The Vehicles page (at /app/vehicles) is a shop-level search across every vehicle on file — by VIN, plate, make, model, or owner name — without opening a customer record or starting a quote just to reach a search box. It's built for the front desk: someone calls in with a bare VIN or plate and no customer name attached, and you need to find whose car that is fast.
The default Customers directory lists people, not vehicles — but this same vehicle search is also built into the Customers page as its own "Vehicles" tab, so you don't have to leave Customers to look up a VIN or plate. This page shipped as the single-shop counterpart to a similar cross-shop vehicle search that already existed at the HQ level for multi-shop organizations.
Searching for a vehicle
The page opens with a search box — "Search VIN, plate, make, model, or owner name…" — and the cursor starts there automatically. Type any part of a VIN, plate, make, model, or a customer's first or last name and the results below update to match. A partial value works fine; you don't need the full VIN or an exact plate to get a hit. It also quietly matches on vehicle color even though the search box placeholder doesn't call that out, and if you type a 4-digit number it's checked against the vehicle's model year too — so "2024" turns up every 2024 on file alongside anything else that happens to contain those digits.
Leave the search box empty and the page just shows the most recently added vehicles in the shop, up to 50 of them.
Reading the results
Each row shows the vehicle (year, make, model, with color underneath when it's on file), VIN, plate, and owner. The Owner column links straight to that customer's profile when the vehicle is attached to one — click the name (or company name, if the customer record doesn't have a first/last name set) to jump there. A vehicle that isn't attached to any customer shows a dash instead of a link.
The list caps at 50 results and there's no page-number or load-more control — if the vehicle you're after isn't in what's showing, narrow your search term rather than scrolling for more.
What you'll see when nothing matches
If your search doesn't match any vehicle, the page shows "No vehicles found" with "Try a different VIN, plate, make, or model" underneath. If the search box is empty and the shop genuinely has no vehicles on file yet, it shows "No vehicles on file yet" — vehicles show up here once they've been attached to a customer, typically via the Vehicles card on that customer's profile.
Things to know
- This page is read-only — there's no add, edit, or delete control on it. To change a vehicle's own details, go to the owning customer's profile and use the Vehicles card there, which is a separate action gated on the "Manage customers" permission.
- Any signed-in team member with access to the shop can use this search — it doesn't require a special permission grant of its own, unlike editing or removing a vehicle record.
- This same search also lives inside the Customers page, under its "Vehicles" tab — reaching it that way or going straight to /app/vehicles makes no difference.
- Owner-name search matches a customer's first and last name only, not their company name. If a vehicle's owner is set up as a business account with no personal name attached, searching the business name won't find it — search by VIN, plate, make, or model instead.
- This page only searches vehicles in the shop you're currently signed into. Looking across every shop in a multi-location organization is a separate, HQ-level search.
- Nothing here starts a quote, invoice, or appointment — it's a lookup only. To act on a vehicle you find, click through to its owner's profile and continue from there.
Frequently asked questions
Q: How is this different from searching on the Customers page?
A: The default Customers tab searches people, not vehicles. This page searches vehicles directly, across the whole shop, so you can find a car from a bare VIN or plate without knowing — or clicking into — a customer first. It's also built into the Customers page itself, under a "Vehicles" tab — same search, just reached without leaving Customers.
Q: Does searching here start a quote or add anything?
A: No. This page is a straight lookup with no add, edit, or delete controls. If you need to act on what you find, click the owner's name to open that customer's profile and continue from there.
Q: Can I search by the owner's company name?
A: Not directly. Owner-name search matches a customer's first and last name, not their company name. If the vehicle belongs to a business account with no personal name on file, search by VIN, plate, make, or model instead.
Q: What shows up if I leave the search box empty?
A: The most recently added vehicles in the shop, up to 50 of them, with no filtering applied. If the shop has no vehicles on file at all, you'll see "No vehicles on file yet" instead.
Q: Is there a limit on how many results show up?
A: Yes — up to 50 at a time, with no page-number or load-more control. If you don't see the vehicle you're after, narrow your search term rather than scrolling.
Q: Who can use this page?
A: Any signed-in team member with access to the shop — there's no separate permission required to search. Editing a vehicle's own details, from the customer's profile, is a different action that does require the "Manage customers" permission.