AI and car sales, October 28. AI service booking brings Lithia 10-11% extra sales

Here is the news from around the world for the last day. Today has a lot about AI that works with dealer customers on its own, and about buyer agents that already write to stores. There is also AI selling outside cars, the markets in the UK, India and Thailand, and fresh research. I added my opinion to each story.

AI books Lithia service customers and sells extra work in 10-11% of bookings#

Lithia Motors is the largest new-car retailer in the US. The group has 308 stores in the US, 143 in the UK and 15 in Canada. WardsAuto wrote about it on October 28, based on the October 21 call with investors.

Lithia's UK stores have used the Pinewood.AI system for 6 to 9 months. It has AI built in that talks to the customer and books the service visit. Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer says each AI booking brings about 10-11% of extra work sold in advance. Before AI, his guess is that this was "close to zero."

DeBoer explains it in simple terms. A person who books a visit can easily forget to ask about new wiper blades. Lithia wants to move all its US stores to Pinewood.AI by 2028. Costs are now 68.8% of gross profit, and the goal for 2028 is below 60%.

My opinion. This is a strong case for AI in service. The agent is not smarter than the service advisor. It asks every time, and a person asks when he remembers.

I would give the booking agent 2 or 3 jobs to offer based on the car's mileage and age. Then I would count each week how often customers say yes. The service advisor confirms the work and the price at the visit. AI prepares, and a person is responsible for what the customer gets.

Source WardsAuto

The CarEdge agent contacted dealers 160,000 times and compares site prices with quotes#

Zach Shefska is the CEO of CarEdge, a service for car buyers. He spoke on CBT Live on October 27. The CarEdge AI agent has contacted dealers for buyers 160,000 times since July 2025. Shefska says buyers who use the agent buy three times more often than others. The source does not explain how this was measured, so it is a company claim.

CarEdge runs the Dealer Transparency Index, a score for clear pricing. It covers more than 24,000 dealers. About 60% got an "A" grade and about 10% got an "F". Shefska says ChatGPT already cites the index when it recommends a dealer to a buyer.

He tells dealers to check that the online price matches the price in the written quote. In his view, a clear price up front helps franchise dealers compete with Carvana.

My opinion. More and more, the lead comes from a buyer's agent, not from a person. The agent does not get tired of comparing. If the website price and the quote are different, the store drops off the list.

Once a week I would take 10 cars from stock and compare three prices. The website price, the price in the lead reply and the price in the contract. In every lead reply I would write the full price with all fees.

Source CBT News

Databricks keeps its first-contact team flat, and email replies went from 1-2% to 6-10%#

Databricks sells a data and AI platform and is valued at about $200 billion. Its chief revenue officer Ron Gabrisko talked on a podcast about how selling has changed. Jason Lemkin of SaaStr wrote up the lessons.

Before, the company loaded 5,000 contacts into a mass mailing tool and got 1-2% replies. Now each email is written for one person, based on signals about the company and the contact. Replies went up to 6-10%. The team that finds new clients and books first meetings (SDRs) does not grow, while the number of sales reps and engineers goes up.

Databricks has agents that research the client and prepare presentations, briefings for executives and proposals. The saved time goes to meetings, and reps must spend at least 60% of their time with customers. Cold calls stay with people. Sam Blond of the startup Monaco says one of his SDRs books 400 meetings a month.

My opinion. Replies went up 3 to 5 times because the emails got more exact, not because there were more of them. The agent knows enough about the person to make the email about them.

A dealer already has these signals in the database. Who looked at a model, whose loan ends in three months, who took a test drive and went quiet. I would let the agent draft emails from these signals and leave the call to the salesperson. I would also keep the first-contact team. Gabrisko keeps it as a school for future sales reps.

Source SaaStr

AI agents skip dealer websites with several phone numbers and no live stock feed#

David Spisak, CEO of the consulting firm Disruptive Growth Solutions, spoke on CBT Live on October 26. He says buyers ask AI first and open the dealer website later. People can already research and buy a car through ChatGPT and Instagram without visiting the site.

He says websites are not going away. But now the site must feed data to AI search. His team checked dealer sites and found several phone numbers for one store, stock not connected to the site and weak car descriptions. Because of this, AI agents can skip a store. The source gives no numbers from these checks.

Spisak is starting a show called Sorry to Disrupt You on CBT News. The first episode comes out in November.

My opinion. Before, a weak website cost a dealer part of its calls. Now it can cost a place in the AI answer, and the buyer sees that answer first.

I would start with the basics. One phone number everywhere, stock on the site that updates by itself, and a description and a price for every car. Then I would ask ChatGPT where to buy my model in my city and see if my store is in the answer.

Source CBT News

Autotrader UK counts chat as a lead from November 10 and wants prices with all fees#

The UK car marketplace Autotrader changes its terms for dealers on November 10. Car Dealer Magazine reported this on October 27. The price in an advert must include all compulsory fees, taxes and admin fees.

A lead now has one definition for web forms, calls, chat, text messages and messaging apps. Autotrader says this will make lead reports consistent. After a lead, the dealer must give the buyer a business email address and other key information.

Four separate rule documents move into one main contract. The limit for low-cost Economy Stock adverts goes from 50% to 100% of the stock in the contract. Dealers can also protect their account with a passkey instead of a password.

My opinion. The marketplace will treat a chat message as the same kind of lead as a phone call. Sooner or later, it will also compare how fast dealers answer it.

In dealer measurements in different countries, 40% of inquiries come outside working hours. Before November 10, I would check who answers Autotrader chats in the evening and at night. I would also check that every message gets into the CRM. If nobody can answer, this is a job for an agent, and the salesperson calls in the morning.

Source Car Dealer Magazine

Maruti Suzuki in India sold 26.5% more cars and has about 200,000 orders waiting#

Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, reported results for July to September. Sales went up 26.5% to 696,654 vehicles. Net profit fell 26.8% to 24.15 billion rupees, about $253.7 million. The company blames higher raw material prices linked to the conflict in West Asia.

Demand is higher than the company can build. About 200,000 orders are waiting, and dealers have about 17 days of stock. Small car sales grew 35.9% and SUV sales grew 68.2%. Exports fell a little, to 108,119 vehicles.

Several media reports say CEO Hisashi Takeuchi talked about price increases across the lineup in the next six months. The report on the results came out on October 28.

My opinion. 200,000 orders in the queue means people paid and are waiting. The longer they hear nothing from the store, the easier it is to go where a car is ready.

I would put an agent in touch with every customer in the queue. Every two weeks it shares the delivery date and gives an honest warning about price increases. The salesperson calls those who start to doubt. A person decides and keeps the customer. Just Auto

Research#

48% of auto executives expect six Chinese companies in the global top 10 by 2035#

KPMG published its 26th Global Automotive Executive Survey on October 21. It asked 775 senior executives. Of them, 330 are in Europe, 260 in Asia-Pacific and 185 in the Americas. The survey dates are not given.

48% expect six of the world's ten largest carmakers to be based in China by 2035. 51% think software and digital technology will be their main advantage by 2035. Only 36% of AI and software projects have moved beyond a pilot. 92% need at least 12 months to roll out AI across the company, and more than a third need over two years.

The KPMG release says nothing about sales or dealers.

My opinion. The 36% number matters more to me than the China forecast. Two out of three AI projects get stuck at the pilot stage, and dealers see the same.

I would not start a second project until the first one shows a number for three months. One process, one agent, one number, for example the share of leads answered in five minutes. If there is no record of every customer contact, there is nothing to measure AI against.

Source KPMG

Buyers rate salespeople the same, but ease of purchase fell to 79%#

CDK Global published its analysis of buyer ratings for the third quarter on October 20. CBT News covered it on October 26. CDK asks buyers about their salesperson on five points. Did they save time, explain clearly, know the product, act professionally and earn trust. The sample size is not given.

Salesperson scores stayed almost the same as in the second quarter, but product knowledge and trust went down. The ease of purchase score in September was 79%, the lowest in 2026. Almost every step of the purchase outside the salesperson's work fell in September. Complaints about pressure came back, and so did complaints about long waits while staff look for the car.

My opinion. The salesperson holds up, and the process around them gets worse. A buyer remembers waiting for staff to find the car longer than the salesperson's smile.

Before the visit, I would let an agent add three facts to the customer card. Which car waits for the buyer, where it is parked, and if it is ready for a test drive. The salesperson comes to the meeting with an answer and does not go looking for keys.

Source CBT News

Cox expects 1.38 million new-car sales in the US in October, 7.2% more than a year ago#

Cox Automotive released its forecast for US new-vehicle sales in October. CBT News reported it on October 28. Cox expects about 1.38 million sales, 3.6% more than in September. The annual sales pace is about 16.1 million, against 16 million in September and 15.7 million a year ago.

October has 28 selling days, three more than September and one more than last year. Subcompact SUVs grow fastest, up 17.6% to 120,000, and compact cars are up 15.6%. Only mid-size cars fall, down 2.1%. Jonathan Gregory of Cox explains the growth with extra days, fleet sales and wealthier buyers.

My opinion. Most of the growth comes from extra selling days, and the pace has hardly changed. A month-to-month comparison is misleading here.

I would look at sales and leads per selling day. This shows if the team works better or if the month is longer.

Source CBT News

In short#

The head of Leapmotor in Australia says rivals bring cars there to clear extra stock. Andy Hoang of Leapmotor did not name the brands and said his brand gets no extra stock from China. MG now has 14 models in Australia, and BYD has 12, up from one in 2022. When the lineup grows this fast, I would give salespeople three ready answers to "why are you better than the brand next door". CarExpert

Thailand sales grew 14% in September, and electric cars grew 90%. The Federation of Thai Industries says 55,255 vehicles were sold, including 22,587 electric cars, while pickups fell 7% to 10,315. Reports say the government wants to raise the excise tax on imported electric cars to at least 30% from January. If the tax goes up in January, I would tell this to everyone who is choosing an electric car now. Just Auto

Volvo Cars cuts another 2,500 jobs after a loss in the third quarter. Volvo Cars had an operating loss of 3.7 billion Swedish kronor, about $373 million, and about 2,000 of the cuts are in Sweden. Electric cars are 45% of its sales in Europe, and it split the US market into four regions to make faster decisions. As a Volvo dealer in the US, I would find out now who decides on discounts and supply in my region. WardsAuto

The UK RAC Dealer Network gave 1,500 independent dealers a used-car pricing tool. StockSmart from RWA Automotive gives a trade and retail value from the number plate in seconds. It shows similar adverts nearby with their prices and days on sale and flags cars that are overpriced or have been in stock too long. It uses prices from Cazana, and the first month is free. The tool will not sell the car, but it shows which car to offer to old leads now. Car Dealer Magazine

Stellantis sales in Europe grew 1%, and 6% with Leapmotor included. Stellantis had third-quarter revenue of €37.6 billion, 1% more than a year ago. Leapmotor sales almost grew four times, and electric car sales in Europe grew 65%. The Chinese partner drives growth in Europe, so as a Stellantis dealer I would train salespeople to answer questions about it. CBT News

Stellantis puts customer records from all its brands into one Amperity platform. According to the press release, Amperity joins customer, service and loyalty records and gives them to people and AI agents. The company says the pilot built a single customer profile in under three days. It is good if the carmaker sees the whole customer, but I would ask if the dealer will see this profile too. CBT News

Dealer.com tells dealers to write answers for AI search based on the questions buyers ask salespeople. This partner article from Dealer.com on CBT News suggests collecting common questions from the sales and service teams. It says to write about stock, financing, trade-ins and local conditions. There are no numbers in the article, and the company builds dealer websites. I would start with the 20 questions salespeople hear every week. CBT News

Nvidia released an open speech-to-text model for 40 languages. Nvidia Nemotron 3.5 Transcribe works with recordings up to one hour long and can tell apart up to eight speakers. It does not work on live audio, only on recordings. It is not for a voice agent, but it fits the review of recorded store calls in different languages. TechCrunch

Hype of the day#

These are headlines without a review. Most outlets write about them, or the source did not open.

• The Economic Times. HUL reports highest sales growth in 14 quarters as volumes pick up, 14 outlets
• CBT News. Honda exec says 50% Canada tariff would be "catastrophic", 12 outlets
• TechCrunch. Parents sue OpenAI, alleging GPT-4o coached their daughter off seizure medication, 10 outlets
• Bloomberg. Struggling carmaker Stellantis affirms outlook in fight to cut costs, 9 outlets
• Bloomberg. Volkswagen debuts new car software to halt China sales decline, 9 outlets
• Business Insider. Anthropic manager says the "coding interview is dead", 4 outlets
• Automotive News. Dealers, be warned. Adopt AI or fall behind, 1 outlet
• Automotive News. Fed pauses as new-vehicle interest rates and payments rise, 1 outlet