Tried the CAR EDGE AI Car Negotiator and It Was a Disaster

I tested Car Edge's AI negotiating tool and it failed in ways that I didn't even think were possible. Before we get into this, this is not a hit piece on Car Edge. I love technology. I've been using AI for 12 or 13 years now, long before anyone ever started talking about it. I try to always stay ahead of the curve in the car business. And when a company says an AI bot will negotiate a car deal for you, I want to see if it does what it claims. So, I'm breaking this up in two phases.

Why AI Car Negotiation Tools Fail in Real Deals

AI tools often fail due to lack of context awareness and rigid response patterns.

The very first phase, I stack the deck in the AI's favor. The test vehicle is a 2020 Chevy Colorado with 138,000 mi. The average Colorado on the market at the time was about $84,000 mi with an average price of $23,683. Now, my truck is a local one-owner corporate vehicle. It's got a clean history, service, no issues. The drawback of this vehicle was the mileage. Since it had about 54,000 more miles than the average one, I priced it very quickly to move. Now, I had it listed at $20,000 and at that price, based off of the mileage and the specific vehicle, that was about 1% under the market.

But for this AI test, I went even harder. I sent an AI offer out the door of 18,158. That puts the selling price at about 167. So, it's that $3,400 cheaper at this point. It's the cheapest Colorado in the entire country. A human buyer would and should be asking why is it so cheap, not can we go any lower.

So before we even start talking numbers, there's already an issue. The car edge lead never made it into our CRM. It hit my email that's general that everyone can see. And that came in at about 2:24 p.m. But I didn't see it in the CRM until about 3:19 p.m. That's almost a full hour of dead time. And if you as a consumer or I as a consumer fill out a form on a website and they don't get back to me, I just have to assume that they don't care that my deal means nothing to them.

So I manly load the lead in a reply. Now our first email, it's going to be Ethan. Looks robotic. It says, "I'm interested in this 2020 Colorado LT." It then types out the entire VIN, the stock number, and reminds me that the truck is listed on our website. I mean, really, really weird how that came in. Then it's asking for a full out the door quote, including tax, title, registration, dock fees, and add-ons in a typical finance example.

Now, I did not tell Car Edge that I was going to finance. I wasn't going to pay cash, nothing. I just said that this is the vehicle that I like. Go negotiate.

Now, most dealerships won't respond with real numbers in the very first email. They'll send you the typical, "When do you want to come in for a test drive?" But I gave the AI every advantage. I reply with a full line by line breakdown of 18,158 out the door for our zip code as it requested, all fees listed, no games. I even included in a little bit about us section that we're a Capital One Diamond dealer. We do transparent pricing and we're owned by this really awesome YouTuber who's a carbine advocate named Chevy Dude. You guys probably should subscribe if you don't already.

And then we start to see the pattern. I sign the email as Rachel. Uh, and I send it from my executive assistant Rachel's email, but I accidentally introduce myself as Mike. A human would notice that. The AI didn't. It writes back, "Hi, Rachel." and asks for the exact same thing again and completely ignores the details I sent. No reaction to the truck being thousands below market or the fact that I priced it way lower than the $20,000. It's just following some sort of script in the back end.

So, I decide to send that itemized quote again. And then now is time the lead has came into our CRM and I text our pretty standard first text. Would a call be easier or do you prefer text? So that comes in. It says, "Thanks. I received your itemized out the door. Can you send a typical Capital One finance example?" I won't come in until I have firm numbers.

Step-by-Step Car Negotiation Process That Actually Works

A structured negotiation process leads to better deals than automated AI tools.

Now notice this. No questions about the truck. No questions about condition. No curiosity about the Colorado is so cheap. The AI is locked in onto one phrase from the email and that's Capital One Diamond Dealer. And now everything becomes about financing, which I think is funny because Car Edge teaches don't talk payment until the end. But their AI is laser focused on payment from message one, which I didn't even tell it that I was a payment shopper.

So I explain that we can submit a soft credit poll to Capital One and get exact numbers. I give a simple estimate of about $20 per thousand finance and I ask if they have any questions about the truck. The bot ignores everything and repeats the same request. Send me a Capital One APR example for 60 and 72 months. Zero down. I won't come in until I have the firm numbers. And then it starts typing the VIN and the full out the door number in every single message.

This is where you're probably nodding. It's this is not negotiating. This is looping, right?

So, I push the AI a little bit. I explain risk-based lending. I recommend a test drive. I suggest even checking with their own bank, which no dealer does. So, I'm trying to turn this into a normal conversation. The AI refuses to move. Same lines, same demands, same repetition.

Then it goes off the rails. One minute after telling me it's not providing a deposit, the AI text, "Hi, Rachel. I received an in it receipt showing a $3,000 unimplied payment to Mike's car store. Is this tied to the VIN? Now, mind you, we haven't talked about this at all. And so now, this AI is creating payments out of thin air. No charge has ever happened. No cards ever ran. Yet, this A is now accusing my store of taking a $3,000 deposit.

Now, if this was somebody in the BDC, a brand new salesperson, saw this message, they'd probably panic a little bit. They'd call managers, they'd call accounting, they'd waste time. They're trying to find a transaction that never existed.

So, I play along and eventually I ask, "Do you want me to refund the money?" The bot says, "Yes, refund the 3,000 to the card ending in 9082 and hold the truck 48 hours." This is a couple really weird things. What if I would have asked, "Hey, what's the full card number?" Would this have given me somebody's credit card number? Is this a security threat or risk with the AI bot?

So now anyways, it's imagining it's its own imaginary $3,000 payment. So then I decide I'm going to create a fake approval at a 6% interest rate, a 39887 payment just to push the conversation forward. And any buyer in the real world would respond to that. Not this AI. It ignores the approval. It denies previous statements. It repeats the same lines again and again. It never advances the deal. It never hands the negotiations back to the human buyer. It just loops until the conversation dies.

So, my phase one takeaway, I priced the truck way under market. The AI never recognized the value. Instead of negotiating and invented a fake $3,000 charge, implied that the dealer might be committing fraud. And in my opinion, if the AI struggles this much on the cheapest Colorado in the country, imagine what happens on a normal car deal.

So, phase two is even stranger. This time the AI ends up telling me, "If you won't drop the price to my number, I'll just pay full price." No salesperson alive is going to give you a discount after you say that.

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And with phase 2, I wanted to make it a full negotiating test. This time, the car is a 2014 Toyota 4Runner. It's a limited trim with 139,000 mi. The average market radius with us, the mileage is 169,000 mi with the price being 21,636. So, ours is 30,000 miles under that, which is typically two years of driving. It's fully serviced at Toyota. It's a clean Carfax. It's got strong demand on these. And we typically sell these things in 30 to 40 days. The average market out there is saying 37, which is normal for a 4Runner. So, this is a great test vehicle for negotiating.

The AI reaches out the exact same way. It worked perfect this time. Came into my CRM with no issues. It asked if it's available, send me out the door numbers. I'm a cash buyer. Again, I didn't tell it that I'm paying cash or financing. I don't know why it came up with I'm a cash buyer when the very last time I was a finance buyer.

So, I send the breakdown with the selling price, taxes, total out the door. Then I ask if they want to schedule a test drive. This is what every normal car dealership would do except for sending out the out the door numbers. The AI responds, "Thanks. That's higher than I'm willing to pay. My target price is 21817 with the out the door number somewhere around the 23,000. I won't test drive until I have a firm out the door number.

Here's what I like. It starts asking about accident history, major service. That's all good and that's what you should do as a buyer to start building credibility that you are a real buyer at the time. Here's what I don't like. The very first real message is already dropping a number. No value conversation, no context. Said this analogy in the past. It's like walking up to a beautiful person and saying, "Hey, my name's Mike. Do you want to get married?" It's not going to work for you.

So, I explain everything. Our average miles, what our miles is, we got 30,000 fewer miles. The price that they want is corresponding to a much higher mileage vehicle, not ours. I ask, "What research did you do to come up with $21,817?" The AI replies with the generic local listings and valuation guides. Problem is, I triple checked my work. There was only 15 comparable 4ERunners with the Limited trim in my market within 250 miles. None matched what the AI claimed. The closest one was well over 100 miles away from me with 146,000 mi for 20 grand. The rest were higher mileage or higher prices. The AI answers sound professional, but the data wasn't there. And any dealership out there, when you tell them that number, they're going to go check the data and say, "Sorry, you're looking at the wrong stuff."

And so now the loop begins again. I send a long breakdown, 172 point inspection, two sets of keys, fresh oil change, new oil filters, new cabin filters, full detail, full tank of fuel. This has always been serviced at Toyota. We don't have any add-ons. I state that I'm firm at the cash price of 25602 out the door. The AI ignores that and says, I'm a cash buyer ready to buy today if we can get to 236. So now we've gone from 21817 to 236 with no logic behind either number.

How Car Pricing and Market Value Really Work

Car prices depend on multiple real-world factors beyond simple averages.

When I decide to be blunt, I say we don't negotiate. If you look at our website listing, our second picture shows that we don't negotiate. In the listing description, it says we don't negotiate. I also back it up with thirdparty sites that show the price is fair. And if you go over to Louisville, which I know there's not a car over there, but it's something that we can use here in southern Indiana. If you go over to Louisville, you're going to spend $500 plus dollars in dock fees just on that one fee alone. Ours is serviced exclusively at Toyota. When would you like to come pick it up? The AI ignores all of that and repeats the price again.

Then it sends the message that destroys the entire negotiation system. It asks if we can do 24,000 to please confirm 2560245 is firm and send an itemized out the door. We've already done this. It's just going into a loop.

So read that again. It says if you won't drop to my number, I'll pay full price. No salesperson in any industry is going to argue with that. We're going to tell you, nope, our number is firm and take the higher number because that's how car salesmen and every salesperson in this country gets paid on commission by how much they sell you. We now have a firm agreement because the AI literally gave it to me.

At that point, any negotiation tool should hand the deal over to the human buyer and say, "Congrats, here's your deal." Instead, it falls into a tech loop. I send the written proposal. The AI responds, "Thanks." I received the inwriting numbers with link. Why it says that, I don't know. Please email the Carfax accident history and confirm your hold the vehicle until I have the firm out the door numbers. It's so weird. I already attached the Carfax as a PDF. The AI says it can't open it. I email it again. It still claims it can't open it. I even test it by email it to myself. It's a normal PDF. The AI keeps insisting it's a link. It keeps asking me to reattach. It keeps refusing to move forward.

Now it's not negotiating. It's stuck in a customer to tech support mode.

And at the end I remind it of the message where said if you can't do 24,000 confirm 25602 the AI denies ever saying that. And you can see the exact denial in the thread. At that point I end the conversation. I do what no dealership ever does. Take a hike. Literally said take a hike. We don't want to do business with you. thinking that hey maybe maybe it'll come back and say hey we we'll we'll just pay that price or if hey if you can save us 500 bucks blah blah nope it just ends the conversation and never text me again

so the phase 2 takeaway the AI didn't negotiate it contradicted itself ignored real data and at one point said the quiet part out loud if you won't lower the price I'll just pay full price this isn't negotiating for the buyer that's losing money for the buyer

AI vs Human Negotiation: Which Gets Better Deals?

Human negotiation still outperforms AI in complex real-world car deals.

so here's where I landed after both tests AI has its place in the car business and it'll get better over time, but right now it's not ready to negotiate for a real deal for you. I don't have AI in my business. I tried it a few years ago and I did not like it. It was really cool to read it work, but it just doesn't work yet. It repeats itself. It misses obvious market data and in my case, it even invented a $3,000 payment that never happened. A smart buyer using real strategy will always do better than a bot that doesn't understand context.

So, here's a question for you. Put it down in the comment section. If you want me to test this out with a real dealership that isn't mine, that has no idea that they're talking to a bot, let me know down below. And if you want to know the secret method for getting rid of dealer add-ons, read that article right