🚗 How LLMs Actually Find (or Skip) Your Dealership
🚙 A new Accenture study found 84% of consumers are open to AI handling complex tasks like negotiating deals, and 37% would let an AI agent switch them away from their current brand entirely for a better fit.
Shoppers Are Fine With AI Touching Your Photos. They're Not Fine With It Touching the Truth.
A new survey shows 70% of consumers are comfortable with AI-enhanced product photography, but only as long as it doesn't misrepresent the actual product. Disclosure alone makes a brand meaningfully more trustworthy.
GM Says AI Can Cut Vehicle Development Time in Half. The Silverado Is the Test Case.
GM's new AI-powered design platform already helped cut prototype costs 20% on the 2027 Silverado while hitting performance targets in a third of the usual time. The company believes this could shrink development cycles from five years to two.
Ford's revenue slipped and U.S. sales fell nearly 10% in H1. The company raised its full-year profit outlook anyway, betting that high-margin trucks and off-road trims keep carrying the business while a genuinely affordable EV arrives in 2027.
🚙 Design and prestige are losing ground to software and ADAS, exactly what premium brands have leaned on to justify price. Don't describe phone integration in the abstract. Physically pair the customer's phone during the test drive and let them experience it directly, the same shift Bluetooth pairing went through years ago.
A Quarter of Shoppers Would Ditch Their Favorite Brand for Better Tech. Here's How to Actually Use That.
A new McKinsey survey shows tech features, not brand loyalty, are increasingly what wins or loses a sale, especially among buyers under 45. Premium brands have the most to lose.
Ford's Building Trucks for the Army Again. It's Been Decades.
Ford is competing with GM and off-road specialist BC Customs for a Pentagon contract to build the Army's next tactical truck, marking Ford's biggest defense push since it exited the business in 1990.
A 7.1 Earthquake Hit Japan. Here's Why Your Lot Might Feel It in a Few Weeks.
A powerful earthquake struck southern Japan near major Toyota and Nissan plants. Both automakers report no major damage, but the real risk sits deeper in the supplier network that feeds those plants.
Three Generations, One Lesson: Erica Bruno on Legacy, Authenticity, and the "Hand Mirror"
Erica Bruno's grandfather didn't finish eighth grade and still built a 17-franchise, 800-employee dealer group. Her mother became one of the country's first female dealer principals. Erica's own contribution to that legacy is making sure fewer women have to fight for a seat at the table the way they did.
Streaming Platforms Are Quietly Rejecting the Ads Most Dealers Still Run
Some publishers now refuse low-quality, AI-voiceover price-and-payment ads outright. Most dealers haven't caught up to this shift, and the raw material they used to lean on for commercials is disappearing at the exact same time.
Waymo's Robotaxis Are Great at Driving. Parking Is a Different Story.
Waymo has racked up 83 parking citations totaling over $9,000 in Austin alone, a small but genuinely funny reminder that even a technology proven statistically safer than human drivers can still trip over something as basic as reading a sign.
