Here is how to find out in ten minutes. Below are the 12 searches car buyers type into ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Gemini, the way to run them so you see what a buyer sees, and a 24-point score for what comes back. No signup. Run it yourself, today, from your phone.
Before You Start
Searching from your own signed-in browser at the store is the fastest way to fool yourself. The engines remember you and know where you are. Four rules keep the read honest:
Run the 12 on Google AI Mode, then again on ChatGPT, and score each engine separately. They read different sources, so they often name different stores. Gemini makes a good third read if you have five more minutes.
The Worksheet
Swap in your make, your best-selling model, your town, and your county. Score searches 1 to 11: 2 if your store is named first, 1 if it is named anywhere, 0 if it is missing. Write down who got named first. That name matters as much as your score. Score each engine on its own sheet.
Buying
Trust
Money
Service & Reputation
Search 12 is the only one with your name in it. It shows what the engine tells a buyer who already has you on the shortlist. Score it differently: 2 if the facts are right and the summary is positive, 1 if it's mixed, 0 if facts are wrong or it leads with complaints.
Your Score
20 to 24
AI is sending buyers to you. Your job now is defense. Re-run the 12 every month, because answers move.
12 to 19
You get mentioned, but somebody else gets named first. The searches where you scored 1 are the place to start.
0 to 11
When a buyer asks AI, a competitor gets the recommendation. Check your list of who was named first. It is often the same one or two stores, which tells you exactly who you are up against.
If Your Score Is Low
Your primary category is one of the biggest levers on Google's side. Check what the store named first in your market uses, then fill in every service you actually offer. Don't list services you don't provide. Google can suspend a profile for it.
Every one, at a steady pace, from your store's own number. Do not filter who gets asked based on how happy they seem: Google treats that as review gating and it violates their policy. When two stores look alike to the engine, reviews often break the tie.
ChatGPT's local answers lean on Bing's web index. Claim Bing Places, and make your name, address, phone, and hours match on every listing. Consistent data gives the engines less reason to doubt you.
If a buyer asks about trade-ins near your town and you have a page that answers it in the first two lines, the engine has something to quote. Twelve questions means twelve pages minimum, and the store we work with runs well over a hundred.
Same searches, same rules, same scoring. It's the only way to know whether the work is landing.
The longer version, with why each one matters: how to get your dealership recommended by ChatGPT.
What Good Looks Like
A Chevrolet-Buick dealer we work with started out effectively absent from AI answers in its market. After a 119-page answer center, consistent store data across the web, and deal and inventory pages titled the way buyers ask, here is where it stands on the 15 buyer questions we track for it:
#1
named store in its local rival set
12 of 15
buyer questions where AI names it
~75%
share of the AI answers in its market
~1.05
average position: usually named first
The full story, client unnamed by request: how a Chevrolet-Buick dealer became the #1 AI recommendation.
Common Questions
Open a private browser window, then ask ChatGPT the questions your buyers ask, with your town in each one: best [make] dealer near [town], where to buy a used truck near [town], [model] lease deals near [town], and so on. Do not type your store name. Note whether your store is named first, named, or missing, and who was named instead. The 12 searches above cover the buying, trade-in, financing, service, and reputation questions that decide most dealer visits.
Signed-in accounts carry history and location, and the engines tailor answers to both. If you search from your own logged-in browser at the store, you may see your store named when a buyer twenty minutes away does not. A private window with the town written into the question gets you much closer to what a real buyer sees.
Run the 12 on Google AI Mode and ChatGPT first. Google's AI answers lean on your Google Business Profile and reviews, and ChatGPT's local answers lean on Bing's web index, so the two often disagree about the same store. Gemini is a good third read. A store can win one engine and be missing from the next.
In order: get your Google Business Profile primary category and services right, ask every customer for a review without filtering who gets asked, make your store data identical on Bing Places and every listing, publish a plain answer-first page for each of the 12 questions, and re-run the same searches every month. Most stores can start the first three this week. The pages and the monthly measurement are where most stores stall.
Send us your store name and town. We'll run the searches from a clean browser in your market and send back what the engines say, who they name instead of you, and the one fix that moves your score most. No call needed.
tyler@bowenaistrategygroup.com | (412) 841-5392 | Based in Canonsburg, PA, south of Pittsburgh, working with dealers nationwide