What's different? What's the same? What are the pitfalls and traps?

Actually, I'm probably going to surprise my dad.

I'm going to take the negotiating angle here and I'll let him talk numbers.

And I think you're right on the money bill.

These are the areas where we just don't have a lot of experience.

And on the negotiating side, one of the incredible assets we've been able to produce over the past few years is in those 140,000 agent versus dealer negotiations.

We've got almost 3 million messages, text messages and emails back and forth between an AI agent, and a car salesperson.

Oh, Pops, we love red flags.

Mm-hmm.

But in doing that, I've realized, like, a, a lot of, uh, dealerships out there, small, big, medium, they're good people.

They wanna, they wanna be good in their community.

They wanna have a fair process.

Uh, so no, even if there's 10 cars on the lot or 1,000 cars on the lot, doing your research at home, doing even most of the buying process at home can make it much simpler.

You don't even have to go drive down dealership row and see those deal- You can just do everything pretty much, pretty much everything online.

A lot of dealerships will even do e-signature, deliver the car to your house.

Right.

How do you avoid the headache of buying the wrong used car, Zach?

Right now, probably the most important thing, anyone listening to this, if they're going to buy a used car needs to know pre-purchase inspection.

It's just like getting a home inspection.

All used cars.

You can ask the dealer.

You can ask whoever it is.

Can I get an independent mechanic to do a review of this vehicle? You want to miss out on the headache of buying a used car.

How do you start planning the car purchase for your budget, Zach?

Mm-hmm.

But in doing that, I've realized, like, a, a lot of, uh, dealerships out there, small, big, medium, they're good people.

They wanna, they wanna be good in their community.

They wanna have a fair process.

Uh, so no, even if there's 10 cars on the lot or 1,000 cars on the lot, doing your research at home, doing even most of the buying process at home can make it much simpler.

You don't even have to go drive down dealership row and see those deal- You can just do everything pretty much, pretty much everything online.

A lot of dealerships will even do e-signature, deliver the car to your house.

Right

How do you avoid the headache of buying a, the wrong used car, Zach?

Right now, probably the most important thing anyone listening to this, if they're gonna buy a used car, needs to know, pre-purchase inspection.

It's just like getting a home inspection.

All used cars, you can ask the dealer, you can ask whoever it is, "Can I get an independent mechanic to do a review of this vehicle?" You wanna miss out on the headache of buying a used car, you gotta get a pre-purchase inspection.

Because the worst feeling, the sinking feeling is when you buy a used car you're really excited about, you take it home, you bought it, and then something happens a week later, two weeks later, three weeks later.

And unfortunately, we get stories like that all the time back at CarEdge.

Community members who didn't do a pre-purchase inspection, who just saw a good deal.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

But in doing that, I've realized, like, a, a lot of, uh, dealerships out there, small, big, medium, they're good people.

They wanna, they wanna be good in their community.

They wanna have a fair process.

Uh, so no, even if there's 10 cars on the lot or 1,000 cars on the lot, doing your research at home, doing even most of the buying process at home can make it much simpler.

You don't even have to go drive down dealership row and see those deal- You can just do everything, pretty much, pretty much everything online.

A lot of dealerships will even do e-signature, deliver the car to your house.

Right

Mm-hmm.

But in doing that, I've realized, like a, a lot of, uh, dealerships out there, small, big, medium, they're good people.

They wanna, they wanna be good in their community.

They wanna have a fair process.

Uh, so no, even if there's 10 cars on the lot or 1,000 cars on the lot, doing your research at home, doing even most of the buying process at home can make it much simpler.

You don't even have to go drive down dealership row and see those deal- You can just do everything, pretty much, pretty much everything online.

A lot of dealerships will even do e-signature, deliver the car to your house.

Right.

How long has that part been going on and is it something that you guys have seen a lot of good growth in?

So what's been so interesting there, Luke, your intuition's spot on.

There's a ton of data that's able to be captured in a car deal.

What's interesting is kind of like the evolution of how this business, how it shows up for us, like what it actually is.

And what I mean by that is the first ever variant of this service was me and my dad calling dealers doing the work.

Like that's what we did for a year.

I mean, it was crazy.

But like I would imagine that there's a big middle there probably that that's I don't know what it's a reflex that people have in the industry when they find out about this.

Are listings companies outdated?

Listing companies have been outdated for a long time.

That business model doesn't make sense in an agent-first world.

And to be clear here, it's just like when my dad shared the stories of getting his first internet lead.

It's not like walk-ups went away the next day or phone-ups went away the next day.

So the change here that we're going to see I think will be rapid, but I also think it will take time.

But Mark, you and I both know you go on a listing company website right now and you can see a great deal.

What do you think then of broader generative AI searches? Is that something that will do an end run around third-party listings?

Um, what gaps did you identify in the auto retail space that led you to invent this?

[laughs] I mean, no one likes buying a car.

I, I remember the first time I looked at Gallup's annual trustworthiness of profession poll, and back in 2019 when I started working on CarEdge, the lowest rated in terms of trustworthiness was car salesperson.

It was right there with lobbyist.

Now, today it's a little bit different.

Uh, we've got congressperson [laughs] up there at the number one spot in terms of lack of trust.

But that was the gap I identified, was that people do not trust a car salesperson.

How do you convince car dealerships to embrace transparency and, like, the long-term vision that you're promoting?

What gaps did you identify in the auto retail space that led you to invent this?

I mean, no one likes buying a car.

I remember the first time I looked at Gallup's annual trustworthiness of profession poll.

And back in 2019 when I started working on Car Edge, the lowest rated in terms of trustworthiness was car salesperson.

It was right there with lobbyist.

Now today it's a little bit different.

We've got congressperson up there at the number one spot in terms of lack of trust.

How do you convince car dealerships to embrace transparency and like the long term vision that you're promoting?