BPFUNK said:

Any recommended 3rd party financing vendors? We are an extremely small independent dealer, but tend to traffic in higher priced vehicles $50k+. I don't mind treating financing as a customer service at the moment, as we just don't sell enough cars to put a ton of resources into F&I at the moment. We are in Colorado.

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You may want to look into a relationship with the Credit Union of Colorado. They are on CUDL which you may not want to invest in. However, you may be able to establish an actual relationship with a local branch where you physically send customers to them or maybe they have some type of a Fax App System in place.

Carsten said:

So, Ai is just a percentage relation to words that come before and after.

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Carsten,

Thanks for laying out the legacy systems so clearly. I’d like to introduce you to what’s coming next: AI that doesn’t just regurgitate old code or static patterns but actually “thinks” through problems.

Recent breakthroughs in large language models (LLMs) have moved beyond simple next-word prediction. Using techniques like chain‑of‑thought prompting, new models are now able to decompose complex problems into a series of intermediate reasoning steps before providing a final answer. In practical terms, models such as OpenAI’s o1 (internally called Strawberry) and DeepSeek’s R1 now solve challenging math, coding, and scientific tasks at levels comparable to human experts.

These models spend extra “thinking time” during inference—much like a chess player considering several moves ahead—allowing them to refine their strategies and even self-correct before answering. For example, on rigorous tests like the International Mathematics Olympiad qualifying exam, o1 has dramatically outperformed previous models. This isn’t just an incremental update; it represents a shift from “dumb” output generation to a dynamic, human-like reasoning process.

I know your expertise is rooted in the tangible aspects of our systems—microservices, APIs, and the cloud—but imagine integrating these smarter models into our architecture. They could help automate debugging, optimize code, and even assist in strategic planning by analyzing vast datasets in ways we never could manually.

I invite you to explore these advancements with me and consider how we might pilot these models in our projects to drive our next-generation innovations.

Below are several key references that outline these developments, along with summaries and their URLs:

1. Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models
   This seminal paper by Jason Wei et al. introduces the chain-of-thought technique, showing how LLMs can be prompted to break down complex problems into step-by-step reasoning. This method has been crucial in unlocking improved performance on challenging tasks.
   URL: Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models
2. OpenAI Launches New Series of AI Models with ‘Reasoning’ Abilities (Reuters)
   This Reuters article details OpenAI’s recent release of the o1 model (code-named Strawberry), which employs chain-of-thought reasoning to tackle complex problems in science, coding, and math—demonstrating a significant leap over previous models.
   URL: https://www.reuters.com/technology/...ies-ai-models-solve-hard-problems-2024-09-12/
3. OpenAI Announces a New AI Model, Code-Named Strawberry, That Solves Difficult Problems Step by Step (Wired)
   Wired’s coverage explains how the new o1 model reasons through problems step-by-step—“thinking aloud” before arriving at a final answer. It highlights the model’s enhanced performance on advanced tasks and its potential impact on our industry.
   URL: OpenAI Announces a New AI Model, Code-Named Strawberry, That Solves Difficult Problems Step by Step
4. OpenAI’s o1 Model is Inching Closer to Humanlike Intelligence – But Don’t Get Carried Away (Business Insider)
   This Business Insider article discusses how o1’s extended reasoning time allows it to achieve results that resemble human problem-solving, particularly in STEM fields, while noting that challenges like errors and hallucinations still remain.
   URL: OpenAI's o1 model is inching closer to humanlike intelligence — but don't get carried away
5. What It Means That New AIs Can “Reason” (Vox)
   Vox provides insights into the significance of AI models that “think” before answering. It describes the internal chain-of-thought process that enhances the accuracy and robustness of outputs, as well as the dual-use risks associated with these advances.
   URL: What it means that new AIs can “reason”

Looking forward to your thoughts on how we can integrate these exciting advancements into our next steps.

Best regards,
GPT o3-mini-high

BillVaughnAlWestNissan said:

Yesterday we started the process of eliminating all vendors. No, seriously. EVERYTHING. All 3rd party sites, Nissan Buy At Home, Nissan 3rd party leads, SEM, all of it. I want to know what Al West Nissan looks like completely naked so I know how much every piece we add back in the future moves the needle.

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This is completely insane and I absolutely love it.

In the car business, it is anything that came out in the past 10 years. Unfortunately, too many systems are handcuffed to languages that are many decades old.

As for AI, my post stated that newer coding languages can better work with it. It isn't that something cannot be done with older stuff. It is easier to utilize an AI with newer tech.

kylewilliam said:

Recently, an insurance company canceled my car insurance due to an error on a previous policy where I was a named driver, not the policyholder. The policy incorrectly listed two historical accidents as fault accidents, when they were non-fault. Although this has since been corrected, I now have to disclose on any new proposals that my insurance was refused or canceled. As a result, I'm noticing that my quotes for my other vehicles are higher. How much of this increase is due to this incident, and is there any compensation I can seek?

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Sucks to hear that. Do you think this has to do with AI? <trying to get this back on topic>

This is waaaaaaay out there. Why would a dealer want to do this? Where is this car going to be driven? How much money is the dealer going to make?

Ya got some holes in this ask.

Carsten said:

If I knew what you were aiming for, it's easier to reply so please consider that when I am writing all this.

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There are many ways to answer this and you did an excellent job. One of the reasons our government's systems are so poor is because they never updated these systems. One part of an update means utilizing newer programming languages. In the case of our federal government, people who knew how to code in those old languages retired. The newer employees were told to just leave it alone and they'd contract on old guy to come do something if things got bad. Well, those old guys are dying. Good strategy!

There are also the limitations of some older things like PHP. And the old school ways of tabling data. Newer codes have better rendering, ways to be more precise with an object model, and can work with the latest stuff easier (like AI). The downside comes from trying to integrate with older systems. You may have to blend some stuff that takes some workarounds. Also, newer languages can get frequent updates, but those updates can come with broken parts.

To your point Carsten, those updates eventually sort things out.

Richard_Lloyd said:

A Nissan Kicks has massaging seats?!

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Ooooo... You know your cars! mad respect from one car guy to another.

Pros and cons of older coding language vs. a newer one?

BillVaughnAlWestNissan said:

Updates:

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Great info Bill!

AI-Enhanced Development: Key Gains in Speed, Code Quality, and Productivity

• Speed
  • 55% Faster Task Completion: Developers using AI coding assistants solved tasks up to 55% faster.
  • 26% More Tasks Completed: Skilled developers completed 26% more coding tasks on average with AI assistance.
  • 38.4% More Frequent Iterations: Accelerated development cycles through 38.4% more frequent code compilations.
• Code Quality
  • 53.2% Higher Test Pass Rate: AI-assisted code was 53.2% more likely to pass all unit tests.
  • 5% Fewer Review Revisions: Code required 5% less rework during review processes.
  • Enhanced Readability & Maintainability: Independent assessments showed 2–4% improvements in overall code quality.
• Productivity
  • 13.5% More Code Commits: AI tools boosted weekly code commits by 13.5%.
  • Weekly Time Savings: Developers saved at least 2 hours per week, allowing more focus on creative and complex tasks.
  • Reallocated Effort: Freed-up time enabled developers to concentrate on system design, collaboration, and innovation.

Created with OpenAI's Deep Research: ChatGPT - AI Dev Efficiency Comparison

p.s. This data is months old! The gains keep on coming!

Sources:

• GitHub Copilot productivity and quality studies (2024)
• Large-scale enterprise research on AI assistance (MIT/Princeton/U.Penn 2024)
• Developer surveys: Stack Overflow 2023–2024
• JetBrains 2024 report
• GitHub Octoverse 2024
• Uplevel/CIO report on Copilot impact (2024)
• and Dark Reading analysis (2025)

Hi Alex-

I am from Dominion and would be happy to answer any questions anyone may have about this new solution. For any one on one conversations, my phone is 937.999.7442 and email is bob.obrien@dominiondms.com.

Thanks for the recognition of a new cool product and the opportunity!

Bob O'Brien

Alex Snyder said:

What are the pros and cons of outsourcing a development team?

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Pros
Cheaper only pay for their time, not full time employees
Full team of devs and managers/directors
If they've done similar work can reuse code = less time.
Outside automotive Industry perspective. Auto vendors and dealerships typically are in the box copy cat thinkers.


Cons
Only that team fully understands it, if something breaks or want changes a new dev will have to spend a lot of time breaking down and learning what the code does.
Relying on their work load.
Hard to get in contact with dev. Usually layers of people to talk to in order to get to the one who is working on the project.
They have no vested interest once project is complete.
Less knowledgeable of your dealership.

What are the pros and cons of outsourcing a development team?

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@Carsten, Look around, its changing at light speed. Here is my Slack message to my dev team to start our week:

IMO, Claude is amazing.
I’m using it head to head with GPT. Claude is improving WITHOUT “new product” announcements. Claude is in bed with Amazon's AWS.

"Claude AI was founded by Dario Amodei and his sister Daniela Amodei, who were both previously high-ranking researchers at OpenAI, with Dario serving as the Vice President of Research; they left OpenAI to establish Anthropic, the company behind Claude, with a focus on developing AI systems prioritizing safety and alignment with human value"

BillVaughnAlWestNissan said:

A new challenge I could use help with. Because of our size, we only have one detail person

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Sub to the detailers around you. The hungry ones will give you a great price.

Deep Research is a GIANT upgrade to AI, you can find this feature at perplexity, ChatGPT and google Gemini. It creates an 'agent' that reads your request, asks you questions to improve it's understanding, then it becomes a web searching machine.

Heres some AutoMagic Labs research: ChatGPT - Car Shopper JTBD Scoring

It 'thought' for 6 mins before it put out any info. For this post, I asked it for this list:

Citation Count Summary​

• 1. AutomotiveMastermind: 3 citations
• 1. Kelley Blue Book (KBB) Study: 2 citations
• 1. Dealer Inspire (Cars.com): 6 citations
• 1. Dealer.com (Cox Automotive) – Accelerate My Deal: 5 citations
• 1. DealerOn – Personalized Offers & Digital Retailing: 4 citations
• 1. Sincro (Ansira) – AWA Awards Product Reviews: 4 citations
• 1. Capital One Auto Navigator – “Wonder Why You Dread Car Buying?”: 3 citations
• 1. Izmocars – “Decision Fatigue and Your Car Dealership”: 3 citations
• 1. Brian Pasch AWA Awards – Sincro Websites: 2 citations
• 1. Cox Automotive – CDK Global Roadster Digital Retail: 2 citations
• 1. Barry Schwartz – “The Paradox of Choice”: 2 citations

@BillVaughnAlWestNissan You know this but KILL THE CANCER FAST.

Many ppl that hate change and 'like it the old way'. There will be sales reps that will be 'passive aggressive' talking shit behind your back. They can't help themselves as 'misery loves company' and they look for anything negative and then amplify it.

BillVaughnAlWestNissan said:

I actually stole the idea from a dealer on a CDG podcast. I'm not smart enough to come up with my own ideas, but I'm smart enough to know that I'm not smart, so I just steal good ideas instead. Ha.

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That's why I'm following along here! Hoping to steal some.

BillVaughnAlWestNissan said:

I allotted the salespeople a set amount of funds that they are able to use monthly to provide the best guest experience possible. They can use those funds for whatever they want from covering surprise after-the-sales issues or just order someone DoorDash if they get held up in finance.

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This is a great idea - how are you coming up with amounts for them?

Congrats on your new journey - excited to follow along!