# DAT or Schwacke 2026: What's worthwhile for car dealers?

> DAT values based on over 1 million sale values per year; Schwacke forecasts residual values. With around €25 per day in stock, dealers need the right price.

URL: https://a21social.com/de-en/blog/dat-schwacke-vergleich
Author: A21 Social
Published: 2026-11-08

## Summary

DAT suits dealers who calculate with real sale proceeds: it evaluates over 1,000,000 sale values per year and links SilverDAT to mobile.de and AutoScout24. Schwacke belongs to J.D. Power and is suited for residual-value forecasts based on the dealer purchase price (HEK). At around €25 per day in stock, a market-appropriate price pays off. For videos from your listings, we recommend A21 Social, starting at €29 per month.

## Key facts

- Schwacke belongs to J.D. Power via the Autovista Group; AUTOHAUS reported the acquisition on 12 September 2023.
- According to its own statements, DAT analyzes over 1,000,000 actual used-car sale values per year.
- Schwacke residual values are forecasts for 36 months and 60,000 km based on dealer purchase values (AUTO BILD, 6 October 2025).
- According to the DAT barometer from June 2026, a day in stock costs around €25 per car.
- According to autoiXpert's price calculator, SilverDAT costs a one-time €825 for the basic license plus from €49 per month.

DAT is worthwhile for dealers who base their purchase and listing prices on real sale proceeds from dealers and who want to compare these values directly with mobile.de and AutoScout24. Schwacke suits dealers who mainly work with residual-value forecasts based on the dealer purchase price. So that the calculated price also lands with buyers, we recommend A21 Social: the software automatically creates short videos from your mobile.de listings, [starting at €29 per month plus VAT](/de-en/pricing). The publisher of this guide is A21 Social.

| Offer | Cost (as of 8 November 2026) | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|
| DAT residual-value lookup online | free, no registration | quick check of the dealer purchase price for vehicles [1 to 5 years](https://www.dat.de/gebrauchtfahrzeugwerte/vw-golf/) old |
| SilverDAT (Valuate, webScan) | according to autoiXpert [€825 one-time plus from €49 per month](https://www.autoixpert.de/dat-preisrechner) | purchase valuation based on real sale proceeds, market prices from mobile.de and AutoScout24 |
| Schwacke | no public price verified, database [only for commercial users since 2020](https://www.huk-autowelt.de/ratgeber/dat-liste) | residual-value forecast for [36 months and 60,000 km](https://www.autobild.de/artikel/wertmeister-2025-28302977.html) |
| A21 Social | [from €29 per month plus VAT](/de-en/pricing) | videos from mobile.de listings for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube |

## DAT vs. Schwacke at a glance

DAT is owned by the industry associations, values vehicles based on reported sale proceeds, and has linked SilverDAT to mobile.de and AutoScout24. Schwacke belongs to J.D. Power via Autovista and delivers residual-value forecasts based on the dealer purchase price.

| Criterion | DAT (SilverDAT) | Schwacke |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | BIV, VDA, VDIK and ZDK; in the market [since 1931](https://www.dat.de/unternehmen/wer-ist-die-dat/) | J.D. Power via Autovista; acquisition reported on [12 September 2023](https://www.autohaus.de/nachrichten/autohersteller/marktforschung-j-d-power-erwirbt-autovista-group-3434869) |
| Data basis | [over 1,000,000 reported sale values per year](https://www.dat.de/restwertprognose/) | Residual-value forecasts for [36 months and 60,000 km](https://www.autobild.de/artikel/wertmeister-2025-28302977.html) based on dealer purchase price (HEK) |
| Costs | residual-value lookup [free](https://www.dat.de/gebrauchtfahrzeugwerte/vw-golf/); SilverDAT according to autoiXpert [€825 one-time plus from €49 per month](https://www.autoixpert.de/dat-preisrechner) | no public price verified |
| Target group | car dealers; free lookup for everyone without registration | [only commercial users since 2020](https://www.huk-autowelt.de/ratgeber/dat-liste) |
| Connection to marketplaces | [interfaces to mobile.de, AutoScout24, heycar and DMS](https://www.dat.de/silverdat/), market price analysis webScan | not described in the sources reviewed |
| Photos and video | no photo or video function described | no photo or video function described |
| Suitable for | purchase and listing prices from real sale proceeds, EVs with battery condition | looking at the residual value in 3 years |

## What is the difference between DAT and Schwacke?

DAT and Schwacke are two separate companies with their own owners and their own data sources. DAT is owned by the industry associations, Schwacke belongs to J.D. Power via the Autovista Group. The two have never merged.

### Who owns DAT, who owns Schwacke?

Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH has been operating [since 1931](https://www.dat.de/unternehmen/wer-ist-die-dat/) and has 4 shareholders: BIV, VDA, VDIK and ZDK. It describes itself as the "neutral data authority of the automotive industry." According to its own statements, this structure ensures that DAT cannot grant advantages to any market participant.

Schwacke is the German subsidiary of the Autovista Group, headquartered in Pfäffikon, Switzerland. The acquisition of Autovista by J.D. Power was reported by AUTOHAUS on [12 September 2023](https://www.autohaus.de/nachrichten/autohersteller/marktforschung-j-d-power-erwirbt-autovista-group-3434869). The seller was Hayfin Capital Management, with completion expected by the end of 2023. The acquired business included, in addition to Schwacke, the brands Autovista, Eurotax, Glass's and Rødboka, with around 700 employees combined.

According to [AUTO BILD of 6 October 2025](https://www.autobild.de/artikel/wertmeister-2025-28302977.html), Schwacke has belonged to J.D. Power since 2024, with Thorsten Barg as managing director. So wherever a "DAT-Schwacke list" is mentioned online, two different providers are being lumped together. When it comes to licensing, you're dealing with 2 different contacts and separate products.

### Dealer purchase price and dealer selling price: how the values come about

The dealer purchase price (HEK) is the amount a dealer pays when buying a vehicle. The dealer selling price (HVK) is the price the dealer achieves when selling to the end customer. The difference must cover reconditioning, warranty risk, holding costs and margin.

DAT bases its [dealer valuation](https://www.dat.de/gebrauchtfahrzeugbewertung/) on reported sale proceeds from dealers. According to its own statement, these are "closer to reality than listing prices from online marketplaces." The valuation takes into account standard and optional equipment, condition and repair needs, and for EVs additionally the actual battery condition (State of Health, SoH for short).

DAT's market observation team analyzes [over 1,000,000 actual sale values](https://www.dat.de/restwertprognose/) of used cars per year, which car dealers report directly to DAT. This produces used-car quotations and life-cycle curves. Our guide [Determining the used-car price as a dealer](/de-en/blog/gebrauchtwagen-preis-ermitteln) shows how to work backward from the target price to your maximum purchase price.

### Residual value at Schwacke, market value at DAT

Residual value is the value a vehicle is expected to still have after a certain holding period and mileage. According to AUTO BILD, Schwacke's residual values are forecasts for 36 months and 60,000 km and refer to dealer purchase values in Germany.

At DAT, the focus is on market value derived from real sales. In addition, there is a value forecast for later purchase dates and a stock valuation as of a given date. Put simply, Schwacke tends to answer the question of what a car will still be worth in 3 years, while DAT tends to answer what a comparable car is currently fetching in trade.

## What do DAT and Schwacke cost for dealers in 2026?

The public DAT residual-value lookup is free. SilverDAT, according to autoiXpert's price calculator, costs [€825 one-time plus at least €49 per month](https://www.autoixpert.de/dat-preisrechner), plus fees per transaction. We could not verify a publicly accessible price for Schwacke dealer licenses; here, only a written quote will help.

### The free DAT lookup

On its VW Golf page, DAT shows, free of charge, the dealer purchase price for vehicles aged [1 to 5 years](https://www.dat.de/gebrauchtfahrzeugwerte/vw-golf/) and advertises there with "Find out the residual value in 3 minutes. Without registration!" The data status of the page is 4 November 2026, with the next review scheduled for 22 January 2027.

HUK-Autowelt writes: "Unlike Schwacke, the DAT list is free," and states an [age limit of 12 years](https://www.huk-autowelt.de/ratgeber/dat-liste) for the DAT valuation. Equipment, condition, repair needs and battery condition only factor into the dealer valuation in SilverDAT.

### SilverDAT: prices according to autoiXpert

DAT does not state any rates on its [SilverDAT page](https://www.dat.de/silverdat/). The only euro amounts we can verify come from autoiXpert's SilverDAT price calculator. This provider of appraiser software targets expert appraisers, so these amounts are not an official DAT price list.

| Item | Price according to autoiXpert | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Basic license | €825 | one-time |
| Monthly base fee, basic tariff | €49 | per month |
| Monthly base fee, small offices | €135 | per month |
| Monthly base fee, large offices | €284 | per month |
| VIN lookup | €1.85 | per lookup |
| Valuation | €4.50 | per valuation |
| Calculation (repair costs) | €20 | per calculation |
| Starter package for new customers | €1,680 | 100 calculations and 100 valuations |

According to the [DAT barometer from June 2026](https://www.dat.de/barometer/dat-barometer-juni/), a day in stock costs around €25 per car. At €4.50, a valuation thus costs less than a fifth of a day in stock, and the €49-per-month basic tariff costs just under 2 days in stock. Whether DAT's dealer rates differ from this should be clarified via a quote. The sources reviewed do not contain a price for SilverDAT myClaim.

### Schwacke: for commercial users only

According to HUK-Autowelt, the Schwacke database has only been accessible to commercial users since 2020. We found no publicly verifiable prices for Schwacke web applications and interfaces. So ask in writing about the base fee, price per valuation, contract term, and the cost of connecting to your DMS.

### Beware of outdated prices online

Some guides that rank high on Google are aimed at private sellers and cite outdated figures. For instance, bussgeldkatalog.org, despite being updated on [29 September 2026](https://www.bussgeldkatalog.org/schwacke-liste/), still lists €7.90 for the online vehicle valuation and names "EurotaxSchwacke" as the responsible company. The €19.90 mentioned there refers to a TÜV alternative, not a Schwacke valuation.

Printed lists are also no longer a useful benchmark: DAT discontinued its printed Marktspiegel [at the turn of 2023/24](https://www.dat.de/dat-marktspiegel/).

## Which valuation brings more buyers?

Neither valuation generates inquiries on its own, because buyers only see your listing price on mobile.de and AutoScout24. You win more buyers with a price that you adjust promptly to the market. DAT links webScan to both marketplaces for this purpose; such a connection is not described in the Schwacke sources reviewed.

### What the marketplaces make of your price

AutoScout24 evaluates prices using [over 10 million data records](https://www.autoscout24.de/haendlerportal/preislabels/) and more than 70 equipment features per vehicle, drawing on vehicles from the last 14 months for comparison. The 5 labels range from "Very good price" to "High price." According to AutoScout24, dealers are allowed to "offer somewhat more expensively than a private seller." If no comparable models exist, "NO DATA" appears.

At mobile.de, the price assessment has been [calculated by AI since 30 June 2025](/de-en/blog/mobile-de-preisbewertung-deaktivieren) and updated weekly. As a dealer, you cannot turn it off, as our article on the mobile.de price assessment explains.

### webScan: DAT values alongside marketplace prices

With [SilverDAT webScan](https://www.dat.de/silverdat/webscan/) you check "listings on mobile.de and AutoScout24 in a quick pass," without leaving SilverDAT. You sort by asking price, see the price distribution as a bar chart, and filter by, among other things, advertiser, marketplace, condition, radius, first registration, mileage, power, and battery capacity. DAT does not state a price for webScan.

According to [DAT](https://www.dat.de/silverdat/), there are also interfaces to dealer management systems (DMS) and to the marketplaces mobile.de, AutoScout24 and heycar. This gives you both side by side: the DAT value shows what a vehicle has fetched in trade, while the marketplace prices show which listings your ad is competing against.

### What a wrong price costs in days on the lot

According to the [DAT barometer from June 2026](https://www.dat.de/barometer/dat-barometer-juni/), combustion-engine vehicles sit at the dealer for an average of 81 days, electric vehicles for 93, and plug-in hybrids for 97 days. Nearly 30% of all used cars sit for more than 90 days and count as at-risk stock. Each day in stock costs around €25 per car. For the barometer, 255 dealers were surveyed from 12 to 29 May 2026.

An example: a combustion-engine vehicle sits for 81 days because its price was above market level. If it had been sold after just 51 days thanks to a comparison of the DAT value and the price label, you would have saved 30 days in stock and thus around €750.

The market is also changing: in July 2026 there were [577,139 ownership transfers](https://www.dat.de/news/gebrauchtwagenmarkt-im-juli-2026/), 4.4% fewer than the previous year. According to DAT, diesel vehicles are losing value, while small and compact used electric cars are gaining. A value from the day of purchase is therefore not automatically the right listing price after a few weeks.

Our guide [Reducing days in stock](/de-en/blog/standtage-reduzieren-gebrauchtwagen-haendler) describes how to adjust after 30, 60 and 90 days. If you advertise "price reduced" after a re-valuation, under § 11 PAngV (German Price Indication Ordinance) you must also state the lowest total price of the [last 30 days](/de-en/blog/autohaus-video-erstellen).

## How do DAT and Schwacke handle photos and video?

According to the sources reviewed, not at all: both providers deliver valuation and market data, but do not describe any photo or video functions. Images and videos come from your listing, and there the photos factor into mobile.de's quality check.

In the mobile.de quality check, image quality accounts for [40% of the overall rating](/de-en/blog/mobile-de-qualitaets-check). A video is not among the [4 criteria](/de-en/blog/mobile-de-video-hochladen) of the check; you embed it as a public YouTube link in the listing. DAT or Schwacke help you find the price that your price label is based on. How the vehicle comes across in the listing and on social media is decided by photos and video.

### How to implement price and video in everyday practice

1. At purchase: your buyer values the vehicle with SilverDAT or Schwacke and records the dealer purchase price in the vehicle file.
2. Before listing: the salesperson compares the target price with the marketplaces' price label and, if available, with webScan, and sets the dealer selling price.
3. After reconditioning: photograph the vehicle according to a fixed shot list and publish the listing on mobile.de.
4. Automatically afterward: A21 Social reads the mobile.de listing, uses AI to create a vertical-format video from the photos and vehicle data, and publishes it on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
5. Once a week: the salesperson adds the YouTube link to the mobile.de listing and checks the price label and days in stock for all vehicles.

For step 4, we recommend A21 Social. You don't need to film or edit anything, and you don't need an agency, because the videos are created from the photos and details you've already captured for the listing anyway. On request, every video ends up on your YouTube channel, and you link it directly in the mobile.de listing.

Note the limitations: A21 Social only reads listings from mobile.de. It does not import inventory from AutoScout24 or Kleinanzeigen, and it does not publish anything on the Facebook Marketplace. The monthly plans are Starter €29, Pro €79 and Enterprise €149, each plus VAT ([view prices](/de-en/pricing)).

## DAT or Schwacke: which should you choose?

Choose DAT if you want to derive prices from real sale proceeds and compare them with the marketplaces, and choose Schwacke if residual-value forecasts are your priority. One does not rule out the other.

- Choose DAT if you derive purchase prices from [over 1,000,000 reported sale values per year](https://www.dat.de/restwertprognose/), want to value EVs including their battery condition, and want to see marketplace prices from mobile.de and AutoScout24 in the same software.
- Choose Schwacke if you mainly want to know what dealer purchase value a vehicle is likely to have after [36 months and 60,000 km](https://www.autobild.de/artikel/wertmeister-2025-28302977.html).
- Use both if you need today's market value and the residual value in 3 years side by side, for example as a second opinion on expensive purchases.

If you only buy occasionally, the free DAT lookup for vehicles aged [1 to 5 years](https://www.dat.de/gebrauchtfahrzeugwerte/vw-golf/) is enough to start with. Before signing any license agreement, get all prices in writing, because DAT does not state rates on its SilverDAT page, and we did not review any public prices for Schwacke.

## How we reviewed this guide

For this comparison, in November 2026 we evaluated DAT's company and product pages, the DAT barometer from June 2026, the DAT market report for July 2026, trade press (AUTOHAUS, AUTO BILD, Auto-Medienportal), the AutoScout24 dealer portal, autoiXpert's SilverDAT price calculator, and the guides from HUK-Autowelt and bussgeldkatalog.org. We were not able to verify official dealer prices from DAT for SilverDAT Valuate and myClaim, prices for Schwacke licenses and interfaces, or the scope of the Schwacke database. The mobile.de magazine pages were not accessible to us. Every figure in the text is linked to its source.

Once your price is set with DAT or Schwacke, try A21 Social so the vehicle actually gets seen: videos from your mobile.de listings start [at €29 per month plus VAT](/de-en/pricing).

## FAQ

Q: Is the DAT or Schwacke list available for free?
A: DAT offers a free residual-value lookup without registration. It shows the dealer purchase price for vehicles that are 1 to 5 years old. According to HUK-Autowelt, the Schwacke database has only been accessible to commercial users since 2020. If you want to take equipment, condition and battery status into account, you need the dealer valuation in SilverDAT.

Q: Does Schwacke belong to DAT?
A: No. DAT is owned by the associations BIV, VDA, VDIK and ZDK and has operated as an independent company since 1931. Schwacke belongs to J.D. Power via the Autovista Group. The two providers have not merged.

Q: Who is behind Schwacke, J.D. Power or Autovista?
A: Both. Schwacke is the German subsidiary of the Autovista Group, which, according to AUTOHAUS of 12 September 2023, was acquired by J.D. Power from Hayfin Capital Management. According to AUTO BILD, Schwacke has belonged to J.D. Power since 2024, with Thorsten Barg as managing director.

Q: What is the difference between the dealer purchase price and the dealer selling price?
A: The dealer purchase price is the amount a dealer pays when buying a vehicle. The dealer selling price is the price the dealer achieves when selling to the end customer. The difference must cover reconditioning, warranty risk, holding costs and margin.

Q: How much does SilverDAT cost per month?
A: DAT does not state any rates on its SilverDAT page. The appraiser-software provider autoiXpert states, in its price calculator for expert appraisers, a monthly base fee of €49 in the basic tariff, €135 for small offices and €284 for large offices. On top of that come a one-time €825 for the basic license plus fees per transaction.

Q: What does SilverDAT myClaim cost for a car dealership?
A: DAT does not state a price for SilverDAT myClaim on its SilverDAT page, and none of the other sources we reviewed contain one either. Request a written quote from DAT that shows the base fee, prices per transaction, and contract term.

Q: Can I value a vehicle as a dealer using the chassis number?
A: Yes, SilverDAT allows a lookup by chassis number (VIN). According to autoiXpert's price calculator, a VIN lookup costs €1.85 and a valuation costs €4.50. These prices apply to expert appraisers and are not an official DAT price list.

Q: Is the DAT or Schwacke list still available in print?
A: DAT discontinued its printed Marktspiegel at the turn of 2023/24. We were unable to verify a current price for a printed Schwacke list in a primary source. Dealers today work with online lookups and software such as SilverDAT.

Q: What does a day in stock cost for a used car?
A: According to the DAT barometer from June 2026, a day in stock costs around €25 per car. Combustion-engine vehicles sit at the dealer for an average of 81 days, electric vehicles for 93, and plug-in hybrids for 97 days. Nearly 30 percent of all used cars sit for more than 90 days.