What auto and AI leaders posted, October 6. Carvana stores did not call the customer once

Monday brought numbers back to the feed. Dealers count calls and deals, carmakers close the quarter, and AI people argue about who must do the work by hand. This issue shows what dealers, car market analysts and people who work with AI wrote and showed on X and YouTube in the last day. The news from the press is in the morning issue. I add my opinion to each post.

What dealers say#

Carvana stores sent a text in 10 minutes and did not call once#

Car Dealership Guy looked at 30 mystery shops. The company LeadVantage did the tests.

Carvana has seven Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram stores in the US. All seven sent a text to the customer in the first 10 minutes. Not one of them made a phone call. Their scores were between 26 and 38 out of 100.

Six traditional dealers scored 80 or more. All six called in the first 24 minutes. One traditional dealer did not call and scored 38, the same as the Carvana stores.

Carvana was ahead on price. Five of its seven stores sent a quote by email. Four of ten traditional dealers did the same.

My opinion. A text in 10 minutes shows speed. A phone call shows that somebody wants this customer. The test put a number on that difference.

One more number from the same report hit me harder. The test also covered 11 service departments. After a no-show, one of the eleven contacted the customer again. In all LeadVantage service tests in the country, 65.7% of stores did nothing after a missed appointment.

The customer made an appointment and did not come. This person already chose you, and something got in the way. One phone call can bring the customer back. Today I would open the list of no-shows for the week and call each person.

Post by Car Dealership Guy on X

Tamaroff Group put a limit on the profit from one deal#

Eric Frehsée is the president of Tamaroff Group, a dealer group in Michigan. On Daily Dealer Live he said that the group set a ceiling on the gross profit per deal. His reason is this. The loyalty of a customer over the years brings more than extra money from one sale. He said that retention and customer satisfaction helped the company.

My opinion. This is a decision of the owner. A salesperson will not do this alone. The salesperson gets a percent of the deal, and the ceiling cuts the pay of this month.

So the ceiling works only together with a new pay plan. Pay for a repeat purchase and for a customer who came by referral. Then the salesperson stops squeezing each deal. If the old percent stays, the salesperson will find a way around the rule.

Post by Car Dealership Guy on X

The general manager went to the service drive, and the loaner fleet became smaller#

Spencer Webb is the general manager of Strong Audi in Salt Lake City. He started to work the service drive at 7:30 in the morning and to write repair orders himself. There he saw which customers need a loaner car and which get one by habit. The store made its loaner fleet smaller. Before that, the plan was to add cars.

My opinion. The report showed one number. There are not enough loaner cars. The report gives one conclusion, buy more.

The manager stood near the customers for an hour and saw the cause. Half of them did not need a car. A report answers the question "how much". Only the place where it happens answers the question "why".

Post by Car Dealership Guy on X

71% of buyers do not know what they bought with the loan#

Automotive News shows a survey by Caribou, a company that helps people refinance car loans. In August it asked 2,000 Americans with an active car loan. 71% do not know if their loan includes a service contract. The same share cannot recall if the loan covers GAP, the insurance for the gap between the debt and the value of the car. More than a third think that their usual car insurance includes GAP.

Caribou CEO Simon Goodall says that drivers can name their monthly payment to the dollar. The rate, the coverage and the full cost of the loan are in a blind spot.

My opinion. The customer signed the papers and did not understand the purchase. On paper the product is sold. In real life it does not work. A person will not come to the service department with a contract that this person does not remember.

This is lost money for the dealer. A dealer sells a service contract so that the customer comes back. I would add one page in plain words to the delivery of each car. It says what you bought, what it covers and who to call. I would send the same text again a month later.

Post by Automotive News on X

What carmakers and analysts say#

Half of GMC sales are the expensive Denali and AT4 trims#

Automotive News writes that the Denali and AT4 trims make half of GMC sales. The average transaction price of the brand is more than $66,000 in Cox Automotive data for July and August. That is higher than Audi, Lexus or Volvo. Retail sales of the Sierra 1500 pickup reached a record in the third quarter.

Michael MacPhee, global vice president of Buick-GMC, said that the brand does not chase volume. At the same time, the lead of GM over Toyota in the US gets smaller.

My opinion. GMC sells a pickup at a higher price than Audi sells a sedan. The buyer pays for the trim, not for the badge. Denali became a name of its own a long time ago.

The lesson for a salesperson is short. A customer who came for a specific trim does not negotiate like a customer who came for a price. On the first call I would find out which of the two this person is. Then I would run two different conversations.

Post by Automotive News on X

The Chinese Jaecoo 7 is again the best-selling new car in the UK#

The industry body SMMT says that more than 10,800 Jaecoo 7 cars were registered in the UK in September. The model outsold the Ford Puma and the Kia Sportage. People in Britain call it the "Temu Range Rover". The brand belongs to Chery of China and took a 4.3% share in the month.

On the same day Michael Dunne of Dunne Insights wrote that the UK looks at higher tariffs on Chinese car imports. Automotive News gives the size, up to 45%, the same as in the European Union. The head of Nissan in Europe warned that the UK can become a "corridor" for Chinese cars into the EU.

My opinion. The buyer voted before the government made a decision. The name "Temu Range Rover" sounds like a joke, but it works like an ad. A person gets a familiar look for different money.

A tariff will lift the price. It will not remove the reason why people buy this car. A dealer of a traditional brand needs an answer to the question "what do I get from you for this difference". The answer "it is Chinese" does not sell now.

Post by Automotive News on X, post by Michael Dunne on X

Dunne corrected a newspaper headline about Russia. 88.5% of new cars there run on gasoline#

The New York Times wrote that Russians buy Chinese electric cars because fuel is hard to find. Michael Dunne says the headline is misleading. By his numbers, gasoline cars are still 88.5% of new cars sold in Russia. He offers a different headline. Chinese brands with all types of engines own the Russian car market.

My opinion. Dunne is right. The main story here is about brands, not about the plug. The market changed its supplier completely, and the engine type is second in this story.

I take one rule from this for each report. Look at the share first and at the growth second. Growth from a small base always looks loud, and the money of the market is in a different line.

Post by Michael Dunne on X

AI and sales#

Lemkin says that a sales director who does not sell fails#

Jason Lemkin is the founder of SaaStr and an investor in young companies. He wrote four lines in a row.

A CRO who does not sell fails. A CTO who does not write code fails. A CMO who does not do marketing fails. A chief customer officer who does not meet customers in person fails too.

He speaks from more than 30 investments. He says the rule is true at least until $250 million of annual revenue.

My opinion. I agree. A sales manager who did not speak with a customer for a year manages from memory. The market changed in that year, and the memory did not.

The post about the Strong Audi manager says the same thing with an example. A person went to the service drive and saw what the reports did not show. I would give each sales manager a plain norm. Make five customer calls of your own each week, from the first word to the result.

Post by Jason Lemkin on X

At SaaStr the morning starts with a customer list that AI made#

Lemkin showed how the morning works in his company. An AI agent, which they call the AI VP Revenue, builds a prospect queue each morning. It shows what happened in the last 24 hours, who needs a follow-up, why, and what to discuss. The team looks at this list first.

In a second post he says that Atlassian, Salesforce and HubSpot now charge for agent access to their data. If the price is too high, agents will go to other systems, he writes.

My opinion. This is the clearest job for AI in sales. The agent does not sell. It prepares the morning of the salesperson. It says who to call, why, and what to say.

A dealer can build this list with less work than it seems. Take leads with no answer, customers after a test drive, service no-shows and loans that end in three months. The salesperson comes in and sees ten names with a reason. I would start here, not with a bot that answers customers alone.

Posts by Jason Lemkin on X, about the morning list and about the price for agents

Mollick wants email where people and agents work together#

Ethan Mollick is a professor at the Wharton School and the author of the newsletter One Useful Thing. He writes that teams need a new email system. In it a human and autonomous agents have access with correct permissions. The agents write comments to each other and show the human only what needs attention.

My opinion. Today an agent in the mailbox is like an intern with keys to all doors. It sees all the mail or it sees nothing. There is no middle.

In a sales department this is a question of customer trust. The customer wrote to a manager, not to a program. Until such email exists, I would let the agent read and prepare a draft. A human pushes the "send" button.

Post by Ethan Mollick on X

In brief#

Hyundai closed a record third quarter in the US. Car Dealership Guy gives the numbers. Hyundai sold 246,896 cars, hybrid sales grew 39% and were 28% of the September volume.

Honda sales were up 9.3%, with a record 106,000 hybrids. Ford fell 6.6% in the quarter, and GM fell 6%. The brands that grow have a hybrid in each popular model. X

The supply of compact cars in the US fell from 52 days to 36. This is August in J.D. Power data, and carmakers move production to SUVs and large pickups, where the profit is higher. The transaction price went up by $172 because of this. Sub-compact SUVs now sell the first car to a young buyer and hold 13% of retail in September. X

Tesla grew 268% in Germany. Sawyer Merritt writes that 12,552 Tesla cars were registered in the country in September. This is the strongest month since December 2022. The plant near Berlin lifts output by 20% more from October, to 7,500 cars a week. A year ago people said the brand was finished in Europe. X

Honda can charge an electric car while it moves. Honda made a unit that goes into a slot in the road during usual repair work. Tests on a closed road start in late 2026, and tests on public roads start in April 2027. For large trucks the company plans up to 150 kW. Sales are far away, but for freight this removes the question of idle time at a charger. X

Up to 80% of software features in a dealership are not used. Car Dealership Guy gives the number in a partner post with Dealertrack. The idea is that the month-end rush starts in the first days of the month, and nobody sees it. I would first write down what is already paid for and switched off. Then I would look at new software. X

Car Dealership Guy on the speed of change. He names what changes at the same time. Carmaker strategy, buyer behavior, margins, AI, Chinese brands, self-driving cars and the dealership model itself. His conclusion is one. To work "the way it was always done" is now a bigger risk than to change. X

A founder had an offer of $130 million, and now cannot raise money. Lemkin spoke with a founder. In 2022 a sale of the company would have made him $130 million. Today the company cannot raise a new round. An offer to buy a business does not live long, and this is true for a dealership too. X

A personal CRM for zero dollars. Lemkin asked an AI to build a personal CRM for him. It reads each customer email and updates the forecast. He writes openly that it does not replace Salesforce and that only one person can work in it. For one salesperson with no CRM at all, it is enough. X

Reports about AI use the same few companies. Mollick sees that people judge AI demand by a handful of technology companies. These companies have competing products and their own clouds. He thinks that firms outside this group would show a better picture. I would add that a dealer from a small city tells more about the use of AI than a corporate report. X

"Claude says we should invest more here." Dave Gerhardt, the founder of the marketing community Exit Five, laughed at a line from a meeting. His answer is short, "thanks for the update". Advice from AI with no numbers and no owner has the same price as advice from a stranger in the hall. X

What else they showed#

These are headlines with no analysis.

• Automotive News. Tesla Q3 deliveries beat expectations, and the GMC bet on Denali and AT4
• Automotive News. Ford CEO Jim Farley on skilled trades and the China threat
• SaaStr. A new video on the price for agent access to CRM and on AI in the sales team
• Autocar India. First look at the new Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, 42 thousand views
• Car Dealership Guy. The US regulator did not open an airbag probe into 806,963 Honda Odyssey minivans
• Jim Farley. Thanks to the people at the Ford Accelerate event, 61 thousand views
• Sawyer Merritt. The share of gasoline cars in global sales is below 50% for the first time, 62 thousand views
• Jason Lemkin. The employees to never let go, even if you have to invent a role for them