#420: How Dealers Are Using AI to Automate Their Lot
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
33:18
Term
out-the-door price
The out-the-door price is the full price you pay for a car, including the car itself plus taxes and fees. It tells you exactly how much money you need to bring to the dealer to drive the car home.
Term
down payment
When you buy a car, you usually pay some money first called a down payment. This means you borrow less money from the bank.
Term
outside lender
An outside lender is a bank or company that gives you money to buy a car, but they are not part of the car dealership.
Term
used car price
Used cars are cars that other people have owned before. The used car price is how much these cars usually cost when you buy them.
Brand
Tesla
Tesla is a company that makes electric cars and sells them directly to customers instead of through regular car dealerships.
Concept
tax exempt dealer purchase
Sometimes, car dealers can buy cars without paying extra tax because they plan to sell them to other people.
Term
retail price
Retail price is the amount of money you pay when you buy a car from a store, including taxes.
Term
sales tax
Sales tax is extra money you have to pay to the government when you buy something like a car.
Term
vehicle wrap
A vehicle wrap is like a big sticker that covers the car's paint to change how it looks without painting it.
Company
3M
3M is a company that makes special stickers for cars that can change their color or look shiny.
Term
gap
GAP insurance helps pay off your car loan if your car gets wrecked or stolen and the insurance company doesn't pay enough to cover what you still owe.
Term
reinsurance products
Reinsurance is like insurance for insurance companies, helping them share the risk so they don't lose too much money if many claims happen.
Term
repo
A repo means the bank took back your car because you didn't pay for it. This shows up on your credit and can make it harder to get loans later.
Term
CPI
CPI is a type of insurance that helps pay your car loan if something unexpected happens, like losing your job. Sometimes dealers or lenders ask you to have it.
Term
upside down
If you owe more money on your car than it's worth, that's called being "upside down." It can make it hard to sell or trade your car without paying extra.
Term
franchise dealers
Franchise dealers are car dealerships that officially sell new cars from a certain brand, like Toyota or Ford. They also often sell used cars and fix cars in their service centers.
Term
used car dealer
Used car dealers sell cars that other people have already owned. Some are good, some not so much, so it's important to check the car carefully.
Concept
new car store
A new car store is a place where you can buy brand-new cars directly from the maker. They usually sell lots of cars and have special deals.
Concept
dealer culture
Dealer culture means how people at car dealerships act and what they care about, like making money or helping customers.
LIVE
If I have a bot that just keeps asking me stupid questions trying to get to the root of some issue
And it doesn't really understand context or get me the answer right away
And then I got to turn it over to a customer anyway or a human
That's that's just frustrating right? I've already explained everything to your stupid AI bot that couldn't help me
And now I got to get a human on the line and explain everything again
So that part's frustrating, but I have seen some success in our neo leads being answered and
People having two-way conversations all the way up to setting an appointment and these customers have no idea that they weren't talking to a human
Hello, and welcome to the independent dealer podcast brought to you by Luke Godwin Jeff Watson and
And a lot of caffeine. Oh
Jeff drink a coffee are you down Jeff? No, no, no, no
My monster inside of a it's late again, so it stays cold
Yes, it cause a mustard so much better for you than caffeine and then I call beautiful
Not that I needed to stay cold because it is frigid here, man
I don't know how you're doing over there on the other side of the country, but it is cold
Everything's frozen up our cars are frozen up tax money's frozen up. I don't know what's going on man
I'm just need a little sunshine
Yeah, you know what you should do is go to 20 group in Florida Jeff because I heard it's warm when you go down there
Yeah, dude everywhere. I've gone. I've timed it horribly man
We went to Florida and Wanda's are falling out of trees. I come back home now
Freakin snows on us yesterday. It never happens here
We would never get snow and then I'm leaving this weekend to go to California for a couple days just to unwind and it's frigid down there too
So can't we hold on? Hold on. You're leaving at some of the most busy time tax season time. Yeah
You're gonna leave the dealership. Yeah, my job's done man. Cars are bought. They're here already. Oh my yeah
Oh my heart really on my team to sell them. They don't need me
It's better when I'm not here to be honest with you
And I think some of the owner operators can relate to that like sometimes when you leave
They know what to do and they just get it done
You know really hopefully you've built a system where you don't really need to be there
You know the outs they don't how to handle leads. They know how to handle get people approved
Maybe some weird weird exceptions. They're gonna give you a call on someone that's a little on the edge
But for the most part
My team handles it great when I'm not here. Well, you have you do have good people Adrian is great. George is great
So, yeah, you have good people, but this time of the year can get so busy
Even when I was kind of
Not in that office. I would still go down there on the busy tax times just because I know they needed people to help people
Yeah, here's the thing. I suck at that. I'm not good. I sold raw yesterday to your right
You're not nice to people dude and it's like two situations
I've had recently and I'll just I'll be negative nearly for a minute
But like a friend of a friend who it was an in-house deal and it's like dude great. Do you make money?
Yeah, cool. What card do you want? All right, I'm gonna inspect it. I don't care inspect it or don't but it is what it is
Like drive it for three days come back and talk to me if you want it
We'll sell it to you
Like I just have no patience for any of that stuff
So I give the deal jacket to my title girl and she's like dude. You didn't do anything. She's not there's no group of income
There's no references. There's not even a credit app and I was like, yeah, that's not my job
Like I don't I don't know how to be bad
And then we had another guy a cash guy trying to buy a Tesla here and it's like dude
I can't hold your hand and give you the out-the-door prices on all five of my Teslas and
Like this like I just don't have the patience for that
So to that point Luke no
I'm at the point where I should not be talking to customers because I'm either gonna give away the farm or
I'm gonna get us a bad review because I just tell these people to take a hike man like
Take it or don't I don't know I we got a bad you're gonna love this
Yeah, we got a bad review on car gurus other than and
actually sits
You know since we're really not all that much in business anymore. It's a game for me to see how snarky I can be
In the review anyway
So this was the review a two out of five stars on car gurus because we would not finance a
$5,000 car. Oh
Wow
And then this car gurus, I mean, I don't know how their review system works to do the care
Do you care you got to pay them to get it taken off or is it just it just is what it is?
Hey, I don't I'm definitely not gonna pay these idiots to get it taken off
it just
Does it blow your mind that somebody would leave a review?
Because you wouldn't a bad review because you would not
Finance a $5,000 car because you wouldn't change your business model to fit what they want. I get it and that's the frustrations of
dealing with the public and customer relationships and
Even on the other side of it, you know, you're gonna get a bad review because you didn't respond to them at three o'clock in the morning and
Give the car away for free like yeah
Yeah, it's so weird like in my my response
was was
Essentially, most people put down $5,000 on our car
So what would we find a like I mean and try to find a outside lender that will finance a
$5,000 car. They only exist. Yeah. So and so you know, it's it's kind of like
Consumers are not they are so uneducated about what cars cost
If you didn't know this Jeff the average used car price in the US is $26,000. Okay, and
Most people in that $26,000 the average deal use car deal. It's a $4,000 down deal
Mm-hmm. And so you're going hold on
You're wanting us to finance and $5,000 on the car. No, we know nobody does that. Yeah
Yeah, that's it
What's interesting to me is I've taken that whole review thing just completely out of my hands
Because a I wasn't regaining I wasn't getting to it. I wasn't doing things
So, you know, I have a little AI bot that I built that actually automatically responds to every Google review that we get
So it runs it through
Make sure it's a five-star and then it writes back just an automatic response
About the review talking about anything they mentioned and just automatically be posted
So I kind of took that completely out of my
Hands because I wasn't getting to them. How does it do? How does it do the fast stars are easy, right?
Yeah, how does it how does it do own?
Bad reviews. What do you do? I don't get bad reviews
We're hypothetically to get a bad review. That's what I'd want to chime in on myself. Okay. Yeah
I get an email for every review right Google sends it to you
So if I saw we got a bad review, I'd go in I talked to the team I'd find out what happened get to the bottom of it
And then do a personal review probably with a little AI assistance like I'd write the first draft
Then I drop it into chat and get a better version
But for the automatic reviews, it was great and and I'll share with you one more tip everyone can do this
I've taken it a next step. So what I use is a company called Zapier. I'm sure you've heard of that
Yeah, so they're basically a software that communicates with other softwares and there's other versions of it
You don't have to use Zapier. I use them just because it was simple and so you pay a small monthly fee to have this
But what it does is I'm using Zapier to bring in those Google reviews
It runs it through a little AI processor through my chat GPT
Then it creates an info graphic that gets posted automatically to my Facebook page
So every single Google review that's a five-star
Gets turned into a little poster a little graphic a little image with an AMBA
Posted to my Facebook page. Okay, so I'm getting those automatically updated every day every two days
To Facebook content now I took a step further and now I have it
Taking photos that my team uploads
So every time we sell a car the salesman is responsible to take a photo right with the customer the car out front of the dealership
With them smiling handing over the keys right the classic happy customer photo
What my salesmen do now they used to just share it to the group and occasionally get it posted to Facebook
They just weren't good at it. So now all they have to do is upload that photo to a Google Drive that I've set up
from there AI
automatically grabs the photo
Okay writes a caption for it writes a little description and then posts it to my Facebook page
So all that is automated from now on the salesman doesn't have to create it
He doesn't have to log into Facebook. He doesn't have to post it. He just uploads the photo
That's it and then AI grabs it writes a little blurb that says a happy days great car
Hope you drive happy love you four seasons auto blah blah blah and then post the picture
I'm actually looking at your Facebook page right now, and it looks great. Good job. Yeah, I like it
There's a lot so it's super easy guys if you if you get into Zapier
It'll walk you right through it all you just link your chat gpt account
You link your Google Drive account and then you got to link your Facebook page
And that was the hardest part trying to get Facebook to talk to Zapier and make sure that you're
Got the right settings so that it will actually post and then making sure AI is pulling the right image
So there was a little finagling it took me quite a few hours, but anyways
It's cool because it becomes automatic now
I'm creating Facebook content automatically and so my brain is starting to think of how many other ways
Yeah, I can do this right can I do it with videos? Can I do it with custom stuff? Can I get AI to?
To illustrate a photo into a video right because a lot of AI
You know chat higher chat gpt 5.3. It does a really good job of taking a still image and animating it
So a lot of those things that the limitations
I would say is that I haven't found a way to make it unique and more personal
Because it doesn't know the car that's in the photo. It doesn't know the customer's name
It kind of says the same basic thing every single time just because it it has its own little like you know
Repertoire that it likes to use
So anyways
Think about that if you guys want to do that you can reach out to me for more details
But that's kind of a fun a thing that I thought hey man more than just running
Ask an AI silly questions and use it as a Google search
I'm actually found out a way to use it as a tool and a marketing tool so to speak
Yeah, I like it. It's anything because a lot of people are using
Someone to manage their Facebook page and they're doing that is there's another way to kind of limit your cost
Uh
From from an outside organization you can do it and and they're they're doing the same thing
But now it's it's automated. You got to age it doing it. So good job. Jeff. Can you correct way to go?
I mean, it's not it's not super engaging content
I imagine you could probably program the AI to be a little more clickbaity, you know
Uh with its comment or even program it to like randomly grab news articles or something
And create content on your Facebook page based on either either national news or something
so
I wonder if you could uh, if you could program it to grab
Uh inventory pieces and
And do it too
Probably. Yeah, I wonder if it could grab
Like your vdp page. Yeah
Obviously if I uploaded a photo of a car I could get it to do it now
How could I get it to post specific details about that car?
You know in the description
You'd probably have to link it to your vdp page somehow
Which I guess if you sent it the link to your vdp page
It could grab all the data right off there and make a post that might be an interesting one to try
And then just set it up on a timer
That says hey every two days or every day
grab one new piece of inventory from my website
and
You know
Make this post here's the format. So anyways, it could be interesting
No, it's got a lot of cool stuff, man. I think a lot of these um
MLMs have come a really long way recently a handful have kind of dropped newer versions that are
really good
And I and I am just so excited for the future of integrating these into my crm and my collections platform
And as soon as neo and blitz pay get up to speed with both of those systems a little bit better
I will fully let them loose because the text
Conversations are getting so good inside of these things
You don't know who you're talking to and that's okay because you don't care as a customer
I don't think you care who you're talking to if you're getting the answers you want. I don't disagree
Nothing's nothing's worse than talking to someone who's an idiot
So I'd much rather talk to a a a bot that that's not an idiot. So
And the worst are the what we've had experience with are the bots that run you around in a circle and that's frustrating, right?
If I have a bot that just keeps asking me stupid questions trying to get to the root of some issue
And it doesn't really understand context or get me the answer right away
And then I got to turn it over to a customer anyway or a human
That's that's just frustrating, right? I've already explained everything to your stupid ai bot that couldn't help me
And now I got to get a human on the line and explain everything again
So that part's frustrating, but I have seen some success in our neo leads being answered
And people having two-way conversations all the way up to setting an appointment and these customers have no idea
That they weren't talking to a human
That's wow
Hey guys, just to jump in and talk about buckeye risk services. They've been one of our sponsors forever
They're great to the industry. They're one of your sponsors
You don't even know it every time you go to a convention or something like that. They're they are helping out in that, right?
Jeff. Yeah, absolutely. I have not seen a company so willing to get behind the dealers from an education from a support standpoint
I mean, there's a handful that we see in our sphere that are very active and and always have our back
But buckeye really sets the standard
So when you're looking for a reinsurance company, if you've decided it's time to get into it
You've got to call the guys and girls over at buckeye. I promise you will not regret it. Yeah
Reinsurance for savings account wealth building
Tax plane all these things go together. So call buckeye. You know apparently tessels using
Using it
For email and all kind of stuff like if you're if you're if you need to call into tessel to ask something
Or you need to send an email of service. They're all run. It's all running
AI and you would have no idea
Well, I would argue that I do have an idea
Especially if you call the customer service because they change that you actually be able to get someone on the phone
When you needed something done and now you're chatting with this AI that just keeps throwing you into a wall
You're like
I want to do this thing. Well, do this this this. No, no, I can't do that. I've done that. It doesn't work
I need to do this. Well, do this this this and you're like, dude, you keep telling me the same thing
It's not possible. Like you don't understand so
So the AI has limitations in that it doesn't understand anything outside the box. Yeah, you're right
That's like
Tesla's issue anyways is tesla just and big corporations. They just can't work outside the box
You know, you try to buy a car from tesla
Tell him you're a dealer and you want to be tax exempt. It doesn't happen. They're not allowed
They won't do it. They won't even talk to you
But if I called into, you know, mom and pop new car store
Oh, sure. You want to pay retail for that car? I can
Write you up without sales tax
you know
Sometimes sometimes so so yeah, that gets that gets super frustrating. I I tell you what I like most
Consulting wise I build
spreadsheets and
Q&As and the
The ability for the new chats to just crush your crunch data and and help me
I can see some of the things but the way it can really zoom in
Uh and see blind spots that I don't see is just truly amazing
truly
I love your AI generated emails that I know are from AI and then I use AI to summarize your five page email
And give me a concise
Answer to what should have been a nice email in the first place, you know, jeff you can suck it
You know what I did use another real life example here
Uh, I we had a tesla show up with a wrap on it. That was really weird. All right. It's kind of a one of those metallic
Color changing ones and it had some scratches and it has a piece that needs to be replaced now
I don't know what color that wrap is. All right. I didn't put it on and it's weird color changing all over the place
In the light
So I uploaded a couple photos to AI and asked AI. Hey, can you identify the color of this wrap?
Yeah, sure enough two guesses
The first one a guest I grabbed on the internet link wasn't quite right the second one spot on wow
3m blah blah blah blah
To 2870 so so you you just went and got some new
Yeah, and and fix it
So then I grabbed that that code that wrap code put it in amazon and just ordered a sheet of it
And I'm pretty sure I mean it hasn't gotten here yet, but I'm pretty sure it was spot on identifying that color of wrap
So that that's pretty crazy
Yeah, we're gonna switch gears for a sec if you don't mind so
um, you may have seen that elizabeth warn asked
Ni80a for seripo
Knowledge some down. What you think about that? Um, you know, I think
I don't know how much of this goes out all the time and I just don't see it
But I think these people are always asking for crap
Right, they're always going into industries and trying to get people to send them stuff or get on the record for something
So I don't know how much teeth or how much
Worry there needs to be over this or not. Have you read more?
Um, I received a text from someone today that apparently was in a meeting with ni80a today and they were a little concerned
um, so
um
You know, you don't need to be concerned for the next three years probably
Um, but who knows I don't know it
It doesn't have any teeth and and they're just on a you know, they're they're just
trying to
To find some way to claw back some of the the cfpb
Duties I guess would be the right way to say it and
I think for dealers doing it the right way, there's nothing to worry about
But you also had donald trump, you know come out a few weeks ago and said he wants to cap
credit card rates at 10 percent, you know, it's
It's a populist sway
Could you imagine if they wanted to cap auto loan rates?
You know, I almost posted that to the facebook group right when I saw that
credit card rate cap because they want to push those
You know the programs down the argument is that the the credit card rates are so high
Because they're subsidizing all the points programs for the higher end. Yeah credit card customer sure
Probably the case whatever well now. What if they did that with auto loans? Would we be
Up in arms
Could you imagine
Having unsecured loans to people at a rate of 10 percent
Well, you just wouldn't you was that's the whole that's that's the that's the that's the whole point you wouldn't and so
You have to have that higher rate
Because of default rates, right?
Okay, like if they came to me instead you can't charge more than 12 percent
Yeah, you're by here pay here. I wasn't eight is capped at 12 percent. There there's no more loans, unfortunately
Yeah, we would either a stop loaning
Or b we start leasing
Or c, you know, you would find a way around it or you would just be you would just stop doing it
And you would just you would just stop doing it and unfortunately they would hurt the customer, right?
Are there bad are there bad actors in our business? Jeff?
No
Wait, was that a trick question?
It's a tutorial question. There are some bad actors, unfortunately. Um, I think there's more
Uneducated actors, okay, or oblivious actors than necessarily bad. I'd be surprised to know what percentage of
Offensive dealers or offensive lenders are doing it out of straight
Uh
Evilness. Yeah, you're probably right. It's probably when you were
Yeah, out of just I didn't know I couldn't do that or that's how we've always done it or I thought everyone did it this way
yeah, um
Yeah, I think that
You should do it the right way and you don't have to worry about it
And if they do start cramming down interest rates, then
Then that's something to have a conversation about, you know, unfortunately what
The requests for data
um
niad a doesn't have that much data on this and so it kind of shows me the lack of
foresight or knowledge that maybe
Elizabeth Warren's
people in her office have
Real good act, right? Let me tell you it's real good buy here pay here dealers report credit. Okay
uh
in my opinion
because I think that
uh to build
To help build these customers credit back you've got to report it
If you're not reporting
Then I think uh, you're doing a disservice to your customer and that's just my opinion
I'm not saying people out there that aren't reporting
You know are doing it the wrong way. I don't I don't think that's the case. I just think you should and so yeah
A lot of this data is already experience has it Equifax has this data. So if you really want the data on sub sub prime loans
Just go to experience and the Equifax they got it all
And it it's no different than
I mean they can get this data
yeah, so
Asking asking an association like niad a to hand over data
It's kind of you don't know what you're talking about is what I think
Because they don't have the data
Yeah, so then you ask yourself why and this is either just a shotgun approach that they sent to everybody
And so it's not much to do about nothing and we don't need to get our tail feathers ruffled
Or they're trying to extort money out of niad a's
Yeah, put somebody on the record so they can catch them later
Um, that's that's that's definitely interesting. You know, we talk about that
You know, you don't want to be the first one through the door or keeping your head down
I think there's a handful of dealers that a don't want to be a part of their association because I think it puts them on the radar for something
They don't want to participate on any kind of a government panel or government oversight committee because they think it puts them on the radar for something
so
that is
kind of the
The unintended consequences or I guess the the results of some of these government agencies
You know being heavy-handed or being so interested is now everyone nobody wants to cooperate. Nobody wants to be on the list
No
Because whenever they have whenever they have these hearings, it's grandstanding
Oh, they're doing it. Oh, they're doing it. You can't it's it's garbage
It's like, are you really going to ask a question and you're just going to keep talking?
Yeah, they don't want the answer. They don't care. They just want sound bite
Yeah, you know, and I think she mentioned a couple of things about
GPS and things like that
In this in this form. So I mean every couple years it seems like
Uh
Somebody wants to to start arguing some senator or congressman wants to start arguing about rates and
And gps and things like this and I I don't think that you need to worry about it, Jim
Yeah, I would think that um
You could regulate my interest rate when you give me funds
At
Prime
Yeah, I'm getting government money
To give loans to the public then you can tell me what I can lend out, right? Yeah, it totally makes sense
Anyway, when I'm going out borrowing private capital
To fill a need in the market
You have no say in that you can't tell me what to do
within reason
When you have no participation and no skin in the game. I guess that's what bugs me is it's
Do yeah, I could borrow you can tell banks what to do because they're borrowing money at prime from the fed
Right, sure tell banks what they can loan out. I guess or their programs or whatever, but I'm not getting your money
so
Yeah, and as long as as long as we aren't conspiring together
To to have a higher interest rate just because we can
Then there's then there's no problem because what I could do is they will Jeff Watson down there. He's charging
28% on those loans. I don't know what you're charging, but let's just say he's charging 28%
Well, if I'm your competitive, I could just say hey, you know what? We're charging 22%
We're gonna save you 6% and I could undercut you and then we could get in about right so market forces should
Should take care of this not
Not the government
Yeah, absolutely a real quick break to make sure you guys know about blitz pay
It's who I use to take all the payments at my buy here pay here dealership
We've been with them for almost three years now and it is absolutely amazing. It's great. Yeah
The product is so simple even an idiot like me can use it, but
You know when even when my collector's out and I'm just taking a phone call here or there
No matter where I am I can log into blitz pay and I can take that payment
I can see the customers texting in and say hey, can you run this or whatever's going on
It's always on top of it and the money's in the bank almost the next day and that is to me so important
And the support is great if we do have a charge back or a dispute
We get an email that says hey, there was this dispute and then their team goes to work to help us resolve it
It doesn't they don't just dump it back on your table with some random
Notification or email that you barely ever see
Like my previous processors. Yeah, that is so helpful
and a lot of times it's because our
Our customers did something wrong, but when it's not they'll fight to the to the end with you and get that money back in your account
Yeah, so give them a call the guys and girls over at blitz pay great partner to have
Definitely an essential tool to have if you're a buy here pay here dealer
Um, and that what it makes me think about, you know, we are getting into convention season here pretty soon
And you know, I know I'm putting them on my schedule right now and booking flights and hotels because there are a lot of great ones
Uh that come up here that help with this kind of stuff. So
If you haven't gone to these before or if you've debated on going
It is still such a great thing to show up to like national convention and buy or pay here united
And of course the utah state convention that i'm in charge of love you to be there at that one. Um, because it is
Uh, there's say there's strength in numbers
and there's education that comes in these situations where you've been there before or
Someone's been there before
You might not know now you can't plead ignorance when these people come knock on your door and ask why you were charging this that or the other feet
Right why your interest rate was over the state max or are you had undisclosed finance charges?
Or you have 100 penetration on your gap and reinsurance products like
You can't just plead ignorance
They're still gonna find yet
Even if you act like you don't know so go to these places get educated ask questions of successful dealers
I'm excited for a couple of them too. I think I looked at like did the eastern states all combine into one convention?
So so southeast. No, it's not all the southeast. It's florida
alabama
Tennessee and maybe mississippi and it's gonna be
It's gonna be um at the beach in florida at the like the last weekend of may first part of june
So that looks like a fun one. Yeah. Yeah, save me a save me a spot there. Give me a room
Yeah, what was funny is I already had to be down there that week. So, you know, you can just hire
Yeah, you can just say hey luke come speak and I'll be there
Anything else you're looking forward to this year luke
um
I'm looking forward to the portfolio winding down some more so I don't have to deal with some crazy customers
And uh, I love all my customers, but sometimes it blows my mind. Yeah
how
uh
Customers make such bad decisions over and over again. Um
You know customers that have had cars three years four years
And they just walk in and hand you the keys
You know, and there's times where this has happened and where you go you could have traded this car anywhere
For the value you owe
I like you could have gone and traded it in and
And you would not had a repo on your record. Now you have a repo on your record. Why'd you why'd you do that?
And then you find out that somebody has given them very bad advice
That's most of it. Yeah, they feel like they don't have any other solution
They don't know what the other solutions are or they just got bad advice like oh, just turn it back into them bill
They're not you know
Well, you owe $6,500 on the $6,500 car. Why would you why would you turn that in that's like you're just whoa, that's
Bad decision after bad decision
We've we've helped you along this far and then then they get mad because they have to have cpi
Well customer you you've you've got to have insurance
Don't turn it in after three years. You still have to have insurance
And cpi is way cheaper than regular insurance. Why are you mad at us? You you don't have insurance?
Yeah, you know, it's just it's these little things that customers are beginning to make bad bad decisions in it
Um, I hate to see it. I really hate to see it and then they cut off communication from you
And you can't help them. You know, I want to help you
Yeah, it's probably the communication up front that would have saved a lot of that
Well, yeah, they just called and said hey, what are my options?
right not not you went to the new car store and they told you that
That you were upside down and they couldn't help you. Yeah. No, that's
Maybe they're trying to steal your trade
But that's not really the case
Yeah, I just I get that a lot. It's so it it
And I've told you this before and I'll say to you and franchise dealers are the worst
I mean, I mean truly they they are the worst offenders and they get none of the blowback
I think they get some of the blowback
Because you do I mean
I don't know which which has a worse connotation than a new car dealer or a used car dealer used car dealer
Yeah, yeah, I guess who wasn't it said something the other day about being a bunch of
Maybe they blame trump for being a used car dealer or something. I think it was like jim carrey said something about
He's just a used car dealer trying to this this this and it's like whoa, bro
Yeah, take it easy
Injury from canada
Yeah, I should go. Yeah. He's I can't say he's a funny guy. He is funny guy. I like him
But you're right. I think the new car stores some have a culture of
Profit at all expense right because they're so large and they're typically in larger markets where they can burn through 100 customers and have a
Tons of horrible google reviews
But they sell so many cars that it gets buried
Yeah, and you got fni guys that could care less about the google reviews because they're only there for four to five years
And they're jumping to the next new car store. So they're just gonna crank as much money while they're there
That's right. And I'm not saying that the actual principles of these new car dealers are the bad ones
It's the people they have to hire and it's the churn and it just goes from one store to another one store to another
Um, anyway, that's I'm off my so much so much so box. Good. Good. Good because I'm out of here, man
I gotta go uh go to california. Come have fun. Yeah, I'm gonna go find some sun somewhere man. Look. I'm a casket
You know white everything you need you need something your head is shining my entire life
All right, buddy. Good talking to you. See you
You
About this episode
The discussion explores how car dealers are leveraging AI to automate various aspects of their operations, from handling leads and customer interactions to managing online reviews and social media content. Jeff shares his experience using AI bots for lead engagement and an automated system that transforms Google reviews and customer photos into Facebook posts, streamlining marketing efforts. The hosts also touch on challenges with customer patience, financing small deals, and the potential for AI to further personalize and enhance dealership marketing strategies.
Original notes
In this episode of the Independent Dealer Podcast, hosts Jeff Watson and Luke Godwin dive into how AI is changing the way independent dealers run their day-to-day operations—from automating social media posts to handling leads without lifting a finger. They also get into the latest government pressure on the BHPH industry, what Elizabeth Warren's data request to NIADA actually means for dealers, and why market forces—not regulators—should be setting interest rates.
What You'll Learn:
- How Jeff automated his Google review responses and Facebook content using AI and Zapier
- Why AI-powered lead conversations are setting appointments without customers ever knowing they're not talking to a human
- The real limitations of AI bots—and what makes them frustrating vs. useful
- What Elizabeth Warren's request to NIADA means (and why you probably don't need to panic)
- Why capping auto loan interest rates would hurt the very customers regulators claim to protect
- How market competition already regulates BHPH rates better than any government can
- Why dealer conventions and industry education are your best protection against regulatory risk
Key Takeaways:
- Automate your review responses and social media posts with Zapier + ChatGPT—it's easier than you think
- AI can handle inbound leads and set appointments, but only if it's built right
- Good AI gets out of the way; bad AI runs customers in circles
- If you're borrowing private capital, the government has no business telling you what to charge
- Ignorance is not a defense—get educated at dealer conventions before regulators come knocking
- Do it the right way and you have nothing to worry about
This episode is a must-listen for any independent or BHPH dealer curious about using AI tools to save time, cut costs, and stay ahead—plus straight talk on the regulatory noise that keeps coming for our industry.
Support the businesses that support the podcast:
Buckeye Risk Services - Reinsurance, tax planning, and long-term wealth strategies built specifically for independent dealers.
https://theindependentdealer.com/buckeye
BlytzPay - Buy Here Pay Here payment processing with fast funding, text-to-pay, and real dealer-focused support.
https://theindependentdealer.com/blytzpay
Ituran GPS - GPS and payment technology for BHPH and retail dealerships focused on asset protection, recovery tools, and customer management.
https://theindependentdealer.com/ituran
Follow & Connect:
Website: www.theindependentdealer.com
Email: [email protected]
Facebook Group: @independentautogroup
Luke Godwin: @lukegodwin
Jeff Watson: /sendtojeffw
Like, subscribe, and share this episode with another dealer who's ready to put AI to work on their lot.
The Independent Dealer Podcast
Jeff Watson & Luke Godwin
0:00
33:18