Car Wars
Car Wars is a Dallas-based vertical SaaS provider of AI-powered call tracking and phone performance software for more than 13,000 U.S. automotive dealerships, offering call analytics, an AI receptionist (Cari), CRISP phone training, and deep CRM/DMS integrations.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1988
- HeadquartersDallas, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Car Wars does
Car Wars (legal entity: Call Box, Inc.) is a Dallas-based, privately held vertical SaaS company founded in 1988 that provides an AI-powered phone performance platform purpose-built for automotive dealerships. Its core products — Car Wars for Sales, Car Wars for Service, and the Cari Phone Assist AI receptionist/scheduler — combine call tracking, conversational transcription, voice recognition, caller sentiment detection, missed opportunity alerts, and performance coaching, all trained on a proprietary dataset of more than 290 million reviewed automotive phone calls.
The platform is sold on a recurring subscription basis to automotive sales departments, service departments, and dealer principals across the United States, with a consultative direct sales motion supported by dedicated customer success consultants and a free demo/ROI calculator entry point. Add-on modules include CRISP Phone Training (a certification and LLM-powered coaching program), a Cloud Phone System resold through GoTo Connect, and integrations with more than 25 dealer CRMs, DMS platforms, and service scheduling tools (CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds, Tekion, VinSolutions, DealerSocket, myKaarma, UpdatePromise, Dealer-FX, Xtime, and others). Reported customer outcomes include 25% higher call connection rates, 20% more appointments set, 51% call containment with Cari versus a 45% industry benchmark, and an average 8x ROI for clients.
The company is founder-influenced and appears to be founder-owned, with leadership comprising CEO Stephane Ferri, CTO Matt Andrus, and CRO Cassie Broemmer. No external funding rounds, private equity ownership, or parent company are disclosed in the source material. The business combines subscription recurring revenue (core platform, Cari, Cloud Phone) with professional services revenue (CRISP training).
Car Wars firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Car Wars
- Legal name
- Call Box
- Website
- https://carwars.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1988
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Car Wars is a Dallas-based vertical SaaS provider of AI-powered call tracking and phone performance software for more than 13,000 U.S. automotive dealerships, offering call analytics, an AI receptionist (Cari), CRISP phone training, and deep CRM/DMS integrations.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Car Wars industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Automotive Dealer Call Tracking & Phone Performance Software
- NAICS
- Telephone Call Centers (56142)
- SIC
- Services-Telephone Interconnect Systems (7385)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Contact Center Speech AI (agent assist, IVR automation) (HDAAAFAL)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- AI & Automation in Customer Service (Chatbots, Agent Assist) (EDABACAO)
Keywords
Where Car Wars is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Dallas
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Car Wars business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Call Tracking & Analytics Platform: Core subscription-based platform providing automotive dealerships with call tracking, AI-powered analytics, missed opportunity alerts, CRM integrations, and performance reporting. Revenue is generated through recurring subscription fees for the Car Wars for Sales and Car Wars for Service products.
- Cari Phone Assist: AI receptionist and service scheduler available as an add-on or standalone product. Operates 24/7/365 handling service appointments, call routing, and customer interactions without volume limits. Generates additional recurring revenue per dealership.
- CRISP Phone Training: Virtual training and certification program for sales and service professionals. Includes new agent training, continuous performance feedback, updated content, performance reporting, and LLM-powered call coaching. Professional services training revenue.
- Cloud Phone System: Cloud-based phone system via GoTo Connect partnership offering white-glove installation, call recording, text integration, and advanced routing. Generates additional subscription revenue.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels10 records
Car Wars product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Car Wars sells a subscription-based AI phone performance platform for automotive dealerships that combines call tracking, AI-powered analytics, voice recognition, conversational transcriptions, missed opportunity alerts, and CRM/DMS integrations across more than 25 platforms. Its flagship AI product Cari Phone Assist operates as a 24/7 AI receptionist and service scheduler that handles inbound calls, performs warm transfers, and books service appointments, while CRISP Phone Training provides ongoing coaching and certification for dealership staff.
Product overview
Car Wars is a comprehensive AI-powered phone performance platform built specifically for automotive dealerships, combining human expertise with artificial intelligence to help dealers own the phone and own the market. The platform consists of a unified architecture with two primary product lines—Car Wars for Sales and Car Wars for Service—alongside the AI-powered Cari Phone Assist (which includes Cari Receptionist for call routing and Cari Scheduler for service appointment booking), plus add-on modules including CRISP Phone Training (virtual training and LLM-powered call coaching), the Cloud Phone System (via GoTo Connect partnership), and CRM Integrations (connecting to 25+ dealer management and CRM platforms). Key capabilities include call tracking and analytics, AI-driven caller sentiment detection, voice recognition for automated CRM assignment, conversational transcriptions, missed opportunity alerts, performance reporting, texting, and marketing attribution through Dynamic Number Insertion. The platform is backed by 20+ years of automotive phone data and 290 million+ reviewed calls, and delivers an 8x ROI with dealers reporting 25% higher call connection rates and 20% more appointments set.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Car Wars for Sales Call tracking and phone performance solution for automotive dealership sales departments that combines human and AI intelligence to handle phone ups, maximize sales opportunities, track calls, and measure phone performance with in-depth reporting and real-time alerts.
- Car Wars for Service
Quantifiable outcome
- 25% higher call connection rates with Car Wars
- +11 more outcomes
Companies that use Car Wars
Customer profileNamed customers18 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Car Wars technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration29 records
AI capability8 records
Feature14 records
Car Wars partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.
- UpdatePromisecoreDirect integration between Car Wars' Cari Scheduler AI service scheduling tool and UpdatePromise's service scheduling and communication platform for franchise dealerships. Provides real-time synchronization eliminating middleware layers, ensuring appointment accuracy for booking, changes, and cancellations. Particularly significant for dealerships operating under OEM scheduling requirements.
- myKaarmacoreDirect integration between Car Wars' Cari Scheduler AI service scheduling tool and myKaarma's end-to-end service lane technology platform. Enables real-time booking, modification, and cancellation of service appointments without additional integration layers, reducing manual errors and eliminating potential points of failure. Designed to improve appointment accuracy, keep service bays full, and enhance customer experience.
- CDK Global (Fortellis Marketplace)coreCari Service Scheduler integration available through CDK Fortellis Marketplace, enabling CDK dealer customers to access AI-powered service scheduling directly within their existing CDK ecosystem.
- GoTo Connect (Cloud Phone System)corePartnership with GoTo Connect to provide cloud-based phone system for automotive dealerships. Includes white-glove installation, call recording, text integration, advanced routing, and CRM connectivity.
- TekionmajorIntegration providing dealerships with automatic tracking of inbound and outbound calls logged in Tekion customer records. Includes click-to-call functionality and AI-powered call summaries for manager performance evaluation.
- Reynolds & Reynolds (FOCUS CRM)majorIntegration with Reynolds and Reynolds FOCUS CRM for automatic phone call tracking and recording matched to customer records. Includes click-to-call and AI-powered recaps and categorizations.
- DealerSocketmajorComprehensive integration ensuring 100% of phone-ups are logged while keeping non-sales calls out of CRM. Auto-generates leads for unlogged calls and enables manager delegation from Phone Bucket.
- eLeadmajorPartnership to handle 100% of phone-ups within eLead. Automatically shares sales calls into eLead with Call Track visibility. Click-to-call and call recording from customer records.
- CDK DrivemajorIntegration presenting agents with customer information, CRM links, and conversation history during calls. DMS data dip provides caller name, Service Advisor, and service appointment/RO status live on call.
- VinSolutionsmajorIntegration bringing comprehensive phone-up management with automatic call sharing into VinSolutions, manager-accessible recordings, written recaps, and 'Open in Vin' button for direct CRM access.
- SalesforcemajorIntegration logging all inbound calls including those that don't convert on first call. Creates new leads in Salesforce from tracked calls. Click-to-call tracking and recording for outbound follow-up.
- DealerPeakmajorIntegration ensuring 100% of phone-ups are logged with customer call data shared directly into DealerPeak records. Managers can find unlogged calls in Integrated Call Log to salvage leads.
- XtimemajorIntegration providing total insight into all service drive calls with click-to-call from Xtime and call recordings available in Car Wars. 'Open in Xtime' button on service calls for direct customer record access.
- Dealer-FXcorePartnership to deliver real-time, OEM-aligned service scheduling through Cari AI Scheduler integrated with Dealer-FX platform.
- Google Ads & Google AnalyticsmajorSeamless integration tying session data to individual phone calls through DNI. Provides call tracking, phone-ups, firm appointments, text conversion, and referral source attribution in Google Analytics and campaign performance in Google Ads.
- Open APImajorOpen API allowing users to pull call data within last 45 days including result data for all inbound/outbound calls, tracking numbers, ring-to destinations, and call counts.
Scale indicators20 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Car Wars competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Marchex: Marchex is a conversational analytics and call intelligence company serving automotive and other verticals. It competes with Car Wars in AI-driven call transcription, outcome classification, and conversation analytics for sales and service phone performance.
- Invoca: Invoca provides AI-powered call analytics and conversation intelligence for enterprise marketers and contact centers. Like Car Wars, it offers call tracking, transcription, sentiment analysis, and outcome attribution, serving as a direct competitor in AI-driven call intelligence, though Invoca is more horizontal.
- Podium: Podium is a customer communication and messaging platform with deep automotive dealership penetration. It competes with Car Wars on customer texting, lead response, and review management for the same dealer buyer, though it is more messaging-focused and less specialized in voice/AI.
- CallRail: CallRail is a leading call tracking and analytics platform serving SMBs across multiple verticals including automotive. It directly overlaps with Car Wars' core call tracking, attribution, and AI transcription capabilities, making it the closest horizontal competitor despite Car Wars' deeper automotive specialization.
- CallTrackingMetrics: CallTrackingMetrics provides call tracking, routing, and analytics for businesses including dealerships. It overlaps with Car Wars on dynamic number insertion, call attribution, and CRM integration, making it a direct SMB-tier competitor.
- UpdatePromise: UpdatePromise is a service scheduling and communication platform purpose-built for franchise auto dealerships. It is a direct integration partner with Car Wars and a comparable competitor for OEM-aligned service scheduling and customer communication workflows.
- Dealer-FX (Solera): Dealer-FX (now part of Solera) provides OEM-aligned service lane technology for franchise dealerships, including digital service scheduling. It is a direct integration partner with Car Wars and a comparable competitor for AI-powered service scheduling.
- myKaarma: myKaarma is an end-to-end service lane technology platform for franchise auto dealerships with AI-driven scheduling, communication, and payment tools. It is a direct integration partner with Car Wars and a comparable competitor for service-department AI scheduling.
Broad incumbents
- Aircall: Aircall is a cloud-based phone system and call center platform with broad vertical coverage. It competes with Car Wars' Cloud Phone System offering (delivered via GoTo Connect partnership) and increasingly adds AI call analytics, though it lacks Car Wars' automotive specialization.
- Talkdesk: Talkdesk is a cloud contact center platform with AI agent assist and conversational intelligence capabilities. While not automotive-focused, it increasingly targets industry-specific use cases and overlaps with Cari's AI receptionist and agent-assist functionality at a horizontal level.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Car Wars social profiles
Digital presenceCar Wars financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Car Wars leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Car Wars funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Car Wars M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A1 record
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Car Wars
What does Car Wars do?
Car Wars sells a subscription-based AI phone performance platform for automotive dealerships that combines call tracking, AI-powered analytics, voice recognition, conversational transcriptions, missed opportunity alerts, and CRM/DMS integrations across more than 25 platforms. Its flagship AI product Cari Phone Assist operates as a 24/7 AI receptionist and service scheduler that handles inbound calls, performs warm transfers, and books service appointments, while CRISP Phone Training provides ongoing coaching and certification for dealership staff.
Is Car Wars a public or private company?
Car Wars is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Car Wars founded?
Car Wars was founded in 1988. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Car Wars based?
Car Wars is headquartered in Dallas, United States, in the North America region.
How does Car Wars make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Call Tracking & Analytics Platform is the primary driver. The others are cari Phone Assist, CRISP Phone Training and cloud Phone System.
Who are Car Wars's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Marchex, Invoca, Podium, CallRail, CallTrackingMetrics, UpdatePromise, Dealer-FX (Solera) and myKaarma. Broad incumbents are Aircall and Talkdesk.
Does Car Wars have an API?
Yes. Car Wars/Call Box has an open API that allows users to pull call data (within the last 45 days) in the accounts they have access to. Users can retrieve result data for all inbound and outbound calls, Car Wars/Call Box tracking numbers and ring-to destinations, call counts, and more. Developer documentation is at www.carwars.com/platform_a/help.cfm.
What industry is Car Wars in?
Car Wars's product category is Automotive Dealer Call Tracking & Phone Performance Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAAFAL, Contact Center Speech AI (agent assist, IVR automation), with a secondary code of EDABACAO, AI & Automation in Customer Service (Chatbots, Agent Assist). Its NAICS code is 56142 and its SIC code is 7385.