Recent Press - Mark Hollmer

Auto industry consulting firm Pied Piper found a way in 2025 to use AI on a grand scale. Its new Dealership Facility Consistency Study leveraged AI to analyze more than 540,000 satellite and street-view images of 18,662 U.S. auto dealerships. CEO Fran O’Hagan said the study took about a month to finish, a fraction of the time typically required for a study of its size. Read More >

Chevrolet dealerships maintain the most consistent look in the U.S. compared with their rivals, according to Pied Piper’s new Dealership Facility Consistency Study. The dealership consulting firm’s Look-Alike Index measured the variation of features and quality picked up by its AI computer vision model. It relied on satellite and street-view images of more than 18,000 dealership stores across the country to formulate its rankings. Manufacturers ... Read More >

Dealerships that use email, text messages and phone calls in tandem to address online customer inquiries improve their web lead response times, industry consulting firm Pied Piper said in a new report. Pied Piper CEO Fran O’Hagan said pursuing the options together helps reach customers more effectively. “Otherwise, customers just don’t see or listen to the dealer’s response,” O’Hagan told Automotive News. That’s one of the central conclusions ... Read More >

Dealerships are continuing to improve how they respond to internet sales leads, though about 20 percent of customer inquiries still receive no personal response, a new study from industry consultant Pied Piper found. The firm’s 2025 Internet Lead Effectiveness Auto Industry Study found the average internet lead effectiveness score was 65 out of a possible 100, three points higher than a year ago and the highest average since the company began ... Read More >