm
- https://www.cdkglobal.com/product-updates/crm/more-context-better-conversations
- https://www.cdkglobal.com/product-updates/crm/cdk-crm-enhances-customer-communication-ai-writing-assistant
Related on this site
- What a demo request is for, and why the price is not on the page
- What does an enterprise CRM plan give you that a small-business plan doesn't?
- How do I move customer data from a spreadsheet or an old CRM into a new CRM?
- Seat cost calculator
Written by Kaz (pen name). Published September 27, 2026. The figures above come from the vendor and review-site pages listed under Sources. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.