AI and car sales, October 12. AI does not pick dealers by review count

It is Monday, and this is world news from the last day and the weekend. Today I look at how AI chooses which dealer to name to a buyer. I also look at cars that sell faster with no discount. Then come new car rules in China, a Chery recall in Malaysia, the Paris Motor Show and motorcycles in India. I added what I think about each story.

AI names specific dealers to buyers and ignores the review count#

In July, the company CarGenius checked which Toyota dealers AI recommends in the 25 largest US metro areas. CDG News reported the results on October 11. In Miami, AI named real dealerships in 99.6% of answers, usually three to six per answer.

In 17 of 25 metro areas, the first pick was not the store with the most reviews. In 12 of 25, AI recommended different dealers for sales and for service. The top pick was about 8 miles from the city center on average. The typical dealer was about 18 miles away.

The service Promptwatch measured that on August 8 ChatGPT began to look inside a specific website more often. The share of these searches rose from 0.37% to 16.8%. CarGenius founder Corey Lydstone gave an example. A dealer's site metadata had an old phone number, and ChatGPT gave it to the customer. CARS Commerce sponsored this CDG News edition.

My opinion. A buyer asks AI where to buy a car and gets three names. Ads and the number of reviews do not put you on this list. AI reads the website and compares it with what other places say about the dealer.

Today I would ask ChatGPT two questions about my city. Where to buy my brand, and where to service it. Then I would check the phone number, the address and the opening hours on the site, on maps and in the page metadata. On the site, I would explain in plain text how our finance, trade-in and service booking work.

Source CDG News

CarGurus says AI helped sell cars 9 days faster with no price cut#

The listing site CarGurus introduced a tool called VINMax. The model looks at supply and demand and chooses cars that need more exposure. A dealer can boost 10 cars at a time, and the model selects them. CDG News reports this.

The test ran from February to July. About 10,000 cars got a boost, and CarGurus compared them with about 24,000 similar listings without it. The company says the boosted cars sold 9 days faster and got 34% more leads a day. This is an internal CarGurus test on its own platform, and nobody outside has verified it.

Ben Kasdon, a vice president at CarGurus, says dealers should not always have to give up margin to move a car. When leads grow, the model moves the boost to other cars.

My opinion. The idea is right, even if the seller of the tool counted the numbers. A car stands in stock for 40 days, and the manager's first reaction is a discount. Often the real problem is that few people saw the car.

Before a discount, I would look at two numbers for the listing. These are the views and the leads. Few views means the problem is exposure and photos. Enough views and no leads means the problem is the price. AI prepares the list of cars, and a person changes the price.

Source CDG News

China wants to ban folding screens and seat movement while the car drives#

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published draft rules for new car technologies. The document is open for public comment, and CarNewsChina reported it on October 11. The article gives no date for the rules to take effect.

Zero-gravity, rotating and fold-flat seats will get stricter crash and anti-pinch tests. Moving these seats while the car drives will not be allowed. The draft bans folding and flexible screens. Carmakers must test large center screens and complex head-up displays for driver distraction.

Carmakers must also moderate the text and drawings that owners show on headlights and taillights. The ministry repeated its ban on fully hidden door handles. The outlet says the rules could affect tech-focused brands such as Xiaomi and the brands of the Huawei alliance.

My opinion. For two years, Chinese brands sold the car with the screen and the seat. Now the regulator says part of these functions is dangerous. The reason to buy that stood in the first line of the listing may disappear.

This is still a draft, and it applies only to China. The article does not say how it will affect export versions. I would still remove promises like "the seat reclines on the road" from scripts. I would sell what survives any rule. That is fuel cost, warranty and a service center near home.

Source CarNewsChina

Chery recalls 8,878 Omoda 5 cars in Malaysia, and the regulator stops new registrations#

Chery is recalling 8,878 Omoda 5 SUVs in Malaysia. The reason is the welds on the rear axle. The company says the welds may not be strong enough and could break under extreme conditions. CnEVPost reported this on October 12.

The recall follows an incident in Johor Bahru on October 6. An Omoda 5 lost its rear axle and wheels while driving, and nobody was hurt. On October 11, the road transport department JPJ suspended the model's type approval and new registrations until the investigation ends. Chery will inspect the parts and replace them free of charge where needed.

This is the second case. In April 2024, after a similar failure, Chery recalled 600 cars and blamed the setup of welding equipment. The company is now checking cars from the same batch in China and other markets. It says the recall does not affect models on sale today.

My opinion. Tomorrow a customer in a Chery showroom in any country will ask if their car is the same. A salesperson who answers "we do not have this problem" takes a risk. They do not know that.

I would give salespeople a written answer on one page. It says what happened, which cars are being checked, what we know about our market and what we do not know yet. The agent finds Omoda 5 owners in the database and writes to them first. A customer accepts an honest "we are checking" better than a confident "all is fine".

Source CnEVPost

Citroën will bring back the 2CV as an electric car for about 15,000 euros by 2028#

Citroën showed an electric 2CV concept at the Paris Motor Show. The production car should arrive by 2028 at a price of about 15,000 euros. CarExpert reports this. Citroën will build it in Europe under the new European rules for small electric cars.

The concept is 3.76 m long, a little shorter than the 3.86 m original. The company aims for a weight of one tonne, so it can use a smaller and cheaper battery. It did not give the battery size or the range. The original 2CV was on sale in Europe from 1949 to 1990.

My opinion. A European brand answers Chinese brands with price and with the memory of an old model. But the car is two years away, and 15,000 euros is a target, not a price list. The company did not name the battery or the range.

A Citroën dealer will get customer questions this week. I would record every person who asks about the 2CV, with a phone number and a date. I would not promise the price. In two years this list will be a ready base for the first sales, if somebody kept it.

Source CarExpert

Research#

India's motorcycle and scooter market grew by a third in September to 1.79 million#

JATO Dynamics published India's two-wheeler registration numbers on October 7. In September 2026, there were 1,789,500 registrations. That is 32.9% more than a year ago and 3.6% more than in August. The numbers come from JATO's registration data as of October 1.

Honda has 26.2% of the market, Hero MotoCorp has 24.3% and TVS Motor has 20.4%. TVS grew its volume by 42% and gained the most share. Motorcycles are 52.7% of registrations, scooters are 35.1% and electric scooters are 10.6%. The best-selling model is the Hero Splendor Plus with 248,592 units.

JATO names the festive season, stable rural demand and interest in electric models as the reasons.

My opinion. The market grew by a third, and Hero lost share, although its sales grew 31%. It is not enough to grow with the market. The share goes to the brand that grows faster than the market.

I would advise a motorcycle dealer to count share in their own city, not in the country. The festive season is a peak of leads in a short time. The agent answers at once and books the visit, and a person completes the sale. An electric scooter with a 10.6% share already needs its own sales script.

Source JATO

China's retail car sales fell 24% in September, and EV shipments hit a record for the year#

The China Passenger Car Association, CPCA, gave preliminary numbers for September. CnEVPost published them on October 10. Passenger car retail sales were 1.702 million, 24% lower than a year ago. Nine-month sales were 13.42 million, down 21%.

Retail sales of electric cars and plug-in hybrids were 1.141 million, down 12%. Their share of retail was 67.1%. Wholesale shipments of these cars grew 11% to 1.672 million, the highest month this year. Wholesale of gasoline cars fell 41%.

CnEVPost calculates that about 310,000 electric cars were sold in the last three days of September. That is almost 28% of the month.

My opinion. Factories shipped half a million more electric cars than people bought. The article does not say where the difference went. My guess is dealer stock and exports, and I have no numbers for it.

28% of sales in three days means that the plan is closed at the last moment with discounts. I would advise a dealer outside China to expect price pressure from Chinese brands. The right answer is a five-year cost of ownership. A discount will not win this argument.

Source CnEVPost

56% of companies let AI agents make changes with no human review, down from 75%#

In August, VentureBeat surveyed 140 readers and members of its panel. 53% of them make decisions about buying AI. The results came out on October 8. The outlet warns that people chose to take part themselves, so the sample does not represent the whole market.

Among companies with autonomous agents, 56% allow or plan to allow agents to change production systems without a person. In July, the number was 75%. The share that will keep human review for the foreseeable future rose from 20% to 42%.

61% of companies that test agents before launch saw at least one failure in front of a customer in the past year. Human review is the top spending priority for reliability, named by 30%.

My opinion. The longer companies work with agents, the less they want to leave them alone. The reason is plain. The agent passed the tests and still made a mistake in front of a customer.

In a showroom, I would split answers into two kinds. The agent gives opening hours, stock and test drive booking itself. A salesperson confirms the price, the discount and the finance terms. AI prepares, and a person decides and answers for the result.

Source VentureBeat

66% of small US banks want AI first for fraud detection#

MeridianLink, a maker of lending software, surveyed 257 specialists at US community banks and credit unions. The survey ran in April 2026, and the results came out on October 8. It has no separate numbers for car loans.

66% named fraud detection as a top task for AI. 56% chose workflow and queue management, and 50% chose document collection and review. AI works inside core lending workflows at 20% of the organizations. 15% did nothing with AI in the past year.

Leaders and staff see the tasks differently. 57% of executives would invest in document collection, against 28% of lending staff. 63% of lending staff would invest in fraud detection, against 46% of executives.

My opinion. The leader buys AI for paperwork, and the employee asks for protection from fraud. Each one sees their own part of the work. A measurement settles this argument.

A showroom has the same picture. Before buying a tool, I would ask salespeople and finance managers where their day goes. Then I would compare the answers with the lead log. A bank that checks documents faster will approve my customer's loan sooner. I would ask our partner banks for their response time on an application.

Source MeridianLink

In short#

Nissan will bring more China-developed models to Australia. Nissan Oceania boss Steve Milette said the Navara Pro PHEV pickup is "the first of more to come". Its launch is set for 2027. The candidates at Nissan are the N7 sedan and the NX7 and NX8 SUVs from its joint venture with Dongfeng, with no prices yet. The customer will ask where the car is made, and I would give the salesperson a direct answer with the warranty terms. CarExpert

Nissan in Australia gives a 10-year warranty if a dealer services the car. CarExpert compared brand warranties in the country. At Nissan it is 10 years or 300,000 km with on-time dealer servicing, and 5 years otherwise. MG and Mitsubishi set the same condition for their 10 years, and Toyota and Mazda give 5 years with unlimited km. A long warranty ties the customer to the service department, and I would explain this condition at the sale, not at the first refusal. CarExpert

BYD built its 150,000th commercial vehicle and bets on heavy trucks. The milestone vehicle is a Q3 electric semi-truck, which left the line in Huai'an on October 9. In nine months, BYD sold 53,032 commercial vehicles, up 28.5%. Total sales of the brand fell 3.9% in the same period. A truck buyer decides by cost per kilometer, and I would teach the salesperson to calculate it together with the customer. CnEVPost

India's Ultraviolette sells its electric motorcycle in 19 European countries. Ultraviolette from Bengaluru started with the expensive F77 model. Chief product officer Vinayak Bhat explains that a premium brand can come down in price more easily than a cheap brand can go up. The F77 price in India fell from 380,000 to 309,000 rupees, and the company does not disclose unit sales. I would test the order "expensive model first, mass model second" on any new brand that enters a market. Electrive

The Baleno was India's best-selling car in September, with 93% growth. Maruti Suzuki sold 25,392 units of the hatchback. The top ten models together reached 191,332 cars, up 15.5% on last year. Sales of the Tata Nexon and Hyundai Creta fell in the same month. The market does not grow for everyone, and I would compare my result with the nearest rival model, not with the country average. Rushlane

The British group AWR Holdings posted a loss of 13.3 million pounds on turnover of 904 million. The group owns the dealers Brayleys and Johnsons Cars. A year earlier it made a profit of 2.4 million pounds. Turnover grew because it bought Johnsons for 60.8 million in August 2025, and it sold 40,945 cars and motorcycles. A purchase adds turnover at once, and profit comes after the group builds one sales process. Motor Trader

Yamaha and John Deere will develop side-by-side vehicles together. Yamaha and John Deere announced the agreement on October 6. It covers utility off-road vehicles, and there are no models or dates yet. The brands, dealer networks and sales channels stay separate. The hardware will be shared, so the buyer will choose by dealer and service, and I would strengthen these two. Powersports Business

The price of the same used car in the US changes by 100 to 1,000 dollars by ZIP code. These are numbers from J.D. Power, which added location-based pricing to its dealer products. Vice president Jonathan Banks told CDG News about it. I would replace a trade-in appraisal by the national average with the price in my own area. CDG News

Hype of the day#

These are headlines without analysis. They are the stories that the most outlets cover, or the source did not open.

• CNBC TV18. Nvidia in talks to invest further in Reflection AI or buy it, FT reports, 22 outlets
• The Economic Times. Anthropic's Claude went rogue and submitted a fake tip to police in an unsolved murder, 21 outlets
• Reuters. US reverses course on Britain's testing of AI models, Telegraph says, 6 outlets
• The Guardian. Volkswagen boss backs EU plan to bolster domestic European industry, 3 outlets
• Reuters. Volkswagen CEO says transformation is "shared responsibility" in appeal to EU, 3 outlets
• Automotive News. At Paris show, Stellantis seeks to prove its revival in Europe is real, 1 outlet
• Automotive News. How Carvana's vast shipping network gives it an edge in new-car sales, 1 outlet
• Forbes. Paris car show will be overshadowed by ominous China threat, report says, 1 outlet