What auto and AI leaders posted, October 18. A vendor's AI agent wiped a whole CRM in minutes

Friday was calmer than the Roadster show, and that is good. Dealers talked about money in the service lane and about loans that sell cars. Chinese brands showed how to sell a car with other famous names. And the most useful AI story of the day was a story about how not to launch an agent.

News from the trade press is in the morning issue. AI tips are in a separate post. I added my take to each post.

What dealers say#

Check 100 repair orders to see where service loses money#

Maureen Martin of Dynatron Software gives service departments a simple test. Take 100 repair orders and look at where the store charges the customer too little and where it charges too much. She says this gap hurts both profit and customer retention. "What you wanna understand is what are you leaving on the table and where you're overcharging."

My take. Overcharging is more dangerous than undercharging. When you undercharge, you do not earn the money. When you overcharge, the customer sees it sooner or later, and service loses that customer and the next car sale.

What you can do today. Ask your service manager for the last 100 repair orders for one common job, for example brake pads. The spread of prices for the same job shows the problem without any analytics.

Car Dealership Guy post on X

Carvana sells 85% of its cars with its own loans#

Automotive News writes that the Carvana goal of 3 million retail sales a year by 2035 depends on its own finance arm. This captive finance company is part of 85% of all Carvana sales, and the share has stayed the same for a few years. Matt Dundas, vice president of finance at Carvana, says the company worked for years to make the loan process smoother and the terms better. Automotive News thinks this is a model for dealers who want a faster and less stressful finance office.

My take. Carvana does not sell a car. It sells a monthly payment that the customer gets in minutes. While a store needs two hours in a back office for a loan, online sellers will take the buyers who value their time.

What you can do today. Time how many minutes pass from "I'll take it" to a signed loan contract for your last five customers. If it is more than one hour, this is the first place where you lose deals.

Automotive News post on X

Lincoln cuts its network to 300 stores and earns more per store#

Lincoln says profit and sales per store are going up. At the end of 2019 the brand had 797 locations, more than any other luxury brand in the US. Today it has 387, and by the end of 2027 it will have fewer than 300. Since 2018 Lincoln asks dealers to separate Lincoln showrooms from Ford stores.

Dealers now run almost 200 standalone Lincoln stores. In October the 100th store in the new glass design opened at Hassett Lincoln on Long Island.

My take. Luxury does not sell in the corner of a Ford store. A buyer who pays a lot wants a separate door, separate coffee and a separate salesperson. Fewer stores, but each one looks like luxury, and the profit per store grows.

Automotive News post on X

A dealer with 30 years of experience watches used stock and floorplan in a downturn#

Alex Perdikis, CEO and owner of Koons Motors, explains on the Car Dealership Guy podcast what he watches when the market shakes. Whatever the outside cause, the focus always comes back to two things. Used car inventory and floorplan, which is the bank loan that pays for the cars on the lot.

My take. In calm times the CFO thinks about this. In bad times it is the owner's main question. Every extra day a car sits on the lot costs interest. In a downturn that interest eats profit faster than sales drop.

What you can do today. Check how many used cars have been on your lot for more than 60 days. That is your price cut list for this week, not for the end of the month.

Car Dealership Guy post on X · Video on YouTube

A new California law gave dealers seven new forms#

The Car Dealership Guy weekly review has a talk with Dennis Gingrich of The Niello Company, a dealer group from Sacramento. These are the first weeks under the CARS Act. He says that showing the same total price everywhere is a big job for the stores. The law also added seven new forms.

My take. A law about clear prices scares only the stores that lived on the gap between the ad price and the contract price. If you already gave the full price from the start, you now have an advantage. Your rivals must do the same.

Car Dealership Guy post on X

Buyers pick 71% of brands before they search online#

Jason Goldberg of The Trade Desk shares new research on the Car Dealership Guy podcast. 71% of the brands a shopper considers are already in their head before the first search. So, he says, dealers need to influence the choice earlier.

My take. This continues yesterday's talk about dealers who put almost all of their budget into search. When a person types a search, they have already picked from three brands. To fight for them in search is late and expensive.

What works here does not look like an ad. Reviews, videos from salespeople, word of mouth from past customers. All of this gets into the buyer's head before any ad does.

Car Dealership Guy video on YouTube

What automakers and the market say#

GAC sells a new car with the names of its suppliers#

Lei Xing writes about the Chinese car market. He noticed how GAC Aion markets its new Ray 7. The ads put the partners first, not GAC.

The electric drive is from Huawei. Two or more trim names include CATL, the battery maker. The driver assistance system is from WeRide.

CnEVPost adds that pre-sales start at 128,800 yuan, about $19,160. The range is up to 702 km on the Chinese test cycle. The target is younger buyers.

My take. In China the supplier's name sells better than the car brand. Buyers know Huawei and CATL, and they trust them more than a young brand. A trim called "CATL" tells the buyer everything in one word.

A salesperson of any brand can use this. If the car has an engine, gearbox or sound system from a famous maker, say it first. A customer believes a known name more easily than a spec sheet.

Lei Xing post on X · CnEVPost post on X

Volkswagen sells an EV in China under 100,000 yuan for the first time#

Volkswagen updated the ID. UNYX 06 and 07 in China. It added lidar and cut the starting prices.

The ID. UNYX 07 now starts at 99,900 yuan, about $14,860. CnEVPost says this is the first fully electric Volkswagen in China under 100,000 yuan.

My take. A European brand in China plays by Chinese rules. More equipment for less money. Volkswagen already does this in China. In a few years the same pressure will come to every market where Chinese cars go.

CnEVPost post on X

China turns the car into a commodity#

Michael Dunne recommends a column by Tim Higgins in The Wall Street Journal about how China turns cars into commodities. Dunne says this forces traditional automakers to move up into luxury or move out of the market. It also pushes Tesla to bet everything on self-driving and on cars like the new Roadster.

My take. When a car becomes a commodity, the winner is the one who sells something more than the car. Service, easy loans, trade-in, a relationship with the customer. For a dealer this is good news, if the store can sell an experience and not only metal.

Michael Dunne post on X

Hybrids are back, from Honda to India#

Car Dealership Guy writes in its weekly review that Honda showed its next hybrid system. By March 2030 the brand plans 15 of these hybrid models around the world, most of them in North America. In India, the Autocar India team made a podcast about why carmakers suddenly think about hybrids again. Autocar India also showed the Renault Duster Hybrid, which promises about 29 km per liter.

My take. The EV is still the goal, but buyers vote with money for the hybrid. It saves fuel, and the buyer does not think about charging. A salesperson should know the hybrid range as well as the gas range. In the next two years buyers will ask about hybrids most often.

Car Dealership Guy post on X · Autocar India podcast · Duster Hybrid video

Xpeng sold more than 10,000 cars abroad in one month#

CnEVPost writes that Xpeng sales outside China passed 10,000 cars in September for the first time. Orders for the GX in the Middle East passed 3,000, and the company is sending more cars there.

My take. The Middle East is quickly becoming the market where Chinese brands test demand before Europe. 3,000 orders for one model in one region show that people there buy an expensive Chinese SUV.

CnEVPost post on X

AI and sales#

A vendor's AI agent deleted all SaaStr records in Salesforce#

Jason Lemkin, founder of SaaStr, writes that a third-party agent deleted all of the company's records in Salesforce. It happened minutes after they deployed it. Backups stored by Replit saved them. "Agents are still ... unpredictable."

In a quoted post a SaaStr team member says it was a Friday, and every deal was gone in seconds. The company does not name the vendor.

Only yesterday Lemkin told how his agent took a $100,000 deal to payment. Today another agent wiped the whole database.

My take. For a sales team the CRM is worth more than any agent. It holds the history of every customer, every call and every discount. Nobody gives a new salesperson the right to delete customers on day one. An agent should not get that right on day one either.

What you can do today. Find out when your CRM was last backed up and who can restore it. If nobody can answer in five minutes, this task for Monday matters more than any AI project.

Jason Lemkin post on X

Lemkin says the head of sales matters more than ever, and agents go in one at a time#

Lemkin writes that after 9 to 10 months of AI in sales one thing is clear. The role of the CRO or VP of Sales is as important as ever. Everything else is changing.

In another post he shares the rule of a company that runs more than 21 agents. Start with one. Make it work. Improve it. Then add a second one.

My take. Agents do not replace the head of sales. They give that person more work. Someone must decide what each agent does, check the result and own the target. The deleted database shows what happens when a team turns on a lot of agents and nobody owns them.

Jason Lemkin post about the head of sales · Jason Lemkin post about 21 agents

Aaron Levie says engineers will have more work, not less#

Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, writes that people who predicted the end of software engineering made one big mistake. They thought the world needs only a fixed amount of software. In fact almost everything is turning into software. Agents can use computers, write programs on the fly and process data. So now software can solve problems that nobody could digitize before.

My take. You can see this in a dealership already. A year ago nobody thought about a program to sort leads or to check service prices. Now one employee with AI builds it in an evening. The valuable person is the one who understands the process and can explain it to a machine.

Aaron Levie post on X

For people who work with AI#

Anthropic showed how to run up to 1,000 agents from one goal#

At the AI Engineer conference, CJ Avilla and Harrison Stall of Anthropic showed Flows in Claude Managed Agents. You give Claude a goal. Claude plans and runs its own team of agents, up to 1,000. With a stock watchlist scanner as the example, they show how to spend more compute on the steps that matter most.

My take. One agent hits a limit, like one employee. But after the SaaStr story the main question is not how many agents to run. It is which of them have the right to change things.

Talk on YouTube

OpenAI shows how to give a voice app the right voice#

OpenAI Developers showed how to set the voice of an app built on GPT-Live-1. You can describe the voice in plain text in the prompt, or pick one of the new preset voices for different countries.

My take. A dealership voice assistant that answers calls at night must sound like a good receptionist, not like a bank's answering machine. The voice is part of the service too.

OpenAI Developers post on X

In brief#

• Electrek writes that Mercedes-AMG showed the electric GT SUV with 1,153 hp and charging up to 710 kW. Autocar India made a video walkaround.
• CnEVPost reports that Luxeed, the Chery brand backed by Huawei, will get its own production license and plans its own stock market listing.
• CnEVPost writes that the new BYD Han and Qin Plus appeared in government filings. The new Han is longer than 5.1 meters.
• Michael Dunne writes that Thailand is changing its rules for Chinese EV imports.
• Michael Dunne notes one detail. The agreed limit on Chinese car exports to Europe is about the same as all car imports into China from all countries this year.
• Car Dealership Guy writes that US full-size truck inventory grew by 29,027 units in the third quarter. The reason is fuel prices. The Ram 1500 went against the trend.
• Sawyer Merritt quotes a new Elon Musk interview. Musk says only AI and robots can solve the US national debt.

Also worth watching#

• Automotive News, weekend issue. Ford's push in certified pre-owned cars, the $16.3 billion buyout of Penske Automotive and extra Lexus inventory.
• Automotive News, first episode of the Retail on the Record podcast. David Wyler of Jeff Wyler Automotive Family on buying and selling dealer groups, team coaching and Chinese cars.
• Car Dealership Guy, Fixed Ops Friday. The full show with service leaders, the source of the posts about Porsche and repair orders.
• All-In, Chamath on the weak point of the AI boom. A short clip from the episode about the CoreWeave crash.
• Every, the hidden cost of apps you build for yourself with AI. A clip about what it costs to maintain your own tools.
• Lex Fridman, Jensen Huang on China and chip export controls. More of the talk in Taiwan.
• Autocar India, Mahindra XUV 3XO CNG review. The Indian market saves fuel with natural gas and hybrids.