# Car Dealership AI Receptionist & BDC Backup Source: https://insertchat.com/industries/car-dealerships > Book test drives and service, capture after-hours leads, and route deal talk to sales. An AI receptionist for car dealerships answers sales, service, and parts calls, website chats, and texts when your BDC and advisors are busy or gone for the night. InsertChat’s assistant answers from your inventory pages, service menu, and hours, books test drives and service appointments, collects trade-in details, and routes pricing, financing, and deal questions to your sales team. ## Turn a Sunday-night inventory chat into a Monday test drive Example workflow: Website chat. Illustrative scenario. Answers depend on your sources; actions depend on your connected tools and permissions. This is not a customer testimonial or measured result. A shopper chats on your website at 9:40 p.m. on Sunday, with the showroom closed. > Is the silver 2023 RAV4 Hybrid on your site still there? I’d like to drive it Monday after work, and I have a 2016 Civic to trade. ## Answer from your listing Share the trim, mileage, and features from the inventory page you added, and explain that a salesperson confirms the car is still available before the visit. ## Capture the trade Ask the Civic’s trim, mileage, and condition, whether there’s a loan on it, and whether the shopper plans to finance. ## Book the test drive Offer Monday evening times, book one, and send a reminder. Sales gets a high-intent lead alert with the full chat. ## Your team sets the boundaries Prices, payments, trade values, credit questions, and anything that sounds like a negotiation go to your sales team. The assistant doesn’t quote a monthly payment or hold a car. ## What it handles for car dealerships Handled by your assistant: - Questions about vehicles listed on the inventory pages you add - Test drives and showroom visits booked into open times - Service appointments for oil changes, rotations, and other menu services - Sales, service, and parts hours, directions, and loaner or shuttle policies - Trade-in details collected before an appraisal appointment Sent straight to your team: - Price, payment, and trade-in value questions - Credit applications and financing decisions - A customer stranded or a vehicle unsafe to drive - Complaints about a purchase, a repair, or a recall - Title, registration, and paperwork problems after a sale ## What it asks and what it needs to know Details it collects: - Name, mobile number, and email - Vehicle of interest, with the stock number or VIN if they have it - New, used, or certified pre-owned - Trade-in year, make, model, mileage, and payoff - Cash, financing, or leasing, and their timeframe to buy - For service: year, make, model, mileage, and what it needs - Preferred day and time for the visit What to add to its knowledge: - Your inventory pages, added as a website source you keep refreshed - Sales, service, and parts hours for each department - Service menu with the prices you publish - Loaner, shuttle, and early drop-off policies - What to bring to a test drive or a purchase appointment - Brands you sell and service, and your recall instructions ## Can an AI receptionist tell shoppers if a car is still available? It tells them what your inventory pages say and lets your sales team confirm. Add your listing pages as a website source and refresh it as your lot changes; website sources can also refresh automatically on a schedule that depends on your plan. A car sold this afternoon can still show up tonight, so the assistant gives the listing details, says a salesperson confirms availability, and books the visit. It doesn’t connect to your DMS or hold vehicles. ## Will it quote prices, payments, or trade-in values? It shares the advertised price on your listing and nothing more. Monthly payments, rates, trade values, and out-the-door numbers depend on credit and an appraisal, so the assistant collects the shopper’s trade details and financing plans and routes the conversation to sales with a high-intent lead alert. Your desk stays in charge of every number. ## Can it book service department appointments too? Yes. Give service its own calendar or booking page, and the assistant books oil changes, rotations, and other menu services into open times, collects the year, make, model, and mileage, and sends a reminder 72 and 24 hours before. Recall questions get the instructions you write, and “Is my car done?” calls go to the advisor. ## How much does an AI receptionist for a car dealership cost? Pro is $98 a month with one number, three seats, and three AI assistants, enough to run sales, service, and parts as separate assistants at one store. Larger stores and dealer groups can choose Growth at $198 a month, with 5 seats and 20 assistants. Calls use monthly credits in whole minutes, and each added number is $10 a month. ## Does it work with our dealer CRM? InsertChat doesn’t connect to dealer CRMs or DMS platforms. Every lead lands in the shared inbox with the transcript and contact, where your BDC can copy it into your CRM. If your store uses HubSpot, Zoho, or Microsoft Dynamics 365, the assistant can create leads and contacts there as actions you approve, with no background sync. ## Can it answer the phone only when the BDC is busy? Yes. Your line rings your team first for a delay you choose, from 5 to 60 seconds, and the assistant picks up when nobody does. Calls that roll to a staff voicemail come back to the assistant too. Or switch it to after-hours mode so it covers evenings, Sundays, and holidays only. ## Can shoppers reach us on website chat and text? Yes. The chat widget installs on your dealer website with an embed code, as long as your website provider lets you add custom code, and shoppers can text your InsertChat number. Chats, texts, calls, and email land in one inbox, each attached to the shopper’s contact. ## Can it handle Spanish-speaking customers? Yes. The assistant answers in the language the customer speaks or writes, from the same inventory and service information. Add which salespeople and advisors speak other languages, and the assistant can note the preference so the right person follows up. ## Related features - [Website chat](https://insertchat.com/product/website) - [Lead capture](https://insertchat.com/product/lead-capture) - [Scheduling](https://insertchat.com/product/scheduling) ## Broader industry - [Automotive](https://insertchat.com/industries/automotive): Book service, catch sales leads, and triage breakdowns while your bays stay busy.