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Howdy, Fam!
A dealer group took online scheduling adoption from 13% to 48% with one small change. Show rates went above 93%.
That's the number worth taking today. We'll show you exactly what they changed.
Also in today's email:
The one word your AV pitch should never use around a nervous parent
Why Detroit would rather write a tariff check than break ground on a new plant
The community giving award CarMax won that your dealership was probably already earning quietly
Keep Pushing Back,
—Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi
Reading time: 4 min and 17 sec
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Your Web Beats Your Phone at Service Scheduling. Here's the Number That Actually Moves It.
A new study shows dealership websites outscore phone calls at booking service appointments by 10 full points. The real story is what one dealer group did to close that gap.
Dealership websites are handling service scheduling better than phone calls, averaging 71 out of 100 versus 61, according to Pied Piper's study of 4,100+ requests across 31 dealer groups.
❝ The only people who know it's failing are the customers. ❝
The gap between the top group (MileOne, 80) and the bottom (Fox Motors, 47) isn't about budget or software. It's about attention.
🎙️ Want the full conversation?
Listen to yesterday’s Automotive State of the Union episode for the complete discussion.
Here's the number worth stealing:
One dealer group moved online scheduling adoption from 13% to 48% simply by pulling the scheduler earlier into the sales process. Show rates climbed above 93%. A calendar invite and a text confirmation turn a loosely-held appointment into a real commitment.
None of the top-performing groups lean heavily on AI.
If you're not measuring your own scheduling performance, phone and website both, you're already in the same spot as the lowest scorers: failing customers without knowing it.
Here's What the Right Data Platform *Should* Do:
It lets you put your unified customer and inventory data to work everywhere. Any tool, system, and partner you want. And never locks it in.
Also, it centralizes and coordinates your customer opt-outs across the vendors communicating with your customers.
Most can't do either.
Foureyes Connect does both, and that immediately puts your dealerships ahead.
Stop Saying "Autonomous." Say What the Car Actually Does.
Robots can be friends, as long as their intentions and capabilities are clear.
Only 31% of consumers trust an autonomous vehicle to transport children, per JD Power's 2026 Mobility Confidence Index, and that confidence score has barely moved in years despite rising awareness.
The real issue isn't safety. It's communication. JD Power's Lisa Boor points out that trust varies sharply by specific task; people are far more comfortable with a self-driving car delivering food than one carrying their kid, yet dealerships tend to market "autonomous features" as one lump category.
The fix is simple:
Talk about what a specific feature actually does (adaptive cruise, lane-keeping, automated parking) rather than bundling everything under one umbrella term customers already associate with their biggest fears. Specificity builds trust faster than reassurance does.
Automakers Are Still Avoiding a Full Move to the U.S.
Toyota's shifting some Tacoma production to Texas, but it's the exception.
Most automakers are paying tariffs (Toyota: $8.4B, GM: $3.1B, Ford: $1B) rather than build new plants, Edmunds' Ivan Drury calls it "the safest action."
Meanwhile, Chinese EV makers are outinvesting U.S. automakers overseas by 4-6x, quietly locking in global supply chain dominance while Detroit stays cautious at home.
CarMax Made a National Giving List. Your Dealership Probably Already Beats It Per Capita.
CarMax and GM were the only two automotive companies named to Points of Light's 2026 Civic 50. Most individual dealerships are likely out-giving both relative to size, they just don't have a CSR team packaging the story for national recognition.
🚘 At The Store
🇪🇺 The EU wants cars physically incapable of speeding by 2030 using GPS and cameras. The tech is only 74.3% accurate at reading limit changes. What could go wrong.
🚗 California's new $3,500 instant EV rebate has no income cap, but a headquarters loophole makes Rivian and Lucid eligible above the price cap while Tesla mostly isn't.
📦 Stellantis Q2 shipments rose 10% globally, North America up 38%, driven by new Ram and Jeep launches ahead of a planned summer production shutdown.
🏆 2026's bestselling luxury vehicles: Lexus RX leads at 59,904 units, followed by BMW's X5 and X3. Buick's Enclave brings up the rear at 22,203.
🧊 Icebreakers
🍝 Olive Garden is bringing back its all-you-can-eat Pasta Pass for the first time since 2019. Somewhere, an entire fanbase just cleared their calendar.
📱 Law school students at one university will start their first year banned from using electronic devices in class. A bold experiment in remembering how to take notes by hand.
💀 A new beauty trend is apparently using fat harvested from dead bodies in skincare products. We're just going to leave that one right there.
📉 Global smartphone shipments just hit a 13-year low, driven partly by a worsening memory chip shortage. Even phones are feeling the supply chain squeeze.
1789: French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, the spark that ignited the French Revolution.
1965: Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to fly past Mars, sending back humanity's first close-up photos of another planet.
2015: NASA's New Horizons probe made its closest approach to Pluto after a nine-and-a-half-year journey, capturing the first detailed images of the dwarf planet's surface.
Thanks for reading, Friend!
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