Installing and setting up the BasisCars mobile.de plugin

Licence activation

To unlock updates and the sync, go to the licence settings. Enter the licence key you received and the email address you registered with. A successful activation registers this domain on your licence. The plugin stays unlocked for as long as the licence is active. The plans are listed on the home page.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Konto → Lizenzverwaltung

Connecting the mobile.de API: customer number and API password

This is the most important step: enter your mobile.de credentials. The dealer ID is detected automatically. On the Profi plan you can enter up to ten dealer accounts (customer numbers) separated by commas to merge inventories, on the Enterprise plan an unlimited number.

Background on the interface, on access and on costs is in the guide to the mobile.de API.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Bestand → mobile.de → API Anbindung

Automatic synchronisation (cron job)

Set how often the automatic sync runs, hourly or daily for example. You can use the internal WordPress cron, which is simpler, or a real server cron, which is more reliable with large inventories.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Übersicht → Automatische Synchronisation

Manual synchronisation

Want to see a change you just made on mobile.de right away? Use the manual sync to run the comparison immediately instead of waiting for the next cron job.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Übersicht → Manuelle Synchronisation

Safety limit

By default the plugin deletes at most 30% of your inventory in one run. This safeguard keeps an outage at mobile.de from wiping every car off your website by accident. Advanced users can override the limit.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Bestand → mobile.de → Synchronisierung

Image handling (hotlinking)

Hotlinking saves a great deal of disk space and keeps your site fast: images are not copied to your server but delivered straight from the mobile.de CDN. Note that this passes your visitors' IP addresses to mobile.de. That belongs in your privacy policy. Switch to media library download if you would rather keep everything on your own server.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Bestand → mobile.de → Medien & Bilder

Vehicle list & URLs

The vehicle list lives on an ordinary WordPress page. Build it with Elementor, Divi or Gutenberg like any other page – BasisCars does not force a special route on you. Under BasisCars → Einstellungen → Darstellung → Seiten & Shortcodes you choose which page that is. Your vehicle URLs follow that page automatically.

Linking to a filtered list

Every filter can be appended to the vehicle list URL as a parameter. That lets you link straight to a selection from your menu, an Elementor button or a brand logo:

/fahrzeuge/?make=BMW
/fahrzeuge/?make=BMW&fuel=DIESEL
/fahrzeuge/?category=OFFROAD&price_max=25000
/fahrzeuge/?make=VOLVO&sort=price_asc

Since version 0.4.44 it works the other way round too: when a visitor clicks the filters, their selection appears in the address bar. They can copy it, send it on and bookmark it. Parameters that do not belong to the plugin, such as utm_source from a newsletter, are left untouched, and the paging position stays out: a shared link opens the filtered list from the top.

The filtered view still carries the canonical of the clean page URL. For Google it remains one page, however many filter links point at it.

Shortcode cheat sheet

The most flexible way to use BasisCars. Copy a shortcode with one click and place it anywhere in your theme, in Gutenberg or in Elementor.

Vehicle data & custom fields (SEO, Yoast, page builders)

Every vehicle stores its data as WordPress custom fields – price, power, fuel, inspection date and around forty more. You can reach them anywhere WordPress knows get_post_meta(): in dynamic meta descriptions, in Elementor dynamic tags, in your own templates.

All fields

BasisCars_Util::label( 'categories', 'OFFROAD' );        // SUV / Geländewagen
BasisCars_Util::label( 'fuels', 'PETROL' );              // Benzin
BasisCars_Util::label( 'gearboxes', 'AUTOMATIC_GEAR' );  // Automatik
BasisCars_Util::label( 'colors', 'GREY' );               // Grau
BasisCars_Util::label( 'conditions', 'NEW' );            // Neufahrzeug

Dynamic meta description with Yoast SEO

Yoast does not run shortcodes in the description field – only Yoast variables work there. This snippet (in your child theme's functions.php or a code snippets plugin) gives you one of your own: %%basiscars_auto%%. Enter it once under Yoast SEO → Search Appearance → Content Types → Fahrzeuge and every vehicle describes itself.

add_action( 'wpseo_register_extra_replacements', function () {
    wpseo_register_var_replacement(
        '%%basiscars_auto%%',
        'meine_fahrzeug_beschreibung',
        'advanced',
        'Fahrzeugdaten aus BasisCars'
    );
} );

function meine_fahrzeug_beschreibung() {
    $id = get_the_ID();

    if ( ! $id || 'basiscars_vehicle' !== get_post_type( $id ) ) {
        return '';
    }

    $feld = function ( $name ) use ( $id ) {
        return get_post_meta( $id, '_basiscars_' . $name, true );
    };

    $teile = array();

    $ort   = $feld( 'location' );
    $preis = (float) $feld( 'price' );

    if ( $preis > 0 ) {
        $teile[] = ( $ort ? 'in ' . $ort . ' ' : '' )
            . 'für ' . number_format( $preis, 0, ',', '.' ) . ' €';
    }

    // Rohwerte uebersetzen, statt OFFROAD in die Suchergebnisse zu schreiben.
    $form = BasisCars_Util::label( 'categories', $feld( 'category' ) );
    $ps   = (int) $feld( 'power_ps' );
    $kw   = (int) $feld( 'power_kw' );

    if ( $form && $ps ) {
        $teile[] = $form . ' mit ' . $ps . ' PS / ' . $kw . ' kW';
    }

    $hu = $feld( 'general_inspection' );

    if ( $hu ) {
        // Der Formatierer des Plugins, statt selbst an strtotime() zu raten.
        $teile[] = 'HU bis ' . BasisCars_Util::format_year_month( $hu );
    }

    return implode( ' – ', $teile );
}

If you only need a single raw value, Yoast's built-in custom field variable works too – with two underscores because of the leading one: %%cf__basiscars_price%%. It returns the value unformatted and untranslated, so 20362 and OFFROAD.

Elementor, Divi & your own templates

The same field names work everywhere: in Elementor's Dynamic Tags → Post Custom Field (ACF/Custom Field), in Divi's dynamic content and in any theme template via get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), '_basiscars_price', true ). The same rule applies: send fields marked * through BasisCars_Util::label() first.

Page builder integration (Elementor, Divi & Gutenberg)

BasisCars works with every common WordPress page builder.

Design & theme

BasisCars ships with a design that stands on its own. You can still match the accent and button colours exactly to your corporate identity, and you can force the layout to light or dark instead of following the visitor's system setting. What that looks like is on the Designs page.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Darstellung → Allgemein → Farbschema

Custom CSS

For professionals and agencies: add your own CSS rules. Change button radii, fonts and spacing or put your own shadows on the vehicle cards, without touching the theme.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Darstellung → Allgemein → Custom CSS

Custom wording & labels

Override every visible text in the plugin from the admin screens. Prefer “Our offer price” over “Price”? Or the full “First registration” instead of the abbreviation? Every piece of wording can be changed.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Darstellung → Texte & Wording

Troubleshooting: images, synchronisation and API errors

Solutions for the usual hurdles around server limits, API requests and images.

Developer & agency reference

Adjust the colours, spacing and behaviour of BasisCars through global CSS variables or PHP filters.

:root {
  --bc-primary: #3b82f6;        /* Hauptfarbe: Buttons, Links, Preise */
  --bc-primary-hover: #2563eb;  /* dieselbe Farbe beim Überfahren */
  --bc-surface: #ffffff;        /* Kartenhintergrund */
  --bc-bg: #f8f9fa;             /* Flächen dahinter */
  --bc-text: #212529;           /* Fließtext */
  --bc-text-muted: #6c757d;     /* Nebenangaben, Brotkrumenpfad */
  --bc-border: #e9ecef;         /* Linien und Rahmen */
  --bc-radius: 12px;            /* Abrundung */
}

Vehicle enquiries (leads)

Every enquiry sent through the BasisCars contact form on a vehicle page collects here. No prospective buyer gets lost, even when an email ends up in a spam folder. What the form looks like to visitors is on the Features page.

Below the message field you can offer the same three checkboxes mobile.de uses: financing, appointment on site and trade-in of the current car. Each one separately – switch on only what you really offer. You will find them under Einstellungen → Kontakt → Anfragen, right above the retention period. Whatever the prospect ticks then appears in the enquiry email, in this list and in the GDPR data export. All three are off by default, so an update changes nothing about forms already in use.

The form does not have to sit on the page. Under Einstellungen → Darstellung → Detailseite → Formular you switch it to pop-up: a button stays on the page and the form opens above it – and “Fahrzeug anfragen” up beside the price opens it as well, instead of jumping down. Anyone browsing without JavaScript sees the form in its usual place, so a vehicle can always be enquired about. The switch belongs to the Pro designs and needs the Händler plan or higher.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Kontakt → Anfragen

Email & SMTP

If your host's standard WordPress mail function (PHPMailer) is unreliable or your messages keep landing in spam, enter your own SMTP server here – Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or SendGrid, for example.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Kontakt → E-Mail & SMTP

CSV import (beta)

Included in all plans, currently in beta: upload your inventory manually as a CSV table, whether you would rather not use the mobile.de API or you aggregate vehicles from other sources.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Bestand → CSV-Import

System status dashboard

Your technical control panel. Keep track of how many vehicles are active, whether the API connection is alive, which PHP version runs and how many images are stored.

BasisCars → Einstellungen → Übersicht

Above it sits the setup checklist. It does not count ticked boxes; it reads the actual state: whether credentials are stored, whether vehicles arrived, which page carries the list and where enquiries go. Every open item has a button that jumps straight there.