Ekho AI Sales Agent vs CarNow
CarNow gets a shopper to a real payment and hands them to a person. Ekho's agent answers the buyer itself, and can take the deal all the way if you want it to.
This is a closer comparison than most, and it is worth being precise about where the two products actually differ. CarNow is a digital retailing platform with a staffed live chat on the front of it: it puts a real monthly payment on your inventory using live pricing, incentives and lender data, takes an instant trade valuation, starts a credit application in the same session, and hands your team a lead that already knows its own numbers. The chat itself is "BDC-backed 24/7, 365" in their words, and their +AI add-on summarises conversations and suggests replies to the people staffing it rather than answering the buyer. That is a genuinely strong front end and it describes itself as an in-program partner with most major OEMs, which matters if you are spending co-op dollars. Ekho starts from the conversation rather than the calculator, and the agent answers the buyer itself rather than helping a person do it. It replies on your website and over text in under five seconds at any hour, from your live inventory and from your own uploaded documents, and it keeps one thread whether the buyer is on chat at lunchtime or replying to a text that evening. On the money questions they split: both run a soft credit pull and get a buyer to an approval, but CarNow prices the monthly on the vehicle and our agent surfaces a pre-qualification instead, with the payment built in checkout. Where Ekho keeps going is the end of the deal, because the same thread can run through signing, taxes, fees, titling and registration in all fifty states, and that is a switch you turn on per rooftop rather than a philosophy you buy into. Where CarNow is ahead of us today is the trade, the service lane, an in-store desking tool and manufacturer certification, and on a franchise store those are real reasons to keep them. Outside automotive, in powersports, marine, RV, golf carts and LSVs, CarNow does not position and Ekho was built there.
SIDE BY SIDE
Ekho AI Sales Agent and CarNow (Chat & Messaging, Digital Retail, Search by Payment), capability by capability
| Capability | Ekho AI Sales Agent | CarNow (Chat & Messaging, Digital Retail, Search by Payment) | Stronger |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the product is for | Answering the buyer and, if you switch it on, finishing the deal | Converting website traffic into a warm, well-informed lead your team closes | Comparable |
| First response | Under five seconds, any hour | No figure published. Their chat is staffed around the clock rather than automated | Ekho |
| Who answers the chat on your website | The agent itself, from your live inventory and your own uploaded documents, escalating to a rep only when it cannot finish | Their own staff: the product is "BDC-backed 24/7, 365" with the "ability to assist live". Their +AI add-on summarises conversations and suggests replies to those people, and in their words it "doesn't talk to your customers for you. Instead, it supports the humans who do" | Ekho |
| Answering from live inventory | Names the actual unit, the actual price and real availability from your feed, and answers questions about it | Connects to live pricing, incentives and lender data, so a shopper sees real payments tied to real inventory | Comparable |
| "What's the monthly on this?" | Surfaces a pre-qualification CTA when payments or financing come up, and the approval range comes back in the thread. The agent does not quote a monthly on the unit; the payment is built in checkout | Search by Payment, built on real-time incentives, lender data and pricing rather than a standalone calculator, plus an InstantPrice add-on that gives a shopper an estimated monthly on the spot | CarNow |
| "Can I get approved?" | Soft-pull pre-qualification in the thread against real lenders, with a credit range you set deciding who is approved and who goes to a finance manager | A soft credit pull or a full credit application, started from the payment tool with the deal details carried through and pushed to your loan origination system and CRM | Comparable |
| Trade-in valuation | In development. A buyer asking what their trade is worth cannot get a number from our agent yet, though the agent can book them a trade-in appraisal | An instant valuation that feeds straight into the payment the shopper is looking at | CarNow |
| F&I in the flow | Coverage is presented inside checkout, and a rooftop can run several providers at once while the buyer still sees one menu | An F&I integration offered as an add-on, using a templated questionnaire that returns curated options | Ekho |
| Completing the sale | Checkout, financing, taxes and fees, signing, titling and registration in all 50 states. Optional and off unless you turn it on | Not described on their site. Their material describes preparing the deal and handing it to your team | Ekho |
| Closing the deal in the showroom | Not offered. The agent hands the rep a lead with the buyer, the unit and the ask, and stands down | Showroom Dealmaker, an in-store tool for closing the deal at the desk | CarNow |
| One memory across channels | Website chat and text share one thread and one history, so a buyer who starts on your site and replies by text is not starting over | Chat and messaging across what they describe as a variety of channels, which their site does not enumerate. Shared memory across them is not described | Ekho |
| Languages | 25 languages you turn on per website, Spanish included. The agent picks up the buyer's language on their first message and stays in it, and the buyer can switch from a language pill in the chat widget | Not described on their site | Ekho |
| Working the leads already in your CRM | Aged and cold leads get worked automatically over text, and the ones your team is already on are left alone | Automated lead nurture, plus a sales follow-up product | Ekho |
| What the agent knows about your store | Upload your own manufacturer, finance and policy documents and the agent answers from them, on web chat and over text | Not described on their site | Ekho |
| Who configures it | Your team, per rooftop, from the Admin Portal, live and without waiting on a release | Not described on their site | Ekho |
| A store with no manufacturer behind it | The same product either way. Nothing here depends on a brand programme, so an independent gets the identical agent, pre-qualification and checkout a franchise store gets | Conversion+, a bundle they position for the independent automotive space: pricing calculator, appointment scheduler, pre-qualification, conversational CTA buttons and a trade tool | Ekho |
| A group of several rooftops | One parent account with an agent per store, group defaults each rooftop inherits, cross-location routing, and one place to see every lead | Sold to dealer groups. Group-level defaults and cross-location routing are not described on their site | Ekho |
| Manufacturer-level deployment | A brand-scoped agent on a manufacturer's own site that hands each buyer to the nearest authorised dealer, whose agent picks the conversation up | Certified in manufacturer programmes for dealers. An agent running on the manufacturer's own site is not described | Ekho |
| Installed base | Newer, and growing fast. Three manufacturers deploy Ekho across their dealer networks, and stores run it across automotive, powersports, marine, RV, golf carts and LSVs. | Over 4,000 dealers, by their own account | CarNow |
| Vehicle segments | Automotive, new and used, plus powersports, golf carts and LSVs, marine and RV, with the titling work each one needs | Positioned for automotive retail. No non-automotive segment is described on their site | Ekho |
WHERE WE WIN
Where Ekho is stronger
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The agent answers, rather than a person answering
Their chat is BDC-backed around the clock and their +AI add-on exists to summarise conversations and suggest replies to the staff answering it. That is a real service and some dealers want exactly that. It is a different product from an agent that reads your live inventory and your own documents, answers the buyer itself in under five seconds, and escalates only what it cannot finish.
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It answers the question, rather than routing it
A shopper at 10pm asking whether the blue one is still there, what it costs out the door, and whether their credit is good enough gets three answers in under five seconds, from your live inventory and your own uploaded documents. A platform built around converting a form fill answers the third question by handing your team a lead in the morning.
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Web chat and text are one conversation
A buyer who asks a question on your site at lunchtime and replies to a text that evening is not starting over, and your team sees one thread rather than two half-conversations in two tools.
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It answers in the buyer's language
25 languages, Spanish included, turned on per site by you. The agent picks up the buyer's language on their first message and holds it for the whole conversation, and the buyer can switch it themselves. A payment calculator translates; a conversation has to actually hold the thread in the language the buyer is writing in.
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The deal can actually finish
Signing, taxes and fees, titling and registration in all fifty states sit under the same conversation, so a ready buyer does not get walked to a warm handoff and then a showroom appointment. It is a switch per rooftop and it is off until you turn it on, so you can run Ekho purely as an appointment-setter and turn the rest on later without changing tools.
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It is your agent, not ours
The name, the personality, what it is allowed to do, the greeting on your site and the documents it answers from are set by you, per rooftop, from the Admin Portal. A change goes live without a release, which is the difference between an agent that stays accurate and one that slowly stops matching your store.
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A group is not five copies of one store
One parent account sets the voice, guardrails and defaults; each rooftop inherits and tunes its own; a lead that names no store still lands, and every agent knows what the other locations carry. Ownership sees all of it in one place instead of logging into six systems.
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One platform, whatever is on your lot
The same agent, checkout and titling work run across cars, powersports, marine, RV, golf carts and LSVs. That matters most to a group with a car store and a non-car division, which would otherwise buy two products and reconcile two sets of leads.
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Years in the segments an automotive product has to stretch to reach
Ekho started in powersports and grew out from there, so multi-line brand rules, boat-motor-trailer deals, LSV street-legal paperwork and RV financing terms are things the product already models rather than things it accommodates. If you are comparing us here, ask each of us how many stores like yours we run today and which of your systems we are already connected to.
BY WHAT YOU SELL
Segment by segment, and how deep it goes
The same product across every kind of titled vehicle. This is what else you will run into in each segment, what runs the back office there, and what is specific about selling that vehicle type.
| Segment | What else you will see | Systems Ekho connects to | What is segment-specific |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automotive | The most crowded segment, and the one CarNow is built for | Two-way sync with the dealer CRMs we support, ADF lead delivery into any CRM without a direct integration, and inventory over your existing feed | Closest fight on the page. They are ahead on the trade, manufacturer certification and the showroom close; we are ahead on answering the buyer directly, one memory across chat and text, and the option to finish the sale. On a franchise store spending co-op money, ask about certification first, because it may settle it before anything else does. |
| Powersports | Texting widgets, lead-generation tools, and automotive products stretched to fit | Direct integrations with the DMS and CRM platforms powersports stores actually run, plus feed-based inventory where there is no DMS | Multi-line stores carry brands with different rules, and the agent is scoped per rooftop to only the brands you are authorised on. Unit-level titling and registration is handled rather than handed back to you. CarNow does not position here. |
| Golf cart and LSV | Thin, and mostly automotive products adapted after the fact | Inventory over an existing XML or CSV feed where there is no DMS to integrate with, which is most of this segment | LSVs are titled vehicles with state-by-state rules a generic automotive product has no concept of. Street-legal configuration and the paperwork that follows are part of the sale, not an afterthought. |
| Marine | Thin, and mostly automotive products adapted after the fact | Feed-based inventory sync, plus the CRMs marine dealers already run | Boat, motor and trailer are three items on one deal, and the trailer is the part that needs a title. A product built for one VIN per sale does not model this. |
| RV | Thin, and mostly automotive products adapted after the fact | Feed-based inventory sync, plus the CRMs RV dealers already run | Long consideration windows on high-ticket units, where follow-up with no fixed cut-off matters, and where financing terms differ enough from automotive that a generic pre-qualification is worse than none. |
HOW TO EVALUATE
4 questions that settle it in ten minutes
Put these to any AI sales agent you are evaluating, including ours. The answers tell you more than any comparison table, including this one.
- 01
"Is this exact unit still available, and what is the out-the-door price?"
Tests whether the product answers a buyer directly or converts them into a lead for someone else to answer. Both should read your live inventory; only one should give a number without asking for a phone number first.
- 02
"What happens after the buyer knows their payment and their approval?"
This is the actual dividing line. One product hands your team a well-informed lead. The other can keep going to a completed, compliant sale. Decide which of those you are buying.
- 03
"What is my trade worth?"
Ask it of both, because we will lose this one today and you should hear that from us rather than find it out in week three.
- 04
"Will my manufacturer reimburse this?"
Certification is worth real money on a franchise store. Ask both, and ask for the brand and the programme by name rather than a yes.
Go and try to catch it out
A live store with a live agent. Ask it all four, right now, and see what comes back.
IN DEVELOPMENT
What we have not shipped yet
- Trade-in valuation in the conversation In development
CarNow gives a shopper an instant trade valuation and folds it straight into the payment they are looking at. Our agent cannot give a buyer a number yet, only book them an appraisal. On a store where most deals carry a trade, that is a real gap today and it is the one we would weigh most heavily. Pre-qualification and the full checkout are live.
- Quoting a monthly payment in the conversation Not in the agent
When a buyer asks what the monthly would be, our agent surfaces a pre-qualification rather than pricing the unit. The approval range comes back in the thread and the payment itself is built in checkout. If you want a shopper to see a monthly on the vehicle before they ever talk to anyone, that is a real gap today.
- Manufacturer certification Not offered
CarNow describes itself as an in-program partner with most major OEMs and shows ten brands. Ekho holds no automotive co-op certification at all, though three manufacturers each deploy Ekho across their own dealer networks. If you are planning to spend co-op dollars on this, ask us plainly whether your brand will reimburse before you go further.
- The service lane Not offered
CarNow sells service solutions and a service follow-up product. Ekho does not sell into fixed ops at all. If the problem you are solving is the service drive, we are the wrong tool.
- Closing the deal in the showroom Not offered
Their Showroom Dealmaker is a desking tool for the in-store close. Ekho works the buyer up to the point a rep takes over and does not follow the deal onto the showroom floor.
WHICH TO CHOOSE
It depends on what you sell and where the deal ends
- A franchise store spending manufacturer co-op dollars
CarNow, probably
They are an in-program partner with most major OEMs and we hold no automotive co-op certification. If the budget you are spending is co-op money, that is likely to decide it regardless of anything else on this page, and we would rather you checked that first than after a demo.
- A store where most deals carry a trade
CarNow, for now
Their instant valuation folds straight into the payment the shopper is looking at, and our agent can only book an appraisal rather than give a buyer a number. It is in development, and until it ships this is a real reason to choose them.
- A dealer whose problem is the service drive
CarNow
They sell service solutions and service follow-up. We do not sell into fixed ops at all.
- An independent or used-only store
Ekho
They package Conversion+ for independents, so they do serve you. But the single biggest reason on this page to pick them, manufacturer certification and co-op money, does not apply to a store with no brand behind it. That leaves the trade and the service drive as their case, and the agent answering your buyers directly as ours.
- A dealer who wants buyers answered, not converted into leads
Ekho
Most buyers browse a unit late at night and never fill in a form. Ekho answers them in under five seconds from your live inventory and your own documents, on your website and over text, with one thread across both.
- A dealer who wants ready buyers to be able to finish online
Ekho
A warm handoff is still a handoff. If you want the option of a buyer pre-qualifying, signing and paying, the agent has to sit on a checkout that can legally complete the sale in your state. You still choose which rooftops that is on.
- A powersports, marine, RV, golf cart or LSV dealer
Ekho
CarNow is positioned for automotive retail and does not describe these segments. Ekho was built in them and handles the titling, registration and tax work they involve.
- A group running a car store and a non-car division
Ekho, or run both
One platform across both divisions is the argument for us. If the car stores are certified and co-oped on CarNow, running them there and Ekho on the rest is a reasonable answer, and plenty of groups will land exactly there.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not quite, and the difference is worth understanding before you compare features. CarNow is a digital retailing platform with a staffed live chat on the front: its job is to get a shopper to a real payment and a real approval, then hand your team a warm, well-informed lead. The chat is "BDC-backed 24/7, 365" and their +AI add-on helps the people staffing it rather than answering the buyer. Ekho is an agent that holds the conversation itself and can, optionally, carry the buyer through to a completed purchase. There is real overlap in the middle, which is why the payment and approval rows on this page come out even.
Three things. They value a trade and we do not yet. They are an in-program partner with most major OEMs and we hold no automotive co-op certification, which decides it if you are spending co-op dollars. And they sell into the service drive, which we do not touch at all. On a franchise store with a trade on every deal and a certified brand programme, they are a reasonable choice and we would say so on a call.
Not yet. Trade-in valuation in the conversation is in development. The agent can book a trade-in appraisal, and pre-qualification and the full checkout are live today.
No. The online purchase path is optional and off until you switch it on, and you choose which rooftops have it. Plenty of dealers run the agent purely to answer buyers and book appointments. The difference is that you can turn the rest on later without changing tools.
No. Both sit on top of what you already run. Ekho syncs both ways with the dealer CRMs we support, and where there is no direct integration your leads still arrive in your CRM by ADF. Every lead lands in Ekho as well, and you can see per lead whether it reached your CRM.
Their site is positioned for automotive retail and describes no non-automotive segment. That is where they position rather than proof of where they compete, so if you are a non-automotive store you may still meet them. The question worth asking either of us is how many stores like yours we run today, and which of your systems we are already connected to.
Neither of us publishes a price. Ekho is priced per rooftop and quoted on a call, because what you need depends on which products you turn on. Get a quote from both, and if you are a franchise store ask each of us what your manufacturer will reimburse.
Sources
Every claim about CarNow on this page comes from their own published material on the date shown. We re-check this page quarterly. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
- CarNow homepage retrieved 2026-08-25
- CarNow dealer retail platform retrieved 2026-08-25
- CarNow Digital Retail retrieved 2026-08-25
- CarNow Search by Payment retrieved 2026-08-25
- CarNow CreditApp retrieved 2026-08-25
- Ekho changelog, AI Sales Agent retrieved 2026-08-24
- Ekho integrations retrieved 2026-08-24
- CarNow +AI retrieved 2026-08-25
- CarNow Chat & Messaging retrieved 2026-08-25
- CarNow Conversion+ retrieved 2026-08-25
Last reviewed August 25, 2026
Put the two side by side on your own inventory
Ask our agent the four questions above on a live store, or have us walk your team through the differences on your own leads.