AI and car sales, October 8. California makes dealers give the full price in writing

Today the news has more rules and risks than launches. California wants a written price from the dealer, and scammers copy dealer websites. New brands build networks in the UK and the Middle East. Below there is also India, Japan, Korea and new data on used car prices. I added my opinion to each story.

California makes dealers give the full price in writing at the first question#

CBT News discussed the California CARS Act with Brian Maas. He is the president of the CNCDA, the association of new car dealers in the state. The dealer must give the full price of a car in writing when a customer first asks about a specific vehicle. The store keeps this record for two years.

The second rule is about used cars under $50,000. The buyer can return the car within three days. Maas says it is easier to hold vehicles for these three days, because a return then needs less paperwork.

He also warns about personal phones. A salesperson must not send the first price from a personal number, unless the messages go through an app that records them. Dealers already keep these records in the CRM. The CNCDA gave dealers checklists and a guide of 80 pages. The article does not name the size of the fines.

My opinion. The law now says the thing that I tell dealers all the time. If there is no record of each contact, there is no sales department. In California it is now also a violation.

A salesperson who sends a price from a personal phone takes the conversation out of the company. I would give the first answer with the price to an agent. It gives the same full price to each customer, day and night, and it writes the record to the CRM. The person joins when the customer is ready to talk about the deal.

Source CBT News

The author of a book on dealer AI says jobs will move to service, not disappear#

Todd Smith spoke on CBT News. He is the CEO of the US company QoreAI and the author of the book "The Intelligent Dealership". He says AI will take tasks, and a part of the stores will lose positions. But faster service will need more technicians, and the market does not have enough of them. The article has no numbers, so this is an opinion.

He describes the change in small steps. A person leaves the call center, and the store does not hire a new one. Smith says to start with service and the back office, where there is less contact with customers.

Two of his points are more useful than the forecast. Dealer pay plans changed little since 1990, and dealers must rebuild them before the staff structure. And a dealer should keep a copy of its records in its own storage, for example Amazon S3. These are the DMS and CRM exports, the calls and the payroll. They stay with the store when the vendor changes.

My opinion. AI does not replace the salesperson. It shows who did not do the work. When an agent gives the first answer and books the visit, you see who closes deals and who only forwarded leads.

Smith is right about pay. If an agent does the first answer and the booking, it makes no sense to pay a person for the number of calls. I would pay for the deal and for the customer who comes back. And today I would ask the CRM vendor how to export all the customer history. If you cannot take your records with you, you do not own them.

Source CBT News

Scammers copy dealer websites, and one US buyer lost $36,240#

Lauren Fix, a columnist at CBT News, described a fraud that the US Federal Trade Commission warns about. Scammers copy the full website of a real dealer. They take the logo, the photos of cars in stock, the VIN numbers, the customer reviews and the documents.

The article gives one example. Will Matthews found a Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro on Facebook Marketplace for about $36,000. The seller pretended to be a real dealership in Texas. The buyer saw a false delivery tracking site and a photo of the car on a transport truck. He sent $36,240, and the car did not exist.

Fix writes that AI removed the old signs of a false site. There are no more grammar mistakes, bad photos or broken links. She tells buyers to call the dealer on a number from an independent source, and not to pay before an inspection.

My opinion. This is a problem for the buyer and for the dealer. A person lost money under the name of the store, and the review will name the store. Today a copy of a website takes one evening to build.

Once a month I would search for my cars by VIN on the listing sites. And in each message to a customer I would write one sentence about how the store takes money. An invoice only from the company, and a deposit only after an inspection. An agent repeats this in each conversation and does not forget.

Source CBT News

HubSpot compares six tools that connect Claude to the CRM and to call records#

On October 7 the HubSpot blog published a review of tools that give Claude access to the work systems of a salesperson. The list has six items. These are the connectors of HubSpot and the CRM Attio, the sales plugin from Anthropic, the meeting recorders Fathom and Fireflies, and Zoom. HubSpot sells its own connector and puts it first. Keep this in mind.

These tools do three tasks. A brief on the customer before the call, a review of the pipeline, and the follow-up work after the call. The difference is in the access rights. The HubSpot connector reads and writes records but does not delete them. Fathom and Fireflies only read.

The HubSpot connector works on all HubSpot plans, also the free one. You need a paid Claude plan. It respects the user's permissions in the CRM and logs each action. The review has no result numbers.

My opinion. This is the right split. AI prepares the brief and the draft of the email. The person calls and decides. The salesperson comes to the talk with the customer history, not with an empty screen.

The list has no automotive CRM, but the questions for your vendor are the same. What does the agent read, what can it change, and where is the log of its actions? For an agent in a dealer CRM, I think the right to write without the right to delete is the standard. And remember that the agent reads only the things that are recorded.

Source HubSpot Blog

Chery opens store number 100 in the UK and starts to sell approved used cars#

The Chinese brand Chery now has 100 stores in the United Kingdom. The brand says that 78% of the population can reach one of them in 30 minutes. With store number 100 the company started a used car programme with a manufacturer warranty, Car Dealer Magazine writes.

The programme covers four Tiggo models, from the 4 to the 9. Each car gets an inspection of more than 120 points and a road test. The buyer gets a warranty of two years or more, plus the rest of the new car warranty of seven years or 100,000 miles. The buyer can exchange the car within 30 days or 1,000 miles. Hybrid cars come with a battery health certificate.

A car needs a full Chery service history to enter the programme. Farrell Hsu, the managing director of Chery UK, called the programme the natural next step. The goal is to support the resale value of the brand's cars.

My opinion. In a short time a new brand went from the first store to the second sale of the same car. The network is ready, and now Chery protects the price of its cars on the used market. This is a mature move.

For the dealer the main thing is one condition. A car enters the programme only with a full service history. A customer who missed one service costs the dealer twice. The service department lost a visit, and the used car department lost a car with a warranty. I would let an agent lead each owner to the next service by date and mileage.

Source Car Dealer Magazine

Freelander comes back as a separate brand and starts sales in the UAE#

The Freelander name is on the market again. Now it is a separate brand of a joint venture of JLR and the Chinese company Chery. The first model is the Freelander 8, an SUV with five or six seats. The company did not give the price or the powertrain.

The company announced the plan on October 7. The first market is the United Arab Emirates, where customers can register their interest now. The dealer in Dubai and the Northern Emirates is Al Tayer Motors, and in Abu Dhabi it is Premier Motors. Five more countries of the region, from Qatar to Egypt, will follow before the end of 2026.

The second phase is Australia and New Zealand, and the third phase is Europe. First come six countries, with Germany and Italy among them. The United Kingdom and Ireland come after that, and there are no dates for Europe. Car Dealer Magazine adds that the brand will build its dealer networks as it enters each market.

My opinion. An old name, a new brand and zero customers in the database. A dealer in Dubai now collects leads for a car with no price and no delivery date. This is the most fragile lead of all.

This customer goes cold in a month if nobody writes. And the customer gets angry if the messages are empty. I would let an agent lead each person from the record. What the person asked, which car they drive now, when they plan to change it.

The person calls on the day when the price arrives. The dealer who does this well in the UAE will have a ready model for Europe.

Source Car Dealer Magazine. Just Auto

ChatGPT now answers with calculators and charts, not only with text#

On October 7 OpenAI released the GPT-6 model in ChatGPT with a new type of answer, Intelligent UI. The answer can have buttons, calculators that you adjust, charts and diagrams that the user changes. TechCrunch reports this.

Paid plans got the update on Wednesday, and free plans get it on Thursday. The release is global. The OpenAI examples include a personal savings calculator, a hiking route with a map and the mechanics of a bicycle. Product manager Aarush Selvan said that the most helpful answers are not always text. The announcement says nothing about shopping features.

My opinion. A car buyer counts the monthly payment. Before, the buyer went to the calculator on the site of a dealer or a bank. Now the buyer will ask ChatGPT, and it will build a loan calculator inside the answer. It will use numbers that the model found somewhere.

I would test this today. Ask ChatGPT for the monthly payment on your top model in your city. Look at the price and the rate that it used. If your site does not show the price and the payment in plain text, the model will take them from another source. The customer will come to you with that number, and the talk will start with an argument.

Source TechCrunch

Research#

Cox Automotive cuts its US used car price forecast from 2% growth to 0.2%#

On October 7 Cox Automotive published its third quarter report on wholesale used car prices in the US. The index uses sales at the Manheim auctions. Cox adjusts it for mileage and season.

In September the index fell to 205.9. This is 1.1% below August and 0.6% below last year. The forecast for the end of the year is now growth of 0.2%, down from 2%. The long-term average is 2.3%. The report names expensive fuel and rising interest rates as the main reasons.

Large pickups and SUVs lose the most value. The supply of diesel vehicles rose to 39 days, 27% more than a year ago. Electric cars go the other way, and their share of Manheim sales reached a record 4.9%. Retail sales of used electric cars were about 124,000 in the quarter, up 11.4%. The forecast for new car sales in 2026 is 16.1 million, 1.2% below 2025.

My opinion. A trade-in appraisal gets old faster than a salesperson expects. The customer hears a price for the pickup and thinks for three weeks. In that time the market goes down. The dealer loses margin, or changes the price and loses trust.

I would write a date in each appraisal, the last day when the price is valid. Seven days, and the customer sees it in the email. Two days before that date an agent sends a reminder and offers a time to visit. An honest deadline sells better than a price that the dealer takes back later.

Source Cox Automotive (PDF), and the forecasts for the year in a separate file (PDF)

The passenger car market in India grew by 31% in September#

On October 7 JATO Dynamics published the passenger vehicle registrations in India for September 2026. The source is the JATO registration data as of October 1.

There were 423,400 registrations, 31% more than a year ago and 0.9% more than in August. SUVs took 56.5% of the market, and hatchbacks took 22.1%. Petrol cars are 51% and CNG cars are 23%, then diesel with 18% and electric cars with 9%. Maruti Suzuki has 40.1% of the market, and its Dzire sedan is the top model with 20,697 cars.

JATO explains the growth with the festive season, the demand for SUVs and the steady supply of cars from the manufacturers.

My opinion. The October 6 issue showed that the stock of Indian dealers is two times the normal level. Today registrations are up 31%. Both numbers are true together. Demand is high, and the manufacturers shipped even more cars.

In the season a buyer writes to three stores and goes to the one that answered. My measurements at dealers in different countries show that 40% of leads come outside working hours. In a festive season this share is not lower. Before the season I would check one thing. Who answers the customer at nine in the evening, and what does the answer say?

Source JATO Dynamics

Used cars in the UK fall in price for the first time this year, but electric cars rise#

The data company Cazana measured the prices of used cars that are three years old in the United Kingdom in September 2026. Car Dealer Magazine reports the numbers. The data comes from adverts. The article does not give the sample size.

The average price fell by 0.2%, about £50, and this is the first fall of the year. Diesel cars lost 1.8%, petrol cars lost 0.5%, and hybrids lost 0.3%. Electric cars rose by 1.6%, about £330. In six months they gained 9.1%, about £2,000. They are 13% of the three-year-old cars in adverts, and diesel is a little over 3%.

Analyst Derren Martin said that a dealer must be brave to stock more than a few diesel cars. At the end of September the adverts had more than 2,500 cars with the new "76" plate that dealers registered to themselves.

My opinion. An average price of minus 0.2% tells you nothing. Inside it there is an electric car at plus 1.6% and a diesel at minus 1.8%. A dealer who looks at the stock as one number sees no profit and no loss.

I would count stock turn for each fuel type. Once a week I would change the price where a car stands longer than normal. The same goes for buying. Today I would buy a three-year-old electric car with more confidence, and a diesel with more care. This is work for an agent that compares prices each day, and the buyer makes the decision.

Source Car Dealer Magazine

Consumer confidence in the US falls to the lowest level since 2014#

On October 5 Cox Automotive published its weekly review of the US car market. It collects public government and industry statistics and adds conclusions for the car business.

The consumer confidence index of the Conference Board fell to 81.9, the lowest level since 2014, when the forecast was 89.2. In September the economy added 29,000 jobs, when the forecast was 90,000. Unemployment rose to 4.2%. Real disposable income grew by 1.3% in a year, when the usual growth is 3.2%. Real spending still grew by 0.6% in a month.

Fuel use now moves car prices. Cars with poor fuel economy lose value the fastest. Cars that do more than 40 miles per gallon hold their value or gain.

My opinion. People spend more than they add in income, and they are afraid of tomorrow. In the store this sounds like "I will think about it". The customer did not say no. The customer delays the decision, and the delay will be longer than a year ago.

A refusal and silence are normal, and you must not stop. I would check how often the store returns to a customer after "I will think about it". The usual answer is one call.

An agent can lead this customer for three months, with a reason in each message. A new rate, a car that uses less fuel, a change in the trade-in price. The person calls when the customer answers.

Source Cox Automotive

In short#

Japan bought 1.3% more vehicles in September. The market grew to 433,683 vehicles, and the nine-month total is 3.55 million, up 2.3%. Toyota sold 1.13 million this year, up 6.2%, and foreign brands have about 5%. GlobalData expects a fall of 4% in 2027. In a flat market the winner keeps its own customers, and I would count repeat purchases as a separate line. Just Auto

Croatia will give up to €9,000 for an electric car. The state fund FZOEU runs the programme with a budget of €20 million, enough for about 3,000 applications. The maximum is for cars up to €35,000, and the buyer needs a binding price quote from a dealer. Applications open online in October, in the order of arrival. The money will end in days, and today I would prepare the customer list and the quotes. Electrive

France supports Germany on softer CO2 rules in the European Union. Handelsblatt reports that Merz and Macron want to lower the 2035 target by ten more points, to a cut of about 80%. In return Germany will support strict "Made in Europe" rules. The vote in the European Parliament is planned for November. Petrol cars will stay in European stores longer, and the salesperson will need to explain both options to the customer in an honest way. Electrive

Uber invests in the Croatian robotaxi service Verne. The CEO of Uber confirmed the investment and did not give the size of the stake. Verne carries passengers in Zagreb since April, and the first rides with no driver were in September. It uses Chinese Arcfox cars with the Pony.ai system in an area of about 90 square kilometres. A robotaxi now works in a mid-size European city, and I would watch how it changes the demand for a second family car. Electrive

Li Auto will enter Thailand before the end of 2026. For the Chinese brand Li Auto this is one of its first right-hand-drive markets, with Macau and Singapore. The brand prepares two right-hand-drive models, the Mega minivan and the i6 SUV. The article does not say which of them will go to Thailand, and it has no prices or dealers. It is one more brand with no customer base, and a dealer who records each lead will soon know the market better than the factory. CarNewsChina

The British family group Grainger buys back the Honda store that it opened 25 years ago. Grainger Motor Group bought Chiswick Honda in West London from Norton Way Motors, and the price is not public. The store opened in October 2001 as the first European brand centre of Honda. The group now has 23 sales outlets and 640 employees, and it expects a turnover above £425 million in 2026. The buyer gets the customer base with the building, and in the first month I would write to each customer from the new owners. Car Dealer Magazine

Genesis launches its first hybrid SUV in Korea. The GV80 Hybrid costs 77 million won, about $58,000. It has 352 PS, uses one litre of fuel for 12 km, and drives about 912 km on one tank. Genesis names the goal directly, the growing segment of premium hybrids. The hybrid reached the premium class, and the salesperson must now count fuel use with the customer, not only the payment. Just Auto

BMW shows the electric iX4 with a range of up to 828 km. The price in Germany starts at €70,900, and the 108.7 kWh battery charges at up to 400 kW. BMW states that the car adds up to 387 km of range in ten minutes. Orders for the M60 version open in January 2027, and for the other versions in March. With this range the question "will I reach my destination" has an answer in numbers, and the salesperson can talk about charging at home. Electrive

The US regulator closes its price case against Asbury but keeps its attention on dealer prices. On October 5 the Federal Trade Commission ended its case against Asbury Automotive Group, which started in August 2024. The dealer's own court case could delay the process for years. In March 2026 the commission warned 97 dealer groups about deceptive prices. I would not wait for a letter from the regulator, and I would compare the advert price with the contract price now. CBT News

US dealers join a buying cooperative and want to cut up to 25% of costs. The dealers own the AutoTrust Dealer Alliance, which has 350 stores, and about 50 new ones join each month. Founder Dave Mondragon says a store spends about $2 million a year, and the cooperative can influence half of it. The 25% is a goal and not a result. Software is the first candidate on this list, and before the next contract I would ask the vendor for the numbers from my store. CBT News

Anthropic cuts the price of its small Claude model by about 90%. Claude Haiku 5.5 came out on October 7. One million input tokens cost $0.10, down from $1.00 for the older version, for requests up to 100,000 tokens. Simon Willison notes that the new model needs 1.25 times more tokens for the same text. An agent's answer to a lead now costs a fraction of a cent, so I would ask a vendor about quality, not price. Simon Willison

Carvana builds a reconditioning centre at an auction site in Orlando. The online seller Carvana adds an inspection and reconditioning centre at the ADESA site in Sanford, Florida. It brings about 100 jobs and same-day delivery in Central Florida. Yesterday I wrote about the dispute over Carvana's agreement with Stellantis. The company now shortens the path of a car from the auction to the customer, and I would count my own reconditioning time in days. Auto Remarketing

Hype of the day#

These are headlines with no review. The largest number of outlets write about them, or the source did not open.

• TechCrunch. Microsoft releases new Nvidia-chip AI PCs with revamped Windows 11, 124 outlets
• The Verge. Google's expanding its Gemini in Chrome "auto browse" feature to India, 52 outlets
• Reuters. Mercedes-Benz Q3 car sales fall 8% as China demand weakness persists, EV sales rise 52%, 44 outlets
• WSJ. OpenAI's ChatGPT for Teens poses "unacceptable risk", nonprofit says, 20 outlets
• Fortune. OpenAI publishes solutions to more than 370 outstanding math challenges, 11 outlets
• The Economic Times. UK weighs tariffs on Chinese EVs amid "dumping" concerns, 9 outlets
• Reuters. China rejects EU request for voluntary hybrid car export curbs, FT reports, 3 outlets
• Axios. German automakers in crisis mode as Chinese EVs bear down, 1 outlet
• Automotive News. Audi offers German workers defense assignments as automaker restructures, 1 outlet
• Automotive News. Most car buyers don't know if they have GAP, service contracts, survey says, 1 outlet