Read Matador AI reviews as a starting point for reference calls, not as a verdict: few dated public reviews could be read and archived when we checked on 29 Oct 2026, so ask Matador for references from stores on your and of your size, and put the questions below to them. Matador says it sells five purpose-built AI agents for car dealerships, working across text, voice, chat, email and Instagram. Lokam is a post-visit follow-up program for dealerships: your store calls service customers the day after the closes, and showroom visitors your team marks unsold in your , using Lokam's AI assistant ``. They overlap in places, and some stores will want both.
What is Matador AI?
Matador's home page says its agents share one memory and one playbook across text, voice, chat, email and Instagram. For a , the pitch is a single system behind every channel a customer might use to reach the store.
On the phones, Matador says four voice agents run your phones: a receptionist, voicemail, sales and service `. It describes Sales Call AI as a virtual BDC for inbound sales calls, Service Call AI as handling inbound service calls, and Voicemail AI as capturing missed and after-hours calls . Matador also says its Voicemail AI steps in when your team's outbound dials go unanswered and leaves a voicemail for the customer `.
On the service side, Matador says its Service AI finds the slot, reserves the loaner, pre-builds the and confirms by text. For reminders, Matador says it reads 6 to 12 months of service history from the and works from it on day one.
Matador says it connects to 62 dealer systems, including your , your DMS, your inventory feed and the marketplaces that send you leads. If you run VinSolutions, Elead or Tekion, check your exact system and version against Matador's integrations page and ask which direction data flows.
Takeaway
Write down which of these jobs your store needs covered, and you'll know which agents to ask about in the demo.
What the public reviews show (and don't)
Few dated public Matador reviews could be read and archived when we checked on 29 Oct 2026. The one full review cited here is on G2, was written by a product marketing manager at an enterprise company, and is dated December 2021.
- Overall. The reviewer was positive: "Overall great software, I would recommend it to any auto dealership".
- Praise. The reviewer wrote that Matador's "user interface is pretty straightforward".
- Complaint. The same reviewer wrote that with new Matador features arriving often, "training our team to use them can be a bit overwhelming, especially with larger organizations". The reviewer also wished for more third-party integrations, adding "nonetheless, it does have integrations with major channels such as Facebook leads".
A review from 2021 describes a product that has changed since: Matador now says it sells AI agents across text, voice, chat, email and Instagram, and says it connects to 62 dealer systems. A single review, however positive, can't tell you how the product runs in your store today.
How to read any review you find:
- Check the date. A review written before the current agents existed tells you about a different product.
- Check the reviewer's job and store. A manager at a large group and a service manager at a single-point store need different things.
- Check the review site's labels. Some sites mark reviews as invited or incentivized by the vendor; read those next to other sources.
- Ask for references, then call them yourself. Ask the vendor for stores on your and of your size, ask how new features are rolled out to your BDC, and ask each reference what they would change.
Takeaway
Ask any vendor on your list for references on your DMS and call them this week, to hear how the product runs in a store like yours today.
Is Matador co-op eligible?
If co-op decides your budget, here is what Matador's own pages say.
- Stellantis: Matador says eligible Stellantis dealers can receive 100% co-op reimbursement for five Matador solutions, and its press release adds that co-op reimbursement is subject to dealer fund availability. Read both parts before you plan around it.
- The wider list: Matador lists programs for Stellantis, Nissan, Honda, Acura and BMW for eligible dealerships; its partner-programs page shows BMW as coming soon.
- By brand: Matador's partner-programs page shows the programs differ: Nissan lead follow-up through the Nissan Shift Digital program, and website chat for Honda and Acura.
Eligibility depends on your 's current program rules. Ask your OEM field contact or co-op administrator which products qualify, at what rate, and what paperwork the claim needs.
Takeaway
Email your co-op administrator the product names before you budget, so you know the rate for your store before the contract arrives.
Questions to ask any AI BDC vendor before you sign
The questions below are the ones that matter after the contract is signed: what the system says on your behalf, what it does when a customer pushes back, and who at your store hears about it afterward.
How to read it: each row is a question for any vendor, why it matters and what a good answer sounds like. The competitor's cells come from its own pages, listed under Sources, and the Lokam column gives Lokam's own answers.
| Question | Why it matters | What a good answer sounds like | Matador (from its pages) | Lokam |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Which calls does the AI handle: inbound, outbound, or both? `` | Inbound and outbound raise different consent questions. | Each call type, who starts it, and its hours. | Matador says its voice agents handle inbound sales and service calls, with Voicemail AI on missed and after-hours calls, and that Voicemail AI leaves a voicemail when staff outbound dials go unanswered. | Outbound follow-up only: your store uses Lokam's AI assistant for two kinds of calls, service follow-up and follow-up with unsold showroom visitors. The first service call goes out the day after the closes, and your store chooses when the calls go out. |
Does the AI say it is an AI at the start of the call? ` ` | Disclosure rules for AI voice vary and change. Your counsel judges this. | The exact opening line, in writing, for your counsel. | Not covered in the Matador pages cited here; ask Matador for the opening line. | On each call your store makes, Lokam's AI assistant speaks for your dealership. It says it is a virtual assistant and the line is recorded, and the customer can tell it to stop. |
| What happens when a customer says "stop"? `` | A customer who says stop expects it to stick everywhere. Ask your counsel what the rules require across channels. | Where "stop" is recorded and how it reaches your . Your counsel decides if that is enough. | Matador says AI Follow-Up stops instantly and permanently on request. Ask how a stop on one channel reaches the others and your CRM. | A customer can ask Lokam's AI assistant to stop at any point in the call. Their number then goes on your store's do-not-call list in Lokam and isn't called again for your store. |
| When does a person take over, and who? | Treat a customer who asks for a person and gets none as a customer you may lose. | The trigger, the receiving role, and the after-hours plan. | Matador says its call agents transfer to a person on an escalation, a caller who asks for a person, a rule your store sets, or a question the AI can't answer. Ask what happens after hours. | When a customer on the call wants to talk to someone, Lokam's AI assistant passes the request to your team, who call back. |
| Who sees an unhappy customer, and what do they get? | A complaint is worth hearing while you can still fix it. | A named role, and what that person receives. | Matador's service page says: "A closed RO triggers the ask." In its example, "the manager is alerted while the car is still on the lift". Ask who receives it and what they get. | On the call, Lokam's AI assistant asks how the visit went and for a 0-10 score, and flags unhappy customers from what they say. After the call, the people on your store's escalation list get the customer, a short summary and the main issue. |
| Which systems does it connect to? | A tool that can't read your systems leaves your team re-keying data. | Your exact systems and versions, confirmed in writing for your store. | Matador says it connects to 62 dealer systems, including CRM and , and that Service AI pre-builds the RO. Ask which of your systems and versions it covers. | Lokam reads closed repair orders from your DMS, usually through a data integration provider. Tell us your DMS and we'll confirm. Lokam reads unsold-visit records from VinSolutions. |
| Which co-op programs cover it, and on what conditions? | Co-op changes your cost only on the program's terms. | Program, eligible products, rate, conditions, OEM contact. | Matador says programs differ by brand: Stellantis co-op, subject to dealer fund availability; Nissan lead follow-up through Shift Digital; Honda and Acura website chat; BMW coming soon. | Not covered on this page. |
| Who holds the consent to contact each customer? `` | If nobody can show where consent came from, ask your counsel who carries the risk. | Where consent is captured and who keeps the record, for your counsel, including for any AI voicemail left on an outbound dial. | Not covered in the Matador pages cited here; ask Matador. | Your store makes the calls, using Lokam's AI assistant. Consent to contact your customers is your dealership's. Lokam doesn't collect or decide it. |
| Is there a trial or pilot, and on what terms? | A trial teaches you something only if you set the measure first. | Length, cost, what data you keep, what happens after. | A third-party page from eDealer Solutions advertises a free 30-day offer through Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki. | Ask in the demo. |
| What does the store have to do at setup? | Setup work lands on your people. | A task list with owners and dates. | Matador says it reads 6 to 12 months of DMS service history and works from it on day one. | Lokam's team sets up the data connection and the calling numbers. Your store approves data access, chooses who receives escalations, and names one person to own the follow-up. |
What it tells you: the questions that decide fit are about what happens after the call, and several need your counsel as well as the vendor.
Print the list and send it to each vendor before your next meeting with them, so the answers come back in writing. Where a vendor says "it depends," ask what it depends on.
Whatever you buy, a few practical habits hold: call within your store's calling hours, check your store's do-not-call list before dialing, text only customers who agreed to texts, and if you record calls, say so at the start. The disclosure, stop and consent questions go to your counsel along with the vendor's written answers. This page gives you the questions, and the legal opinion is your counsel's.
Takeaway
Your counsel gets every vendor's written answers in a single pack, ready to compare.
Where the jobs differ
Matador's agents are built around leads and appointments: answering calls and chats, booking service, following up on leads, and service reminders from history ``. Its service page also says: "A closed triggers the ask." So both run a step after the visit.
Lokam's job is the conversation after the visit. On the service side, it is post-service follow-up: your store calls customers using Lokam's AI assistant to ask how the visit went, with the first call the day after the RO closes. On the sales side, it is unsold showroom follow-up: your store calls the visitors your team marks unsold in your the next day, using Lokam's AI assistant, and asks why they left without a car. After each call, the people on your store's escalation list get any unhappy customer with a short summary, and promising sales leads go to your sales team. Managers also get the main reasons visitors didn't buy, across all calls.
Where they differ is what happens in that step: how much the customer is asked, whether unsold showroom visitors are covered, and who at the store gets the answer. Ask each vendor to show you a real example of each.
Takeaway
Ask each vendor for a recorded post-visit call and the alert a manager got after it, and you'll see who in your store would own the answer.
When to choose Matador
Choose Matador if you want one AI system across text, voice, chat, email and Instagram, with the agents sharing one memory and one playbook. If your store juggles separate tools for chat, texting and phones, that consolidation is the point.
Choose Matador if your phones are the gap: if calls ring out during the Saturday rush, or service calls after close go to a voicemail nobody checks until Monday, Matador says its four voice agents run your phones, with Voicemail AI on missed and after-hours calls ``.
Choose Matador if co-op matters to your budget: Matador says eligible Stellantis dealers can receive 100% co-op reimbursement, subject to dealer fund availability, and it lists a Nissan program through Shift Digital. Confirm the terms with your before you count on it.
Choose Matador if service scheduling is the bottleneck: Matador says its Service AI finds the slot, reserves the loaner, pre-builds the and confirms by text. That is work taken off a busy advisor's plate.
Choose Matador if you want call records in your : Matador says call transcripts, summaries, outcomes and the lead or RO are written to your CRM. Ask which fields it writes for your system.
Takeaway
If calls ring out on Saturdays, ask Matador to run a missed-call and after-hours example through its voice agents in the demo.
When to add Lokam, or run both
Your is busy with live leads: new internet leads, inbound calls, appointments to confirm. Ask who in your store checks with Tuesday's service customer on how the visit went, and who asks Saturday's test-drive shopper why they walked.
If the honest answer in your store is nobody, because the people who could ask are working the leads in front of them, post-visit follow-up is a separate job from lead response, and it can sit alongside an AI BDC. If someone at your store already makes those calls every week, you may not need anything new.
Takeaway
Put that question to your BDC manager and service manager this week, and you'll know whether the job is covered before you pay for anything.
Where Lokam fits
Peace of mind: see each call and which issues are still open. Lokam is post-visit follow-up for US dealerships. Each open issue on your store's dashboard has an owner, notes and a status. If an issue stays open, the escalation list gets a reminder.
Other Matador alternatives
See how Lokam compares with Kenect, STELLA and Podium, or read the facts about Lokam.
FAQ
Does Matador make outbound calls?
Matador describes inbound voice agents, plus a Voicemail AI that leaves a voicemail when your team's outbound dials go unanswered ``; for anything beyond that, ask Matador.
Does Matador offer a free trial?
A third-party page from eDealer Solutions advertises a free 30-day offer, available through Dealer Talk with Jen Suzuki. The Matador pages archived for this page list no pricing; ask Matador for current terms.
How much does Matador cost?
The Matador pages archived for this page list no price; the calls to action ask you to book a demo, so ask Matador for a written quote.
Does Lokam replace a BDC?
No. Lokam is not a replacement for your people. Your store uses Lokam's AI assistant to call customers after the service visit and after an unsold showroom visit, and the two can be used separately or together. When a customer on the call wants to talk to someone, the assistant passes the request to your team, who call back.
Before you go
What you can do with this
- Call references on your before you trust a review.
- Get every vendor's answers in writing, in the same format, for your counsel.
- Name the person who asks customers how the visit went.
Where Lokam helps
- Cut churn at the source: fix the problems before customers leave.
- Learn the real reason each unsold visitor didn't buy.
- Free your team from the follow-up list: they call back the customers who need it.
Sources
- Matador home page, https://matador.ai/, retrieved 27 Oct 2026 (C-105: no price list on the 15 pages archived that day; recheck before publish)
- Matador Call AI, https://matador.ai/call-ai, retrieved 27 Oct 2026
- Matador Service, https://matador.ai/service, retrieved 27 Oct 2026
- Matador AI Follow-Up, https://matador.ai/ai-followup, retrieved 27 Oct 2026
- Matador Integrations, https://matador.ai/integrations, retrieved 27 Oct 2026
- eDealer Solutions, Try Matador, https://www.edealersolutions.com/try-matador, retrieved 27 Oct 2026
- Matador press release, Stellantis co-op eligibility, https://matador.ai/press/matador-stellantis-co-op-eligibility, retrieved 27 Oct 2026
- Matador , https://matador.ai/oem, retrieved 27 Oct 2026
- Matador OEM partner programs, https://matador.ai/oem-partner-programs, retrieved 27 Oct 2026
- G2, Matador review, https://www.g2.com/products/matador/reviews/matador-review-5210421, retrieved 29 Oct 2026