A platform manager overseeing several stores had built an automated pricing dashboard for used cars across the whole group. When leadership asked how, the answer was simple: "I gave Claude my IMS credentials." That's a dealership's inventory management system handed directly to a frontier model, with no IT governance in the loop at all.
🚙 Ford CEO Jim Farley spent last week publicly rejecting Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's claim that Ford is too entangled with Chinese companies, over a Michigan battery plant licensing CATL technology and a Spanish plant building Geely vehicles for Europe. Farley called it a "basic misunderstanding" that a five-minute call could fix.
Amazon Can't Sell a Single Car Without Dealer Inventory. That's the Whole Point.
LaFontaine Automotive Group runs 43 stores across Michigan, and this summer it joined Amazon Autos instead of treating the platform like a threat. Carlos Mojica, the group's senior manager of retail development, joined Auto Collabs to explain why.
Duffy's letter, made public Tuesday, accused Ford of "actively intertwining its future with Chinese state-backed enterprises." He argued American companies should "out-innovate competitors" rather than rely on them. Farley's response left little room for ambiguity:
🚗 VW Puts a €16 Billion Price Tag on Its Restructuring Plan
🚙 That's on top of a reduction of 50,000 more positions than VW had already planned. Four German plants are now on the table for closure once their current models run out over the next decade, with Volkswagen framing the move as an existential fight against Chinese competitors, steep tariffs, and years of overcapacity.
Being Friendly Doesn't Move Dollars per RO. Here's What Actually Does.
Widewail CEO Cuyler Owens walked ASOTU CON attendees through a study matching six months of customer reviews at 350+ franchise dealerships against the actual repair-order revenue behind them. The headline finding is the kind that reshapes how a store trains its team: being friendly isn't the behavior that shows up in the numbers.
Two AI Executives Say the Old "Wait and See" Strategy Won't Work This Time
Traylor and Adomitis joined the show to make the case that AI adoption in dealerships isn't following the same timeline as past shifts, and that the dealers waiting for a settled "right way" to do this may not get the runway they're expecting.
🚗 The White House Just Called Ford's China Strategy a "Troubling Picture"
🚙 Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent Ford CEO Jim Farley a letter this week expressing "profound concern" over the automaker's ties to Chinese companies, specifically its CATL battery licensing deal, its dealings with Geely and BYD, and Farley's own comments floating Chinese joint ventures on U.S. soil.
The White House Just Called Ford's China Strategy a "Troubling Picture"
Ford has been building its America-first credentials for years, more hourly workers in the U.S. than any other automaker, its own battery plants, its own workforce. The Trump administration just publicly said that story doesn't add up.
