Here’s How To Use AI to Save You Thousands at the Car Dealership
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When Dante Alighieri wrote “The Divine Comedy,” he didn’t include a ring of Hell for negotiating with car dealerships. According to many people, he absolutely should have.
Buying a new or used car is often dreadful because you must withstand the intensity of car salespeople, who are trained to get the sale — and the highest price possible — even if that means steamrolling their customers. For introverted or inexperienced buyers, the misery is compounded.
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If only there were something that could lift you out of that negotiation inferno and make the car-buying process easier.
Zach Shefska, co-founder, president and CEO of CarEdge, has made that hypothetical “something” a reality. His AI-driven platform streamlines the process of finding, pricing and negotiating the best deal for your next car.
To understand how CarEdge works — and why it empowers consumers to get fairer auto prices, even if car dealerships don’t love it — GOBankingRates got behind the wheel with Shefska for our Top 100 Money Experts series.
Using AI To Put Consumers in the Driver’s Seat
Shefska’s passion for cars is a family affair: His father’s 43-year career in the automotive industry inspired him to create CarEdge. Observing the industry firsthand gave him a powerful insight: Buying a car is one of the few sales processes where consumers negotiate directly with salespeople — and car salespeople have far more practice. They sell cars every day, while consumers only buy or lease cars every few years.
To level the playing field, he developed CarEdge as a comprehensive resource where consumers can find car-buying guides, rankings of the fastest- and slowest-selling cars, and information on models with higher or lower insurance and maintenance costs.
But the real engine of the site is its AI-powered negotiator.
Imagine an expert negotiator who can contact a car dealership for you and handle all the back-and-forth — all to get you the best price. Only instead of a professional in a sleek suit, that negotiator lives online.
“Behind the scenes we have invested in systems that allow AI agents to be created with all the market insights and data they need to effectively negotiate a car deal,” Shefska said. “As a user, you select the vehicle you want on the CarEdge car search and then deploy your agent to contact the dealer on your behalf. You can see the conversation your AI agent has with the dealership via email and text, and ultimately take over once you’re satisfied with the deal it has negotiated for you.”
The AI negotiator spares users a lot of legwork by contacting multiple dealers to find the right vehicle at the right price. Each AI agent is trained on thousands of data points to make the most informed, strategic decisions.
“It works with one goal in mind: to get car buyers a fair deal,” Shefska said.
Steering Consumers to the Right Car
Wandering onto a car lot without a clear idea of what you want — and the backbone to stick to it — can be financially perilous. A smooth-talking salesperson can persuade you that you need that elite stereo system and heated seats, even if they come at a steep price.
However, the CarEdge Concierge guides you through a sequence of questions to identify the features you actually want — without being overwhelmed by the bells and whistles at the dealership.
Sample prompts include:
- Must-have features: What are non-negotiable vehicle features?
- Nice-to-have features: What features would you like to have but could live without?
Once CarEdge knows what you want, its AI negotiators start working with dealerships on your behalf.
“AI agents save consumers time and money by representing them,” Shefska said. “Car buyers no longer have to invest countless hours researching the market and negotiation tactics — the AI negotiator handles it all with a wealth of training data.”
If you already know the exact car you want, you can still use CarEdge to get a great deal. Using the CarEdge Negotiation Expert, you can plug in the VIN and let the platform pull up the car’s details, including its features, specifications and market insights. Then, you can follow your AI negotiator as it works to get you the best deal possible.
AI Lifts the Hood on the Car-Buying Process
Shefska sees AI as a tool that introduces transparency and fairness into car buying, continuing a long history of efforts to empower consumers.
The federal government first mandated that automakers display a window sticker on new vehicles sold in the U.S. in 1959. Before then, dealers could set prices based on a buyer’s enthusiasm, giving them broad discretion to spike prices.
The internet later empowered buyers with more information — such as dealer invoice prices and what other people paid — but shopping still often involved anxiety, calls, emails, and uncertainty about whether you got a fair deal.
Thanks to AI agents, customers no longer need to sink hours into all that legwork.
“AI flips the script and empowers consumers with an autonomous partner who can do the heavy lifting. And unlike traditional car shopping websites, the agent works for them — not the dealer — which means it has their interests as priority number one,” Shefska said.
Bottom Line
The car-buying process just got a lot easier — whether salespeople like it or not.
Through AI agents, consumers are gaining powerful allies in negotiating for the right car at the right price. According to Shefska, CarEdge is only going to get better.
“There are a variety of improvements coming to our ever-evolving AI negotiator soon,” he said. “We’re proud and grateful for the first 2,000 customers who have trusted the AI negotiator to help them get a fair deal in just the past two months.”
This article is part of GOBankingRates’ Top 100 Money Experts series, where we spotlight expert answers to the biggest financial questions Americans are asking. Have a question of your own? Share it on our hub — and you’ll be entered for a chance to win $500.
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