TrueCar announced two hires Thursday to boost its automaker partnerships and help build out its insurance vertical, respectively. The company named former Fair.com, Esserman Automotive Group and Land Rover North America executive Syl Raymond as senior director of OEM and has appointed former Tesla and Marsh executive Nik Huyeng as vice president of insurance and […] [Read More]

Dealerships have invested heavily in technology designed to improve customer engagement, marketing performance, service retention, and operational efficiency. Most stores are not short on tools. They have CRMs, DMS platforms, website providers, marketing automation systems, service schedulers, equity mining tools, and reporting dashboards. The issue is that too much customer information still lives in disconnected […] [Read More]

There’s an uncomfortable truth hiding in plain sight at most dealerships: fixed operations, the department that should be the most predictable and profitable engine in the building, is running on duct tape and good intentions. Not because the people aren’t talented. They are. But because the infrastructure underneath them was never designed for the complexity […] [Read More]

Not unlike the “Nova Knicks” leading New York to its first NBA Finals in 27 years, CarNow has reunited a combo of superstars who have been teammates at multiple stops. On Wednesday, the company named new chief revenue officer and executive vice president of marketing, respectively, hiring a pair of executives who previously worked together […] [Read More]

A new voice-first artificial intelligence platform designed help car dealerships with sales and service follow-up has launched in the U.S. The platform, called Lokam.ai, is designed to automate customer communication, giving dealers greater capability to capture, convert and retain more customers. Lokam.ai can integrate existing CRM and DMS systems to facilitate automated high-impact customer follow-up, […] [Read More]

About six weeks after announcing the acquisition, Cox Automotive said Monday it has completed its purchase of customer data platform and marketing automation company Fullpath. It’s a move that allows Cox to help dealers drive more efficiency, deals and profitability, along with bringing an “agentic approach” to innovation at the company, Cox Automotive president of […] [Read More]

When it comes to practical applications of artificial intelligence for car dealers, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Or a “crawl, walk, run” approach, says QuoreAI founder and CEO Todd Smith. “There’s no (case where you) plug in AI and it’s magic,” Smith said in an interview on the sidelines of the J.D. Power Auto […] [Read More]

A 14.2-mile interior fence. Tough terrain. Multiple security personnel. Two or three vehicles churned from wear and tear annually. A looming United States Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) audit in jeopardy. These were the challenges Kia Georgia faced because inspecting its massive fence for damage was as costly as it was time consuming. The […] [Read More]

When it comes to capturing customer engagement, video is king. But the busy world of a car dealership isn’t necessarily the best environment for consistently creating effective video content. “Video sells. We’ve known that for years,” said Paul Hepp, director of marketing and internet sales for Illinois-based O’Brien Auto Team, which operates 10 locations in […] [Read More]

Bojangles, the fast-food fried chicken chain, has launched its first electric vehicle charging station at its location in Savannah, Ga., an addition the company said is “reimagining the future of the roadside stop” with a new kind of experience it calls the “charge-and-dine.” The Savannah location is the first in what Bojangles said is a […] [Read More]