It means computer programs are doing the back-and-forth for a car deal. Instead of a person manually shopping and negotiating, an AI “agent” can search and interact with the dealership’s process.
Carage is a company that provides tools for AI shopping. In the story, the dealership used that idea and hired an AI agent to help with the buying process.
Term
sentiment
Here, “sentiment” means the AI can be told to sound more pushy or more calm. It’s about the agent’s tone during the conversation.
They’re talking about how computers can negotiate car prices with each other. The key point is that it doesn’t feel like a human conversation—it's more about numbers.
Out-the-door price is the total amount you pay to buy the car, including the base price plus taxes, registration, and dealer fees. When the agent targets this number, it’s optimizing for the final customer cost rather than just the sticker price.
The Delorean DMC-12 is a sports car that’s famous for its unusual stainless-steel look. It’s not a common car, so people often talk about it as a collectible or special-interest vehicle. In this podcast, it’s mentioned because of a specific “DMC-12 protocol” being discussed.
ATP means the average price customers pay for cars at a dealership. If ATP goes up, the dealership is generally selling more expensive cars or higher-priced deals.
Concept
human retail sales vs wholesale
Retail is when a dealer sells a car to the person who will drive it. Wholesale is when the dealer sells cars to other dealers, usually in bulk or for resale.
Agentic retail refers to using AI “agents” to handle parts of the car-buying process—like searching inventory, negotiating, or coordinating pricing—while still letting the customer participate. The idea here is that retail sales can shift from purely human-led interactions to AI-assisted or AI-driven workflows.
“Frictionless” means making the buying process easier and faster, with less arguing or back-and-forth. The claim is that some buyers don’t want to negotiate as much as older shoppers.
Uber and Lyft are examples of app-based services that initially faced pushback, but eventually became normal. The host is using them to explain how car-buying could change the same way.
TikTok is a social media app. The speaker mentions it because the person doing deal work often finds or negotiates deals through TikTok.
Term
UCP
UCP here sounds like a shared set of rules that different systems follow so they can “talk” to each other. That’s what makes automation possible across companies.
Walmart is used here as an example of a big retailer investing in technology that helps automate buying and ordering. It’s part of the broader move toward “systems talking to systems.”
Shopify is an online platform businesses use to sell products. The speaker is using it as an example of companies already working on ways for systems to connect and automate sales.
Home Depot is mentioned as another example of a large retailer building tech that helps automate ordering. It supports the idea that this kind of automation is already happening outside car sales.
A protocol is a defined set of rules for how systems exchange information and perform actions. Here, the speaker argues that if industries adopt common protocols, a request (like booking a flight) can be automatically verified and paid for using the buyer’s payment details.
It’s like using software to handle the shopping and paperwork steps for you. Instead of calling around and waiting on people, the systems talk to each other and help line up the deal.
Zurich is sponsoring the show and is talking about insurance and risk protection for dealers. The message is that dealers can improve today while still protecting their future.
YASI is presented as a software company that partners with state motor vehicle agencies to provide dealer access to title and registration data. The episode frames it as enabling verification “straight from the source.”
They’re talking about checking a car’s paperwork status instantly with the government database. That way, the dealer isn’t guessing based on old documents.
An API is like a digital “messenger” that lets one computer system ask another system for information. In this case, it helps dealers get vehicle paperwork data from the government.
A paper title is the old-style document proving who owns a car. The problem is that it can get out of date as the car changes hands or gets new paperwork like liens.
Term
branded
In title paperwork, “branded” refers to a status label on a vehicle’s title (for example, indicating it was previously damaged, salvaged, or otherwise categorized). The point is that this status can change after the original paper title was issued.
Encumbrances are legal claims or restrictions attached to a vehicle’s title—most commonly liens from lenders. The transcript emphasizes that these can be added or removed after the original title document was issued.
Concept
DMV process
The DMV process refers to the state-run workflow for vehicle titles, registration, and related ownership records. The speaker contrasts how manual/paper-based it is with the need for better verification tools in modern dealer operations.
Company
Mark Miller-Suber
Mark Miller-Suber is referenced as the dealership context where “GM” is involved in agent-to-agent buying. It’s mentioned as a real-world actor tied to the broader discussion about modern dealer workflows.
A trade-in is your current car being used as credit toward buying another car. Dealers check paperwork early because the car can’t be properly handled if the title/ownership isn’t right.
A title clerk is the dealership staff member responsible for processing vehicle title paperwork so the car can be legally transferred and sold. The transcript emphasizes that if fraud or title problems aren’t caught earlier, the title clerk may be working with a vehicle that’s already “off the lot,” making issues harder to unwind.
This means checking the car’s paperwork details directly with the DMV system, right when you’re evaluating the trade-in. It helps confirm who owns the car and whether there are liens or title issues.
A lien is basically a legal claim on the car because someone financed it. Dealers need to know if there’s an active loan claim so they don’t get stuck with paperwork problems later.
A title history report is a document that summarizes a car’s past ownership and title events. The point here is that it might miss things, so dealers should double-check with the state.
VIN is the car’s unique ID number, like a fingerprint. Checking it helps the dealer confirm they’re dealing with the right car and that the paperwork matches.
A co-owner is someone else whose name is also on the car’s title. If both names are on the title, both people typically have to sign the paperwork for the dealer to move forward.
DMV documentation refers to the paperwork filed with a state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to transfer ownership and update title/registration. If there are multiple owners or other legal claims, both the title and DMV forms must be completed correctly or the dealer can’t legally process the vehicle.
Term
VLT stops
VLT stops are system flags that can stop a car’s paperwork from moving forward. Dealers may find them when they check the VIN and then have to resolve whatever issue caused the stop.
It means the dealer checks the car’s paperwork status right when the deal is happening. That way, problems with the title don’t get discovered later and slow everything down.
In this context, a chain reaction is the cascading set of problems that occur when title/trade-in information isn’t verified upfront. It can start with the dealer and then spill over to the lender’s workflow, causing repeated follow-ups and delays.
A perfected title generally refers to a legally established ownership/interest status that has been properly recorded so the lender’s claim is enforceable. If the title isn’t perfected, lenders can’t finalize their position and may have to chase the dealer for missing documentation.
Concept
state-based titling
State-based titling means each state has its own vehicle paperwork system. Because of that, checking titles can be slower and more complicated, especially when cars move between states.
The FTC is a U.S. government agency that helps police unfair or deceptive business practices. A “letter” like this is basically a warning or guidance to dealers about how they should disclose fees clearly.
A dock fee is a charge dealers add for getting the car from where it arrives to the dealership. “Disclosure” just means the dealer should clearly show that fee so you can see the real total price.
Term
state level
Vehicle titles are handled by each state’s government. The problem described is that states don’t always share information smoothly, which can let scams work.
A lien is like a legal claim from a lender. A lean/ lien release is the paperwork that says the loan is paid and the claim is removed—fraud happens when someone fakes that paperwork.
A “clean title” usually means there’s no outstanding loan/lien tied to the car. The scam works because the fraudster gets paperwork that makes the car look legitimate.
Cross-state verification means one state can check whether another state’s title/lien records are real and up to date. If that checking isn’t reliable, scammers can exploit the gaps.
IMR funds are a dealer program where the dealer puts money into an account for each car invoice, and the automaker adds matching money too. So the dealer’s contribution can grow because GM matches it.
“AI chat” means talking to an AI program that answers questions. The host is saying it can be confusing at first, so they have someone help explain it in simpler terms.
Cox Automotive is a company that makes software and data tools for car dealers. Dealers use it to help find cars and run parts of their sales and marketing.
An RO (repair order) is the work ticket for a car in the shop. “Customer pay” means the customer is paying for the service, which is important for keeping the service department profitable.
Fixed Ops is dealer talk for the service and parts department. It’s the part of the dealership that makes money from repairs and maintenance, not from selling cars.
A recall is when a carmaker says a vehicle needs a fix for a safety or defect issue. Dealers get recall lists so they can reach out to owners and book the repair.
Google reviews are customer ratings and written feedback hosted on Google. The speaker is describing how dealership reputation from sales should be carried over into the service experience to improve service outcomes.
The Chevrolet Suburban is a large SUV made for carrying lots of people and gear. It’s popular with families or anyone who needs extra space. Dealerships may talk about it because it’s a well-known option in the higher-capacity SUV category.
A car title is the legal document that shows who owns the car. “Manual tracking” means the dealer keeps up with that paperwork by hand or with basic processes instead of fully automated software.
LIVE
We're doing better as a result of social media presence.
It doesn't do those three things then it's on the chopping block.
It's in return on investment discussion.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Daily Dealer Live.
I'm your host Sam Darkin.
Thanks for choosing to be here with us on Daily Dealer Live this Monday, May 8th.
We've got a big show coming up today.
We've got the first agent to agent Cardiol in the country.
Yes, you're right, agent to agent, AI to AI selling cars.
It's a wake up call on title fraud after that conversation that should make every used car
manager nervous.
And finally we wrap up with a repeat return guest, Scott Simons, who flipped a small market
store into a top of zone performer in under six months.
We'll learn his secret to success and I'm still stuck on this agent to agent.
That's going to be super fascinating to learn how that was created, how the transaction
happened, and what does it mean for the future of automotive.
And we're going to share obviously the news with you as a reminder, we're streaming across
all CDG social media platforms, post your comments in, we'll bring them into today's
show and early to the posting, we've got Patrick Block Motive Ventures saying happy anniversary
to the debut of Lotus in the Formula One Championship in 1958.
Thanks for bringing that up as F1 heads to Canada this weekend.
He also says in the debut of the first woman to start a Formula One Grand Prix, Maria
Teres de Philippes.
Let's see if I got that pronunciation right in 1958, also saying good luck pronouncing
that one, but bring your comments into today's show.
They help make our show elite every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 1pm Eastern.
Let's first though dive into today's auto industry headlines.
First up today, a new joint study from the Trade Desk Intelligence and PA Consulting
drops today and the headline finding is that 71% of brands in a buyer consideration set
were selected before they ever started actively shopping.
That's 71%, meaning by the time most dealer ad dollars kick in through retargeting search
and listing sites, the shortlist is already set.
The average number of brands a buyer considers, well, that's also shrunk from five to three.
So if you're not in the running before they start clicking, you likely won't be.
The study points to connected TV is the highest influence channel in the priming stage.
Connected TV, that's 2026, one and a half times more persuasive than closed platforms
like Google or Facebook.
Dealer websites also matter more than most stores realize with 34% of in-market buyers
going to dealer sites before OEM sites to filter inventory and assess trust.
The full report is live today at thetradesk.com and there's a related webinar tomorrow at 2pm,
but that just shows selection is happening fast and early.
Next up today, US manufacturing output hit its highest lever in over a year in April
with motor vehicle and parts production up 3.7% month over month.
The Federal Reserve reported overall manufacturing rose 6 tenths of a percent.
That's the biggest gain since February 2025.
That's with AI assisted production helping drive efficiency gains in the auto sector specifically.
The caveat is the Iran conflict and ADA's chief economist flagged near term supply chain risks,
including potential jet fuel shortages in Europe this summer and a 40% spike in helium
prices falling damage to Qatar's LNG infrastructure, helium being a critical input for chip fabrication.
Longer term, US vehicle production is projected to grow from around 10 million units in 26
to nearly 12 million by 2034, but the path there runs through some real near term uncertainty.
A quick update on buyer sentiment, a new Harris poll study of over 2000 US adults
found that 56% don't trust automakers to be honest about why vehicle prices are rising
and 84% want solutions, not just explanations. Well, we in retail could tell you that.
87% want clear communication about how tariffs and trade policy affect pricing and 78% say
silence on these issues feels like prioritizing political safety over customer interests.
For dealers, the takeaway is pretty direct. Buyers are arriving skeptical and the stores that can
clearly explain pricing offer affordable options and address the affordability conversation
practically. Well, they're better positioned to close that deal. And finally, a new study from
the Vanderbilt policy accelerator is drawing attention to a gap that's increasingly affecting
the vehicle purchase conversation. The study found that for every dollar collected in auto
insurance premiums in 2024, insurers paid out just get this 62 cents in claims, 62 cents out of every
dollar down from about 80 cents in the 80s and 90s. Remember what's happened over the past
little while rising interest or insurance costs and estimates Americans are overpaying by roughly
150 billion annually as a result. The insurance industry disputes the framing attributing recent
loss ratio changes to years of significant financial losses and their need to restore reserves.
What's harder to dispute? It's the customer behavior data. Nearly half of all insurance policies
in force were shopped at least once in the past 12 months. The highest rate since tracking began
in 2020 and insurance complaints have risen even more than 30% since 2012. For dealers,
the practical implication is that insurance costs are now part of the affordability conversation
at the point of sale and buyers who feel squeezed on monthly ownership costs are going to push back
hard on everything else in the deal. And that folks is a wrap on today's auto industry headlines.
All right, so we go to the chat here. Eager K comes into it. Car Edge already had that where
Car Edge is owned AI, talked to the dealerships AI, no human touch on the deal. We'll look into that.
Happy Monday, Sam in the community and he continues. Still got 270k leftover 2025 models
available out there and a majority of those leftover 25 models are according to Eager K
Ford. Repos are growing, he says, and average negative equity just grew to over $7,500
on average, a big burden for anyone retailing and selling cars in today's economy. Keep those
comments coming in the chat and let's turn to our first guest for this agent-to-agent conversation,
GM, Mark Miller-Suber in Salt Lake City, Utah, Chris Hudson. Welcome to the show.
Hey, Sam, happy to be here. Happy to have you. Welcome to the show. And actually, for those that
don't know, you share us with us a little bit about who you are and where you are, what you do.
Right, sure. I'm the general manager, Salt Lake City as you mentioned. Mark Miller-Suber
restores. Been here in Salt Lake for a couple of years now. I've been in the industry since 2001.
So I've seen it shift from consumer reports magazines to the internet to the cell phones
and now to AI. So it's been a fun ride. It's interesting. Every pivot along the way,
automotive finds a way to kind of innovate. I was talking in the green room, part of what my
message was on the SOTI stage was when kind of things become a struggle and automotive,
we find a way to innovate. And you did that. I'd love to learn a little bit more about that. You
had what you call the first agent to agent deal start to finish. Tell us what does that mean
agent to agent deal start to finish? And what did you see when that happened and what brought it
about? Yeah, well, so as a lot of people recently have done, you started messing around with
different tools and different LLMs and models and some of us started building apps and things.
Yeah, we were starting to do that. And I started to realize, well, hey, I could actually
potentially build an agent to shop for me. So I started looking around and realized, well,
that's something that is out there. Carage is the company that was doing it. So we actually hired
an AI agent to shop ourselves. So it was really fun. Got to watch both sides of it.
In our CRM, we were able to see what our product specialist was doing. And then on the other side,
we were able to see what the agent was hired to do. We were able to set it up with different
parameters. You could also set the sentiment, make it really aggressive, you could tone it down,
and it put two dealerships against each other. And it was pretty amazing. But I think the thing
that became clear to me was that this is going, first of all, there's going to be more and more
of these types of this is an agent to a human transaction. There's going to be a lot more
of those. And I really didn't know how many that we might have already had. Looking into it, there
has been over 100,000 of these negotiations that have taken place just through courage. So what
that tells me is that our CRMs have a lot of machines in them, and we might not realize that.
Also, it tells me that our people are out there in the working machines. And it's four hours
I had Phillips spend working this agent until I finally told him, okay, yeah,
hold on, you're actually talking to a machine. So Chris, when you said it pitted two dealerships
against each other, so did the machine try to structure and negotiate a deal with you and then
another dealership and it went back and forth on pricing? Yeah, basically, it wanted the out the
door price. And then it would show each other where you're at and kind of start the negotiation
like that. And you could, you know, match or beat the deal. But it posed as a human, it definitely
fooled both parties that I was watching, but neither one of the salespeople knew that they were
talking to a machine. That's that's the problem. I mean, that was that there's no emotion, there's
no heart, there's no it's all parameters with the agent. So that's where I got the idea of building
an agent to talk to the agent. So this company courage, I'm not familiar with them, is their
purpose in engaging an agent and pricing? Is it to show you how your process could become better?
What's the product that they're selling? And how are they? How did you come by this agent, I guess?
Yeah, well, really, they they are representing the the buyers. It's a great company. I've got to
know Zach and wonderful group of people. And I guess the question that we need to ask ourselves,
it's kind of like the Uber eats of the car business, like, we all really enjoy our customers all
really enjoy the the front and the back of the transaction, they like to go find a car, that's
fun. They like to go test drive the car. There's a lot of emotion and like love built in the front.
On the back end of it, whenever the deal's done, they also enjoy that they like to
take delivery of the car. But the friction is in the center. And that is where courage kind of
comes in and they do that work for you. And you can go watch Netflix and do whatever you know,
it's just forget about it. And they come back until you where they're at. So I couldn't ignore
that. I believe that's probably going to be. I mean, I know I asked my mom about it. She said
she'd rather do it that way. I know a lot of people who rather probably would it's frictionless,
right? You can get to the end point without having to see the entire movie. And as long as you figure
out which car you want, like it's kind of a pain free way to get to that end in spot. I think
there's a few and 5% maybe they would like to go through the negotiation process. But
most everybody else would rather leave that part out. So before I ask, you decided to create an
agent to respond to the agent, which is which is fascinating. This product that Car Edge or any of
these companies offers, can you utilize that in other shopper scenarios? Like, you know, you go
into like Claude, you go into some of these AI tools, and you can't yet like book an airline
ticket, you can't, you know, make a hotel reservation. That's got to be the next step. What's
the technology gap to booking stuff to actually having these these AI entities engage on your
behalf? You're right on. And that's exactly what we you're leading me right in the right direction.
The UCP, it's a universal commerce protocol. And so basically what you're saying is in any industry,
just fast forward, I don't know, five years, say you're taking a trip tomorrow, you forgot
yesterday, you forgot that your carry on baggage was the wheel broke. And you're like, I need one.
So then you look, you know, it won't necessarily be your phone, it'll be like an
edge machine and something like that. It's basically your assistant, your agent, you'll ask it,
hey, tomorrow, I need a carry on, I like carbon fiber to me, could you find me one of those
best price and have it here by tomorrow? Sure. Order has been placed, it'll be here tomorrow
morning by so and so. The only way for that to work is if all the different retailers use a protocol
that matches everyone. So right now, if you use an agent to go into any retailers website, it'll
go through a different channel and they're all different. There's no, there's no symmetry, they're
not the same. So this this protocol that they just recently came out with, it was actually like
Walmart, Home Depot, Visa, American Express, a lot of large companies decided this was the future.
And they set it up. So basically, what we did was we created the protocol that
in the future, any dealer can use basically like as the catchers met for a picture, in this case,
the picture's car edge. So they send it in, we can go through, it's a deterministic setup to where
it's not just like your LLM, like where there's just these two agents talking,
they don't need to talk that way. It's a little different. So we set it up with the protocol,
they go through the process, and they do a deal handoff, which goes into our CRM.
And that's, yeah, and that at that point, we're continuing to build this frictionless path to
where a person could just sit back and wait. And there's a few humans in the loop that we're trying
to minimize that. But Chris, you said that initially, you don't need that catchers met,
you don't need that special protocol for AI to engage with your teams, it sounds like it's
already doing it by sending an email by sending text, by communicating in non voice methods,
right? So how do you catch it? How do you know that there's AI agents, I guess, AI entities that
are trying to engage your teams for pricing and working stores against each other? How can you
tell? Yeah, well, that's the trick. I mean, there's a lot of, you know, the recapture and things like
that that some people put on their sites. But as dealerships, we want to like lay out, welcome
Matt, we don't want to try to put up any barriers. So there's really not an easy way to detect an
agent posing as a human. There are some, there are some tools, and we're working on those because
the idea is to create, because you really don't want agents in your CRM. No, people, it'll mess
with your stats. If you have the one that I sent in there, even though it was just one, I'm sure
there are more, it's messed up my numbers, my percentages are off, because it wasn't human.
So diverting these into another tool, which we're working on building that like an
agent relationship management tool. So you don't need to go through and send it happy birthdays.
Yeah, that type. Yeah. So that's, that's where the filter will send them into this other, you know,
for the tool to look through. Yeah. Okay, so you created this eight responding agents. So when you
out to you with these agents, your agent will respond, and you published the spec free at
dmc-12.ai. Why did you give this away? What are you hoping to achieve and accomplish with this? I
want to go research it a little bit, but what's your name? Yeah, it's an open protocol. And what
this basically is, it's the highway for dealerships to use in the future. It's, it definitely requires
some knowledge and some experience and some know how to set it up. You also have to have a
picture for this, which in this case, we've, we've teamed up with CarEdge. So it's, it's there.
And that's something I'm, I'm glad you mentioned the website. Reach out, our contact information
is on there. I'm glad to help to get this set up so you can also kind of be a catcher's man, if you
will, for these leads. And especially as there's probably other, other sort of other lead sources
coming eventually, obviously, right? How long have you had this up and running? Well, let's see,
we built the DMC-12 protocol a little over a month ago. Okay. So we've been moving really fast. This
has been, well, just everything right now in AI is moving very quickly. So it's rather exciting.
There's a team of us here that are, that are kind of working on this together.
What, what kind of volume of engagement are you getting with this? Like how, how, what's the
frequent, how do you measure volume with this? Yeah, well, that's the agent relationship management
tool, which is actually another website. It's drm.ai. So as things, and there's an example on there,
as things come through, I can, we can see them, all the different transactions, all the tools that
have been called up, like the MCPs and things like that. You can also go and set parameters. So
as you, as you know, we're a, we're a one price store. Yes. And other dealerships aren't. So they'll
be able to set up their own parameters, you know, eventually, so that they can, you know, they
basically can fine tune their agent. How long did it take? Who built it? How long did it take? And
like, how, what does the fine tuning process look like with this? So the architect, the co-author
with me has been ruling. He's, he's our data scientist. He's, he's a, he's a coder by traded
engineer, brilliant guy. Something I asked him the other day was like, you know, how, how more,
how much more efficient are you with our current tools, you know, like codex and clock code and
those things? I was thinking he'd say like 10 times to like a 10x, 20x. He was more like 200x,
300x. Wow. So, um, I mean, if you've tried vibe coding, I mean, it sounds kind of corny for a lot
of people. It's not a unit language is the new, you know, coding language. So I can, I can sit
there and start working on something. And then it's nice to have him to say, like, oh, that's crazy,
or that'll work. It helped me out with finishing it. Chris, did you have a background in this
before you started doing it? Or did you see the need and, and, and kind of self educated yourself
on what this was? What it would look like and how to engage it? Yeah, I mean, a business degree by
trade and got into sales and been selling my whole life. That's just what I've always done. But
I was in the dealership started in 2001. And I saw an opportunity with the internet.
I was fresh out of college. So I built a business plan. I presented it to the owner.
All I wanted was a thousand bucks. I was asking for $1,000 salary on top of commissions. And I
told him I could build his website and put the inventory on it. And I would like to take those
leads. And it was before like internet department was something. So yeah, that's kind of where it
starts. I built that business plan. I went and presented it to him. And he told me he didn't
think the internet was ever going to do anything. So that's kind of where you're at. Right. So I
wasn't there much longer. I left to it and went to a dealer that was with it with the current times.
And I'd say that's the thing. I just always am looking. I always I love technology. I try to
stay up to date with it. I'm looking for the next avenue. Is that dealer still in business today?
Probably not. You know, I don't know. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, so your agent engages with the other
agent and they go back and forth. Can they complete an entire transaction? Like is it
in the world of digital retailing? The idea of the theory is you could go from start to finish
and completely purchase a vehicle. Is that possible? Yeah, this entity that you've set up,
this agent, they're still coming together for the full path. Like my frictionless middle,
that's what I'm trying to build. I mentioned the end caps earlier. I want to build that part
that flows all the way from, okay, this is so exciting now, handoff. I can build that. The DMC
12 sends it into the CRM. The CRM then sends it out with a digital retailing tool. And we're
working with specific vendors right now. But in all honesty, the vendor landscape is also very
interesting right now. They're all kind of racing for the front. And I'm looking to team up with
vendors that'll help us accomplish some of these parts, like say the FNI part, for example. You
know, there's some things that there will be an agent involved in and there currently is an agent
involved in, but the same agent, I think people probably recognize now, there's a, you call an
agent an agent, but it usually has an agent with a bunch of sub agents. So those sub agents and agents
were trying to build this whole channel together to make for that frictionless path from those two
great end caps that everybody likes. Yeah, it's wild because I think what you're doing is you're
stepping a little bit into the area where we're just not as familiar with right now. And, you
know, even talking about agents as a shopper and then as a salesperson on the other side,
I get the concept of it and it's only logical that it's going to head that way for a certain
percent of the population. If you had to look maybe one year down the road, what percent of
automotive volume do you think will go to agent versus agent working to put a car deal together
and kind of a frictionless transaction without a lot of human engagement or interaction? Right.
Well, like in the late nineties, if you were to talk about like the internet and web deals, there
were a few of them that had been done by the end of the nineties, but it was probably like one percent.
Yeah. Right now, with the agent to humans that currently, as far as we know, there's been over
100,000. That's like half of a percent nap today. So as people begin and these new tools are coming
out, people will be able to build their own agents and if they don't want to, they'll have these
resources like courage. And that will, it'll increase quickly as soon as they realize it's
there. Because like as I mentioned earlier, who wouldn't want to take out, you know, who wants to
call a restaurant and yell through the phone for somebody that writes down the order and then go
pick up that thing and then drive all the way back and then finally eat it. Wouldn't you rather just
push a button and then the food shows up and you get to eat it? So that's kind of the idea and that
will increase as soon as we make it possible. What do you say to the dealer that says, listen,
like automotive sales, it's still a very human experience. It's a big purchase. It's a high ATP
average transaction price. And most people would rather have that engagement person to person
than allowing a bunch of AI to go after each other and figure it out.
Yeah. I mean, I love the auto business. It's given me and that's, it's my life.
But there's going to be another avenue and right now you've got human retail sales and you've got
wholesale. And those are the two kind of ways cars move through this dealership. Well, what is
happening is we're looking at an agentic retail. So that retail side is going to be human retail
and agentic retail. And people will still have the opportunity to go through that path. And I'm
sure a lot of them will still want to. All I'm suggesting is that as time passes, more people
will move over in that agentic retail lane. And for better or worse, but I feel like the
transparency ultimately is what the agents are going to be offering. And that is a valuable commodity.
My own opinion is I think the human element is overestimated. And I think as soon as there's
a frictionless way where you can easily like humans want to make the decision on the car to purchase,
they don't want to negotiate the details. And I think as younger buyers come into the marketplace,
they're less accustomed to negotiating point blank. And I think this will take off very much in
similar to the way Uber and Lyft, like it was pushed back on forever by cabs and by the traditional
system until it just flipped on its head. Paul Salisman comes into the quote says,
seems like there's a market for delivered and courage to negotiate on behalf of customers.
How can dealers eliminate the demand for these services? How would you respond to that, Paul?
So we delivered, we had Tommy on the show here. He gets $1,000 per deal to call up dealers and
work the best deal he does oftentimes on TikTok. Your agent would do it without any public display,
but would get to the same price at a fraction of the cost if any cost at all.
That's an easy one. I'm not worried about that at all. There are some dealers that still have
some shady corners and those are definitely eventually going to go away because people want
transparency and honesty. And so if I was to offer somebody a tool right now that they could take
with them and go around and shop with their dealerships and it had my knowledge base inside of
it and they could say, is this true or false? I would give that to them. There's not much hiding
anymore. And I think people will pay for convenience like the Carvana example. There's $6,000 plus per
round. How do they do that? It's probably because it's just the ease of use. People will pay money
for frictionless. Mustafa comes in and says, agentic commerce will most likely hurt the lead
marketplaces and not the dealers themselves. I do think it will delete lead quality and
lead credibility. And certainly dealers will respond by trying to figure out what are the
real leads? What are the AI driven leads? And that will create an entire marketplace. But
to Dan's comment or to Paul's comment, I actually think the way we defend against this
in automotive is we lean into it. We create the pathways you've done, make it as frictionless as
you possibly can and then introduce the human element where you can. As we wrap up here,
just got a minute left. As your process exists right now with these two agents,
where is the human element? Where does it come in? Yeah, it's the human in the loop. That's what
we're marking and trying to find out where those are. And I want all of the humans that are in
the loop to be adding value to every transaction. So there's not a point where I want any of our
humans to be working in a way where it might be the traditional car business as far as we
still are salesmen. I don't want to take that away from this conversation. We still need to be
salespeople. We still need to have those people building value. But you can do that with transparency
and you can do that with just being true. People pay a lot more for the same piece of
meat depending on what steakhouse they're at. It's if you give them a great experience
with honesty and ethics, they will do business with you. Yeah. So and then last question up just
since you've researched this whole area, what is it that's preventing us from using AI today to get
some of those lower transaction things done automatically? So airline tickets, hotel reservations,
you know, even finding a printer at a store listing 10 stores, best price availability,
reserve it so you walk in and pick it up. Why can't I do that yet? It's frustrating.
Yeah, I know that's the that's the idea of that UCP I mentioned earlier. So if all the airlines
we're talking the same, that's what the DMC 12 is for automotive dealerships retailers.
If they build their own, which a lot of industries haven't yet, but a lot of them have, that's why
Shopify, Walmart, Home Depot and all those are working on it. But if they build that protocol
for all the airlines, for example, you'd be able to just talk to your, you know, your edge phone
and say, I need a flight tomorrow, find me the cheapest one, you know, blah, blah, blah. And
then it would come back and verify this and say, yeah, it has your credit card. It has like the
you know, a to a protocol and how to pay and all that. So that's common. It's common, Sam. It's
going to be here real soon. But it'll still take a little while. I can't wait for the day. We don't
have to wait on hold for an airline for a hotel and for a price at a store somewhere. Chris Hudson,
GM at Mark Miller, Subaru. Thank you so much for sharing your perspectives on this agent to
agent process. Anybody wanting to know more can go into the links and get and can go to the site
where you've actually got this listed as well as your contact information. Appreciate you joining
the show and we'll have you back for the round table. All right. Thank you, Sam. Thanks, Chris.
I'll tell you, I'm fascinated by that. That is pretty cool. I think we underestimate what will end
up being demand for this type of tool go forward in all of automotive. Let's talk Zurich today.
Today's episode is brought to you by Zurich. Dealers want to win now and build for what's next.
Zurich pairs proven FNI processes with insight driven training, income generating programs,
profit participation and risk management solutions. So you can drive stronger performance
today all while protecting long term value. Learn more at Zurich and a com forward slash
CDG or click the link in the show notes below props to Zurich for supporting today's content,
including that fascinating conversation we just had with Chris Hudson about agent to agent sales.
I saw this coming again. I would have hoped it would already be here for things like airline
tickets and hotel reservations and some of the things that are lower transaction price,
but it's definitely coming in automotive and it'll be fun to follow his progress
as he continues to develop that tool. Let's see how the demand curve goes. Let's head straight to
our next guest, Lee Perine, VP of partnerships at YASI, Y-A-S-S-I. Lee, welcome to the show.
Hey, Sam. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Lee, for those who don't know you, tell us who you are,
what you do out there? Well, my name is Lee Perine. I'm VP of partnerships at YASI. Who would have
thought that DMV could be this fun as a software company, but it is. So on a high level, what we
do is we connect directly with state motor vehicle agencies, pull those connections together into a
single API or web application that allows dealers to verify lean title owner and registration data
in real time, straight from the source. So you've often said that the entire dealership
process is built on a document that can't be trusted. And I'd love to have you walk us through
what that means in plain terms. What's the document that can't be trusted in 2026?
Well, I mean, if you think of a paper title, that was just a receipt at a point in time that
a transaction occurred. So if I bought a vehicle four years ago, think of everything that could
change in those four years. A link could be added, a link could be dropped, it could get branded,
there could be additional encumbrances on it, owners can change, I can move states. There's
so many things that can change and that paper title isn't going to magically update itself.
And so especially in this world of AI, to be able to fake a document is so easy. I can
create a fake title using any of these LLMs in a heartbeat. I don't want to go to jail,
so I'm not going to do it, but it's easy. Yeah, it's so crazy to me. We're talking about agents
buying cars from other agents with Chris, GM at Mark Miller-Suber, and yet that whole DMV process
is so manual, it's so paper. So when you look at the average store today, where does the title
problem start? Is it at the trade-in desk? Is it the title clerk? Is it the lenders? There's
somewhere else where the problem is beginning in 2026, Lee. This is like my soapbox. All of the,
I don't know, smart, progressive, intelligent dealers are moving this verification piece
further up the funnel. It starts that trade-in. It starts with the use car manager or whoever's
checking in that vehicle. It doesn't start at the DMV desk because by the time it gets to your
title clerk, it's too late. That vehicle's already on the road. The car's off the lot,
so it definitely starts at the top of funnel at trade-in. All right, so I'm a used car manager
and I'm appraising a used car as a trade-in. What are some typical tips you could give me as a used
car manager to detect fraud or a problem with a title? Well, I mean, the main thing is making sure
they have all the documents. So typically today, you ask for a title. Some have it, some don't.
You ask for a copy of your registration, your driver's license, all that fun stuff.
The main difference is if they don't have that or even if they do have that, like I said, you
truly can't trust it. The main thing that they can do is verify it with the state in real time.
Get that most up-to-date information so they know Minnesota DMV is saying this is the owner,
this is the lien, title status, this is the registration status, and getting that straight
from the state is very critical. How do you do that? How do you get it straight from the state?
There's a couple of vendors. I mean, that's our whole deal. That's our whole lane is providing
real-time instant access to state data. There's a couple of us that do it out there, but you have
to get it from a vendor and it's different than what you're used to on like a title history report.
Those are great. They serve a purpose, but there's gaps and so you really need to confirm with the
state. What's interesting is these state DMVs, they operate in silos. They don't have a lot of
data liquidity. So especially if you're dealing with an out-of-state trade-in, it makes it really
tough, really tough for a dealer to get accurate information outside of using a vendor or calling
that state directly. In fact, I think you've even said 84% of dealers report fraud tied back to the
title and that has grown drastically since the pandemic. How did you get access to that data
directly from the states and what can be the cost of not having access to that data and taking in
a fraudulent title? Yeah, I mean, it took a really long time to get contracted with the state, get
a contract with them, go through all the security protocols and get approved and then set everything
up at the state. It just takes a while, but we put in the work. We got these connections and these
contracts together, which is great, but it still doesn't solve the problem of someone on the front
end of the house still needs to do the work to verify this and actually check it. And so if they
don't, worst case scenario, well, not worst, but the lender, if it's a finance vehicle, the lender
may make you buy back the loan if you didn't perfect the title. And if you look at all the
reasons on why you can't perfect the title, many of those can be discovered upon trade-in, that
initial trade-in verification process. So, for example, if there is some sort of stop,
block or hold, if it's been reported stolen, if there's a dishonor check, if there's a child's
port lien, all these things can prevent that title clerk from doing their job and perfecting
that title. And if they can't do that, the lender, they're coming after the dealer for that.
So, it's interesting. You talk about, I'd love to ask you what percent of inquiries you get through
your system end up being fraud and then talks cross-statelines. Do you have any data that talks
about of all the different inquiries you get, what percent end up having issues with them?
Not hard data. I mean, what we do is work on to it to the state, right? A dealer requests data. We
pass that data along in real time through our connections and communicate to the state. So,
we don't know outside of getting feedback from the dealer, which we do. We talk to our dealers
regularly and anecdotally, we get responses of like, oh, we caught another fraud event,
caught another fraud event. So, we get anecdotal stories, just know hard, raw data on it.
Because it's tough to prove a negative, right? You're stopping the fraud before it ever happens.
So, you're not suffering a loss, which can be tricky. Cross-border stuff is interesting. So,
fraudsters, they'll move titles across straight state lines because the data breaks down at the
border. What's a dealer in Tennessee supposed to do when they're buying a car that's been in
three states in 30 days? How does tracking that electronically help?
Yeah. I mean, like I mentioned earlier, the states, they operate in silos. There's not a single
national solution. There's NVIDIA, which is DOJ mandated program where states need to report into,
which I'll talk about. But for the most part, fraudsters love the fact that these states operate
in silos because that's where they play and they know exactly what states are lagging on
reporting. They know exactly how long it takes to go from X to Z and all that stuff. So, that cross-state
activity is a hotbed for fraud. And so, in your example, you said, what if a dealer in Tennessee
received a trade-in and that vehicle has been titled in three different states,
last 30, 45 days. What I would recommend to them is that's a red flag. Pause it and do
everything. Inspect it. It should be red flags all over the place for that dealer. They should be
asking all the right questions. They should be verifying it with the state. All right,
is this the actual owner? They should ask questions on why that is. Was this person in the
military and they just moved a lot in the last month? Was it a fleet vehicle that happened to
cross hands? Was it in this auction scenario where it was just kind of traveling through
auctions quickly? No matter what, they should be asking those questions. That should be a red flag.
And then two, like I mentioned, they should verify the current lean owner and title and
registration status with that most recent state to know that they're looking at the most up-to-date
accurate and current information. So, multi-state is potential fraud. You have an interesting
exercise you recommend dealers do. You say, hey, pull the last three trade-ins that you take into
the dealership and run a live check on every VIN. Dealers that do that on 30 trades, the last most
recent, what are they finding when they do that exercise? Lee? More than likely, they're going
to find what their title clerk has been yelling at them for the last 10 years. You have to catch
it up front. More than likely, they'll find some branding that they didn't know was there. They'll
find some owner relationships that they missed, meaning if I trade in my vehicle and I own,
there's a co-owner on the title, and that relationship is and, that means both people need
to sign that DMV documentation. And so that's one that always gets missed to trade in,
and the title clerk gets it, and they're like, we can't do anything with this until we get that other
signature. So they're going to find additional encumbrances, like I said, some VLT stops,
some dishonor check stops, some child support lien stops, all of those little things that won't show
up on a paper title. I guarantee they're going to see at least one of those if they run a handful
of records on their previous deals. So a trend you've brought up that I think is interesting,
there's a possibility lenders might start requiring real-time title verification as a condition of
funding. What does that shift do to the dealers who aren't ready for it? Like,
and how imminent is that in your mind given the fraud out there?
I mean, I don't think it'll ever happen, but from a best practice, here's what I can say,
from a best practice from the dealer groups that we work with, we have an API. So they're
implementing our API to do this validation check on their trade-ins. And so those type of dealers
that we work with, that it's like non-negotiable. They're verifying that information in real time
on every single trade-in because it does a lot. It enhances customer support because you can do
everything right in the sale and then mess up the titling and that customer experience is,
you know, all for naught. It speeds things up. There's a whole host of reasons, but
sorry, Sam, on the lending side, I don't think it'll ever happen, but it makes sense for all
parties involved. It makes sense for the dealer to do it upfront, makes sense for the customer,
and it makes sense for the lender because you have this chain reaction that happens when you don't
verify that information upon trade-in. There's a chain reaction that goes all the way down
to now the lender sitting there without a perfected title and they have to kind of work and follow up
and they're calling the dealers going, where's my title? Where's my title? And it just creates more
friction, you know, that love-hate relationship between a lender and a dealer. It's there,
it's real, and it just adds to it when it doesn't need to. It's in the dealer's best interest to do
upfront, it's in the lender's best interest, and ultimately outside of fraud, it's in that
customer's best interest as well. It'll be interesting to see if in the U.S., if things change over the
next several years, you know, this whole process is so manual and then to your point about it being
so state-based, it opens up, did, you know, fraud interstate, right? And then the manual nature
of it also opens up to fraud. I think about the FTC letter that went out to a bunch of dealers
kind of making dock fee disclosure uniform across the entire country without regard for
how individual states handle dock fee. I just wonder if, you know, why can't we in the auto
industry find a way to somehow make this a little more uniform to help reduce fraud? So
I don't know if you have a perspective on that. And as we wrap up, if you've got one piece of advice
to a dealer principally who thinks their process today is good, what, you know, aside from that
binge check, what would you have a dealer do to kind of secure their process? What advice would
you give us, Lee? Cool. Yeah, I mean, I think I've been in this like weird title and reg world for
last like 16, 17 years. And I can say in the last five years, the amount of love and modernization
and innovation that has gone into the title side of the business has been awesome. It's been great.
So I think we'll get there inch by inch, you know, year by year. But you're right, it does have to
happen on the state level. Like that's a bottleneck because I'll give you a quick example of an issue
on the state side that no matter what the dealer does or the lender does, the dealer's going to
be stuck holding the bag. And that is a fraudster goes out of state with a fake lean release to
another state DMV. That state DMV, again, doesn't have a real efficient way to verify lean status
across state lines. So they look at the fake lean release, they look at the title and they go, okay,
and they issue a brand new title, clean, real legitimate title, then that fraudster takes
into a dealer and trades it in. It doesn't matter how many times they check that vehicle with us or
any other service provider, it's going to show up that it's legit, right? It came from that state.
And so that's an issue that's happening on the state side. So I think more
from a national standpoint, more attention to outside of NVIDIA, how do you connect
these states together? And we're pushing that along on our end and working with the states and
seeing what we can do to be a resource. But we'll get there, I feel confident, especially like I said
over the last couple of years, it's been great. Let's get that done. I think that would help the
entire industry to be able to achieve that sort of one standard. And thank you for your work in
helping dealers secure those titles, preventing fraud by making that process more transparent to
dealers and consumers, leaping VP of partnerships at Yasi. Thank you so much for joining the Car
Dealership Guy daily deal live podcast today. Thank you. Thank you, Sam.
Fascinating conversation and something you don't think about every single day is is
fraud that ends up being title and in an AI driven world, it becomes more and more
significant. So we appreciate Lee and his perspectives finally up today. We turn to
Scott Simon's dealer principle at Simon Chevrolet GMC. Scott, welcome back to the show.
Hey, Sam, thanks for having me back. I appreciate it. It's good to have you back. You were last
here February of 2026. This is your third appearance on daily deal live. It's fun to have
you back and track your continued progression, you know, in this in this project for our guest
and audience that hasn't seen before. Will you just give a brief recap? You bought the store.
What is it six months or so ago now? Where do you sit today? Yeah, so Sam, thanks for having me on.
And, you know, both this platform and everybody at CDG has been very good to me. And on behalf of
the auto industry, we sincerely appreciate all the information. I mean, I pretty much watched
the show either live or try or at least repeat every week. So thank you so much. Love it. Thank
you for all your kind words and so too. I got a lot of messages from there. So I told him I paid
you good money to say good things. There was there was no money paid. I think you're, you know,
it's interesting your story and others, Kyle Coleman and others who have said, Hey,
the American dream is alive and automotive. If not me, you know, it can be me. I can go build
this and you've done it. It's inspiring your story of having the idea, making the commitment,
taking the risk. You didn't have to. You decided to and you've given other people the opportunity
to follow you by being transparent as you go down. It's just, I mean, it's awesome. Yours is one of
the greatest stories in automotive, I think today. So and that's not paid for by the way,
my own opinion. So thank you. Thank you so much. And I'll tell you part of the reason why I was so
motivated to go out and start this group in this mission was because of my father and all the
sacrifices that he did for my brother and I. And we recently lost him. So we lost my dad
in the last couple of weeks and lived a great life. 87 years old. And Sam, when he was buried,
he wanted to be buried in a Simon's pullover. Simon's Chevrolet GMC pullover. He wore that's
cool. He would come into the dealership and sit in the office, Sam and be involved in meetings.
And he would sleep most, you know, most of the days, 87 years old, but he wore the polo, the
pullover and the jacket. So that's cool. He requested to my mom, if anything ever happened to him,
he would like to be buried in a pullover. And that's just what it meant, you know, to me because
of his name. So so far, you know, things are going, things are going great. We have a lot of
opportunity, but we've came a long way. We still have a lot of opportunity in some departments.
But so far, you know, sales, if you look at the first six months this year of last year, sales
are up like 95%. Unit growth is up 76%. And we did this fixed opposite up 113%. And we did that
with only increasing our expenses, 4%. That's amazing. Yeah, in fact, I have this stat, you're,
you grew gross profit 115% while only increasing your expenses 4%. And, you know, what was the
biggest expense discipline decision you made in those first months that got you there?
Yeah, first of all, we, when you're a brand new dealer, you start off without any advertising
and without any expenses. And one, everybody that was here was offered an opportunity to stay.
And then I added people to the team. Now, not everybody stayed. We're at the point now where
we're adding to the team. And then if someone, even after we've trained them this amount of time
is not up to good culture fit or performing, now we're actually upgrading people. So I'm really
proud of our team. I'm really proud of what we've accomplished. But if they're not performing, I
mean, either performing or you don't, and I could like you a lot. But at the end of the day, it's
about, you know, performing under you a good culture fit. So now we're going through and
upgrading some positions and adding to the team. But, you know, I stayed reasonable on the rent.
I stayed reasonable on my packs. You know, I didn't want to, you know, so I stayed very
reasonable on dealer expenses to the team because I want one of the store to be profitable because
that's how we grow. You know, now that I've purchased one, we are actively looking at others.
And so I didn't expense the store to death. So that was part of our strategy. And I think it's
the right thing to do, Sam. I just truly believe it's the right thing to do. So last time we talked,
you were tracking 50 to 55 used cars. Where did you end up? And were you tracking right now?
Yeah, we're in the 50s right now. What's happened is our new car sales has went up substantially.
And so we actually are selling a lot of tracks, trailblazer. So it's actually taken from
our reuse car sales. So now what I got to figure out is how not to slow down the momentum on new
and still increase on use. So we have switched some customers that came in to look at pre-owned
to look at new. The reason why we've done that is we want to buy stores. And when you're at 280%
of your use, a new car objective, that's how we're going to get to purchase other stores. So part of
it's my fault. That's your strategy. We've taken some people off use to put them on new. So now
I still get my new from 30 to 35 to 45 to 50. So it's a balancing act, you know? But we're going
to get there. We've added a new manager today. We're adding some more sales people. There was a
building on the lot that set empty for 10 years, Sam. It had water going in it. We had to fix the
leaks, fix the windows. Now we had to replace the floor and paint it. And that is going to be our
used car buying center. That's the next phase. So what's your vision on the buy center? How many
people will be there? How will they go out and buy cars? I know you signed up on ICO. I think
KVV ICO. Is that what you're using to grow that? That's what we're using currently, but that's not
going to get us to where we need to be. So we need to be, you know, Facebook marketplace, all the
sites. And, you know, I've got a couple really good for I got a good friend, David Long, that I'm
going to reach out to. I know he's got a consulting company. I've been doing some research on it.
Through our CDG circles. I'm in a group with a couple people that have opened them up. So I've
called and done one-on-ones with them to pick their brains. Really what it is. I just need to get,
I hired a person. I need to hire two BDRs. We're getting furniture put in. And I just,
it's more my fault. I need to commit. commit to doing it.
So you gave me the hook there. I want to pull on the CDG circle thread. So you're a new dealer.
You've been in the car business a long time. So you've got a ton of experience,
which part of what makes your story so much fun is your humility. Because you, I signed an NADA,
you're quick to say what you don't know faster than what you know. And that's not, that's rare,
especially in veteran leaders and managers in the automotive industry. What is being part of
CDG circles? How does that played into your growth and trying to figure out this automotive thing
to the point where you've got that first point up and running and you're, you're, you're looking
at going on to your second or third point. So I had a question just about IMR funds. So IMR funds
are where we put money, you know, per invoice into an account and then GM will match it. You're
familiar. So I have questions about IMR funds. I had questions about opening up the buying center.
You know, I'm, I'm constantly putting in there and in our group, because I'm a moderator of a
group, you know, plus I put it in in the different groups. I'm in there quite a bit and I'm, I'm
learning a lot about AI. I mean, there's a lot I can learn. I tell you what, that AI chat with CDG,
a lot of it's over my head. It's lights out, isn't it? Some of the things we're talking about,
I'm like, what, what, what, what are they even talking about? But I've now have some people
that work with me, like my IT guy that now is in that group. And I'm like, hey, come and talk to
me like you're talking to eighth grader. Yeah. Like go in and figure it out and then, and then
interpret. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And then come explain it to me, you know, and you know, I'm, I'm going to
keep it simple, uh, stupid. But you know, um, one, I'm contributing as much as I can because
obviously with some of these numbers in our group, there's Dennis Gingrich is in there and then
Jimmy's in there and he's a small store. So you have these people asking questions all the time.
And I mean, if you're not in the group, you haven't checked into it. I strongly suggest you do.
I have not joined a 20 group yet. And I may not because the information I'm getting through CDG.
And that's, that's just a fact. If anybody's involved in it, if you're not, you know,
check into it. It's in WhatsApp. I highly recommend, um, I had to turn off notifications
because I got too many. But you know, I take time and I have downtime and I'll go back through
what's important to me like the GM group, the owner group. Um, and some of those y'all guys
are starting. And then if I want to go to sleep, I'll start reading the AI group. And the next thing
I know that fall asleep in the phones on my chest because I'm trying to understand what they're
talking about. I'll tell you what though, it's not for everybody. Like the warning to people,
you've got to be willing to engage. I think you do have to be willing to be humble and say,
I don't know. I don't understand. And again, I think that's a difference maker between a great
leader and one who's not is the ability to say, you know, I don't totally understand that. Please
explain that to me a little bit better. For example, that conversation we had with Chris on
agent to agent purchases. I mean, that blows my mind a little bit how that happens. I understand
that it should and that it will and the technology is going to take us that way. But you and I, Scott,
during our, you know, before we all retire, we're going to see the face of this industry change.
And it's changing in front of us. And part of things like circles and so do and this show,
like stuff's changing so fast, Scott. It's so fast. And I don't want to be left behind. I want to be
that old guy when the blackberry, you know, is sitting out there and like, what's happening?
What are these people talking about? And then you dismiss it. And I never want to be that way. And,
you know, I learned this very early in my career, you don't have to be super intelligent. You just
have to be able to hire a really good people. And I have the ability to attract and retain
really good people like I have, I have more people wanting to join. So now I'm looking for
more opportunities, you know, so so that's that's what I'm looking for. Scott, Scott, as we wrap up,
and I got to apologize to Chris because we're going to run out of time today. It's been such a
great show and great conversations. Is there any technology or are there any tools that are helping
you to win in May of 2026 as you scale and expand the size of this operation? Yeah, yeah. Obviously,
we use Agile Auto has helped us identify the used cars that we do need to buy, which I know you've
had those gentlemen on there, JR2. I talked to JR a lot. We know exactly what we need to buy.
Exactly. What sells in our market, what needs, what we need to buy. It's just acquiring those.
I'm trying to about 68%. Well, I think it's the lesson that now my cars come from auction.
That's way, way, way too high. So now that I know what, you know, what fish are in the pond,
I need to put the right bait on there and go and go get it. So that's, that's helped. Of course,
you know, we're a Vin Solutions, you know, we do use Cox Automotive, Viado. I'm still with Viado
right now. So it's really, you know, Sam, it's about execution. We know what to do. You know,
I now, I just need to add to the team. And then we need to go, drive more customer
pay service ROs. I need to acquire more used cars and I need to add a few more pieces to this team.
And then I'll get to that 100 to 125 to 150. As we wrap up, what's one thing you're doing in the
customer pay front? Because Fixed Ops is a huge topic on this show to drive that number as we go
into the second quarter this year. We're getting lists from the GM about recalls, you know, and I
know there's all sorts of softwares on there and I may add it, I'm the one that tries it first.
And then if we don't see success, so like I just hired a service manager from another store, he's
my service writer. So now my desk have two service writers plus the parts of service gentlemen. So
now they have downtime to call the people with recalls to call the lapsed customers. Now I know
AI can do it. And we're pursuing that. But right now I want just our people to call and get them in.
If we can't do it, I'll add more tools. But you know, according to any DA average, we only fully
utilize 20 to 25% of what we pay for. I can't stand it whenever I check into a tool that we pay for,
we're not fully utilizing it. That drives me absolutely crazy when it happens. So I will add
more and more and more. Like right now, we've kind of plateaued and I need to do that. So, you know,
contacting those customers and making sure everybody knows that we service all makes
some models when they come in. And then we need to wow people when they come in through service,
we are through sales, just read our Google reviews. Now we've got to transfer that over to service.
All right, as we wrap up, what's one thing most people don't know about Chevy GMC in 2026 that's
allowing you to win and become a better dealer. They build really, really great products.
Don't buy any Chevy GMC stores, especially in North Carolina, South Carolina.
I would love to get them. I am proud to be a Chevy GMC dealer. I would consider any of them,
but I really like those brands. And I think that their future is extremely bright because they
have a $24,000 tracks all the way up to a suburban. So I love their product mix. And I think they're
doing a fantastic job. Scott Simons, I wish we had more time. We're to the end of today's show.
It's been a great show. I appreciate you sharing your perspectives. We want to have you back so
we continue to track and chart your progress. You've got a ton of comments inside the chat,
including Corey Darkus, 438, saying, great man to work for of you, Scott. So a lot of support
there coming. Scott Simons, dealer principal at Simon's Chevrolet GMC, first of what certainly
will be many more. But for now in Whitefield, North Carolina, thanks for joining the show and
sharing your perspectives. Sam, thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Thank you. I wish the show were
like two hours sometimes. Like we end up having really interesting conversations about how to
grow and develop. Today we've covered all things AI from agent to agent, to manual tracking of
titles, to Scott's growth, utilizing leadership, utilizing just making sure that that he's
implementing common sense tools to help grow his business and leveling up on leadership. But to
you, our loyal listening audience, thanks for watching Daily Dealer Live. We break down the
biggest moves in the car business as they happen. Don't forget we are here every live every Monday,
Wednesday, Friday. We'll be back this Wednesday. So if this is your world hit like,
hit subscribe, turn on those notifications so you never ever miss beat. And we'll see you next
episode. Thanks for being here.
About this episode
Dealership Guy Podcast connects the dots between AI-driven “agent to agent” retailing and real-world dealer risk. Chris Hudson and others describe hiring an AI agent to shop, negotiating around the out-the-door price, and routing deal handoffs into CRMs—while warning that non-human agents can distort stats. Perine and Simons focus on paper-title unreliability, real-time DMV/API verification, and how title fraud can cascade into lender buyback liability. The show also covers used-car sourcing, service RO goals, and buyer skepticism about rising prices.
Today's show features:
- Chris Hudson, GM at Mark Miller Subaru
- Lee Perine, VP of Partnerships at YASSI
- Scott Simons, Dealer Principal at Simons Chevrolet GMC
This episode is brought to you by:
Zurich – Zurich helps dealers operate with clarity, confidence and certainty — driving stronger performance today while protecting long‑term value. From proven F&I processes and insights‑driven training to income‑generating programs, profit participation, and risk management solutions, Zurich is built to help dealers win now — and build for what’s next. Discover more at: https://carguymedia.com/4wxv8dz
YASSI – Yassi is a national vehicle verification platform that gives dealers a single source of truth for real-time lien, title, and registration data. When a dealer runs a VIN, they see active liens, title brands, DMV holds, and registration stops as they exist right now, pulled directly from state and federal databases, not aggregated data from the last refresh. No contracts, no monthly fees, no minimums. Visit Yassi.com to learn more or email [email protected] to get started.
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