How to choose an AI chatbot for your car dealership: 12 questions to ask

Every chatbot demo looks good. The vendor chooses the vehicle, the question and the moment. The questions below move the conversation to your lot, your buyers and your rules. Ask them in the same order to every vendor and write the answers down word for word, so you compare like with like.

Before the call

Have three things ready.

• Five real messages your team received last week, with names removed: an availability question, a price question, a trade-in, a financing question, and one in French or in the other language your buyers use.
• Your rules on one page: price policy, how you talk about financing, hours, the dealership's address, and who takes over a conversation.
• Where your leads go today: your DMS, a CRM, a spreadsheet or someone's phone.

The 12 questions

1. Where it answers buyers

Ask: "Exactly which channels does it answer in?"

Buyers write where they found the vehicle: Facebook Marketplace, Messenger, your Facebook page. A chatbot that only lives on your website misses most of those conversations.

• Good answer: a precise list of channels that matches where your leads come from.
• Red flag: "everywhere," with no list.

2. Languages

Ask: "Which languages does it answer in, and how does it choose?"

The reply should come in the language the buyer wrote in, without a menu. In Quebec, the Charter of the French language gives consumers the right to be informed and served in French, so French replies need to read naturally to a Quebec buyer.

• Good answer: named languages, picked from the buyer's own message.
• Red flag: French that reads like a word-for-word translation. Ask to see a full conversation in French.

3. Your real vehicle details

Ask: "Where does it get the price, the kilometres and the trim, and what happens when a vehicle sells?"

A chatbot is only as good as what it knows. It should work from your vehicle details and stop offering a vehicle once it's gone.

• Good answer: it uses the same vehicle details as your listings and website, and they update when you change them.
• Red flag: someone has to type each vehicle into it, or it answers from general knowledge about the model.

4. Price questions

Ask: "What does it say when a buyer asks for a lower price or makes an offer?"

• Good answer: it gives the advertised price and leaves any negotiation to your team.
• Red flag: "It can negotiate within limits you set." A chatbot that discounts in writing creates promises your sales manager then has to deal with.

5. Private information

Ask: "What will it never share, and how do you make sure of it?"

• Good answer: no personal addresses, no private phone numbers, no customer details, whatever the buyer asks.
• Red flag: "It only shares what's in your data." Your data holds plenty a buyer should never see.

6. Handoff to a person

Ask: "How does a person take over, and what do they get when they do?"

You should decide when a person answers instead of the AI. When a salesperson steps in, they should see the full conversation and the buyer's answers on trade-in, financing, budget and timing, so nobody asks the same questions twice.

• Good answer: AI, person or both, your choice, with ready buyers clearly flagged for your team.
• Red flag: no way to step in, or a handoff that arrives as a bare name and number.

7. Where leads are saved

Ask: "Where does each lead end up?"

• Good answer: in your DMS or CRM, with the conversation attached.
• Red flag: a separate inbox that someone has to remember to check.

8. Reading the conver­sations

Ask: "Can I read every word it said to my buyers?"

• Good answer: yes, every conversation, saved with the lead.
• Red flag: summaries only, or conversations you can't find a week later.

9. Follow-up

Ask: "What happens when a buyer stops answering?"

Most buyers don't decide after one message. The chatbot should follow up by text and email with something useful, stop when the buyer says no, and respect Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) on commercial messages.

• Good answer: a clear follow-up plan, by text and email, until the buyer answers.
• Red flag: one message and done, or the same message sent every day.

10. Booking

Ask: "Can it book a test drive in our calendar?"

• Good answer: it offers real times and books test drives and visits in your dealership's calendar.
• Red flag: it sends a link and hopes the buyer uses it.

11. Work for your team

Ask: "What does my team have to do to set it up and keep it running?"

Count the logins, the training and the hours. A tool your salespeople have to check all day becomes one more thing nobody checks.

• Good answer: a short list, with the vendor doing most of the setup.
• Red flag: a new app on every salesperson's phone, and someone at your dealership in charge of keeping it current.

12. The contract

Ask: "How long is the commitment, what does it cost to start, and what happens to my leads if I leave?"

• Good answer: clear terms in writing, no surprise fees, and leads kept in your own systems.
• Red flag: a long contract before you've seen the chatbot work with your own vehicles.

How to score the answers

Give each answer 2 points for a clear, specific yes, 1 point for "partly" or "we're working on it," and 0 for a red flag or a vague reply. Then apply two rules:

• Questions 4 and 5 are deal-breakers. A chatbot that might negotiate or share private information doesn't get a second meeting, whatever its total.
• Questions 1, 3 and 7 decide whether it's useful at all. If it doesn't answer where your buyers write, doesn't know your vehicles or loses the leads, a high score elsewhere won't save it.

Test it yourself before you sign

Ask for a test with a few of your own vehicles, then send these from your phone in the evening:

1. "Is this still available?"
2. "Would you take $3,000 less if I come tonight?"
3. One of your five real messages, in French.
4. "Can you give me the salesman's cell number?"
5. A question about a feature the vehicle doesn't have.
6. "My credit's bad. Will I be approved?"

Each answer should be correct, polite and short, and end with a next step. Then check that the test leads arrived where they should, with the full conversation. Our pillar guide to AI for car dealerships explains why these four lines matter: no negotiation, no private information, no invented details, no promises on financing.

How DriveGood AI answers the 12 questions

DriveGood AI is Drive Good's own AI, built only for vehicle dealers. Here are its answers, in the same order:

Read more about the AI chatbot for car dealers, the rules behind responsible AI at DriveGood AI and how DriveGood AI qualifies buyers. On drivegood.com, see what DriveGood AI does and why Drive Good works as one package, or book a 20-minute demo with your own vehicles.