Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap newsletter—the key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
Today’s guest is Len Short, CEO of Lotlinx.
Together, we discuss the world’s first dealer-focused, large language model (LLM), how it diagnoses inventory issues in real time, the seven most-searched dealer prompts, and why Len’s giving it away completely free.
ChatGPT lacks automotive transaction data dealers need for inventory decisions.
Almost every dealer in America uses ChatGPT daily for general tasks, but the platform fundamentally cannot access the inventory transaction history, competitive pricing data, and sales patterns required for tactical business decisions.
"ChatGPT can rewrite descriptions and do a lot of things with generic information, but dealers are looking...tell me my next move. Like look at all my data, pinpoint where I have opportunity or problems, and then tell me what to do. And ChatGPT can't do that because they don't have the data."
Dealers attempting to work around this limitation by uploading financial spreadsheets into public AI platforms expose themselves to significant data security risks.
Uploading dealer data to public AI platforms creates compliance exposure.
Dealerships uploading inventory spreadsheets, financial reports, or customer information into ChatGPT or similar public AI tools violate basic data security protocols.
"I would advise every dealer to go to ChatGPT and say, 'what are the risks with me uploading my business data into public LLMs like ChatGPT?' And it will give you a long list of reasons why you shouldn't do that."
Public AI platforms explicitly acknowledge they cannot guarantee data privacy for uploaded business information, making compliance-conscious dealer groups particularly vulnerable when staff use these tools without IT oversight.
Dealers must have large, historical pricing datasets.
Comprehensive vehicle data requires tracking every car, every price change, every competitor move, and every sales outcome across thousands of dealerships over many years.
"We started back in 2016, before anybody was talking about this, building deep learning models...we've been aggregating and organizing by far the largest data set of online inventory. We know everything and every circumstance around every price move, every car that traveled, how it sold, for 15 years."
This historical depth enables Lotlinx’s new dealer-facing chat tool, LotGPT, to recognize patterns impossible for vendors who only recently began collecting automotive data.
Comparing performance against local competitors is happening in real-time.
OEM reports showing how dealers rank against their competition arrive 60-90 days after the fact, making them useful for historical analysis but worthless for immediate tactical decisions.
"The big push we get from dealers is tell me my next move. Like look at all my data, you know, pinpoint where I have opportunity or problems, and then tell me what to do."
LotGPT’s immediate visibility into competitor inventory levels, pricing strategies, days on lot, and sell-down rates enables dealers to adjust tactics while market conditions still apply rather than discovering problems months later.
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2. Amazon Autos - With Amazon Autos, your dealership can reach more buyers, drive more sales, and deliver a modern, more delightful car-buying experience. Learn more @ sell.amazon.com/programs/autos.
3. Lotlinx - Get the best possible market advantage on every vehicle transaction. Optimize operations and boost profits using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Learn more @ lotlinx.com.
Many dealers manage their inventory VIN-by-VIN despite having hundreds of units.
Large dealer principals who oversee multiple rooftops still mentally organize their business around individual problem cars rather than aggregate metrics.
"I was surprised because that's really the thing. They're like, ‘what's wrong with this one? What do I do about this one?’ I mean, it's just how [dealers] operate...I've been on a lot with a massive owner...he's pointing at his vehicles. I mean, he knows his inventory VIN-by-VIN."
Saturday morning lot walks and manager meetings focus immediately on specific problem vehicles, making VIN-level diagnostic tools more useful than dashboard summaries showing overall inventory health.
VDP quality audits are revealing missing elements that kill conversion rates.
Dealers purchase expensive merchandising tools but lack objective feedback on whether individual vehicle listings actually present well or contain critical missing elements customers expect.
"This is the number two used thing on [LotGPT]—rate my VDP. Tell me is my VDP working for this car? It'll go through and it'll look. He's got a three out of five rating. He's got good photography...He doesn't have consumer reviews. He should probably think about that. He doesn't have a window sticker. He should probably think about that."
The audit analyzes each VDP across multiple dimensions, then rewrites descriptions into scannable formats optimized for conversion based on machine learning.
Digital advertising spend often fails to reach specific at-risk inventory.
Dealers spend thousands monthly on digital advertising but most platforms only report aggregate metrics like impressions and clicks, not whether specific at-risk inventory receives adequate exposure.
"Every dealer wants to know, is my advertising working? This thing will tell them exactly how it's delivering, whether those VDPs are converting into sales opportunities, real leads...how's my digital spend actually delivered? Because so much money is wasted. And it doesn't get to the car. It doesn't impact the sale."
But real-time, VIN-level analysis reveals when aged inventory sits invisible despite active advertising campaigns, showing exactly where marketing budgets fail to help problem cars.
Price reductions often destroy margin without moving aged cars.
Dealers instinctively markdown aging inventory assuming price is always the problem, but data often shows vehicles already priced below market where further cuts just surrender profit.
"Dealers keep hitting markdown and it's not making a difference. And all they're doing is giving away gross...it'll even tell you which VINs to increase price on. Because often dealers have marked it down too much and they're giving away margin that they can take back."
LotGPT separates cars that need more digital exposure from cars that need price adjustments, plus identifies vehicles marked too low where dealers can raise prices and recapture thousands in gross.
Dealers want new systems to integrate quickly.
Connecting dealer management systems, CRMs, Google Analytics, and inventory feeds to new platforms traditionally requires vendor coordination and IT involvement spanning weeks.
"All the dealer has to do to link their DMS, their CRM, their GA and their digital data...is just click through a simple set of...tell us which ones they are...the onboarding is very simple...it gets done in a day."
The primary onboarding delay occurs when dealers cannot locate their Google Analytics login credentials rather than from actual technical integration challenges.
AI is eliminating manual approval for routine inventory decisions.
Dealers initially review recommendations to verify the AI’s logic, but after seeing consistent results they eliminate the review step entirely and let the system act independently.
"They keep pushing us to just do it. Like I get it. I want to see what it's doing. I want to lead to the decision, but then I want it to execute."
This means description rewrites, price adjustments, and digital advertising allocation happen automatically every day without managers logging in or approving individual changes.
