UCDP #82 – Mobile Service, Recalls & Retention: The New Fixed Ops Growth Engine w/ Amit Chandarana of Curbee

In this transcribed episode of the Used Car Dealer Podcast, Zach talks with Amit Chandarana, CEO of Curbee, about how mobile service is evolving from a “nice-to-have” convenience into a real fixed ops growth engine—helping dealers protect retention, expand capacity, and compete against the explosion of independent repair options. 

Amit shares how his background across Toyota, Edmunds, and Roadster shaped his view on dealer operations, technology adoption, and change management. He explains why fixed ops is now moving “from the back to the front” of the dealership, and why dealers who treat service retention as a strategic priority are positioned to win long-term. 

The conversation covers the real-world obstacles dealers face when launching mobile service, how to think about ROI compared to adding bays, and why “system fatigue” makes workflow integration non-negotiable. Amit also breaks down Curbee’s platform momentum—including the Mars release—and what innovations in scheduling, diagnostics, and data-driven service experiences could shape fixed ops over the next few years. 

Whether you’re trying to stop service defection, unlock new capacity without major construction, or modernize your service experience for today’s convenience-driven customer, Amit’s perspective offers practical takeaways on launching mobile service profitably, driving retention, and building a fixed ops strategy that scales. 

Zach: Well, I'm thrilled to welcome someone I actually met early in my career. It's Amit Chandarana, who's the CEO of Curbee, the number one mobile service technology platform that's helping dealerships turn service and maintenance into a strategic growth engine. With over 20 years in automotive leadership roles at Toyota, Edmunds, Roadster, and now leading Curbee's expansion, Amit brings a unique blend of dealer-centric experience and tech innovation that's reshaping how service departments engage customers effortlessly. So thanks so much for joining me right before NADA on the podcast. 

Amit: Yeah, no worries, Zach. It's great to see you again. Yeah, we go back. I still remember the first time we met on the floor of NADA when I worked at Edmunds and you were using our API to go build this thing called Selly Automotive, which ended up becoming a pretty wonderful addition to the automotive ecosystem. So congrats to you on that. And yeah, great to see you again. 

Zach: Yeah, and I was really impressed when I met you. I was 23 years old, so that's like one year basically out of college, and was talking with Edmunds, and it's amazing. Those early APIs were super helpful and just great to also see your career develop as well. So to kind of transition to that, tell us about your career path and the early days in auto and kind of what's led you to Curbee. 

Amit: Yeah, for sure. It's kind of full circle like a lot of stories. I'll keep it brief, but I genuinely believe I got lucky that I was able to work for Toyota, TMS as it was called back in the day, now it's TMA. But being able to be accepted into the management trainee program at Toyota, it offered a really unique view of how the OEM interacts and engages and supports the dealers. I remember a lesson first time I was there. I remember a manager telling me, I was naive and I was at headquarters and I said, oh, well, we're the headquarters and they're the dealerships. So we could just tell them what to do. And this manager goes, slow down, cowboy. Let me explain to you. Headquarters is a pain in the ass to all the dealers. The field folks are the ones that have street credit and have favor with the dealers because they're out there fighting a fight with them every single day. So it was just a quick learning. And then again, Toyota just does things the right way. And a lot of manufacturers have really, I think, advanced the way that they think long view, better product quality, blue sky and the valuations of dealers and really bringing a field force that can be accretive to the dealership's growth. 

So I got lucky. I spent, everybody starts in the call center talking to customers at Toyota and then everybody starts on the fixed ops side. And then you graduate over to the other things I did, like being a district manager and then leading some scion markets and then building digital and e-commerce teams. So sometimes the things that seem like they are not so great in the moment end up becoming really cool. Like having to build out these first digital e-commerce teams at Toyota gave me the ability to, or the opportunity, I should say, to learn more about the digital aspect of our business. And then when I met you, when I was over at Edmunds, having the opportunity to leave OEMs and go work for Edmunds and really be fully focused on publishing and the digital ecosystem in the automotive environment and how it connects to the dealers allowed me to take that risk and the opportunity with Roadster, which I think is one of the most romantic stories in the industry. Really a single point, had no business being a digital retailing platform because there were so many out there, but we were able to penetrate, deliver on a good product. And I think we supported a lot of change management. So personally, I had this opportunity to bring all of those learnings back to fixed operations. And sometimes it's better to have good timing than to be good. And I think the industry is really doubling and tripling down on fixed operations right now. And so hopefully Curbee, especially with our new launch of Mars 2, has the opportunity to bring that type of vibe to the industry. 

Zach: Yeah. And it's really interesting, your experience at Roadster, because there were just a couple DR platforms that really made it big time and had the big exits. But I remember at one point I had a slide deck and a presentation I was doing. There were like 30 different startups. Some had raised venture funding, et cetera, kind of all going after that space. And just curious, going back to DR, any other kind of learnings from Roadster or that time in DR that have bled into Curbee? 

Amit: Yeah, a lot of that playbook is utilized here. I think making sure that you stay very focused on the problem that you're solving. We were very focused on the problem we were solving. I can recite it still, right? Car dealer websites is where you saw information, but you couldn't conduct commerce. You could only see info, but you couldn't buy. And that was the real genesis of what we wanted to do there. I think some of the learnings from Roadster were staying focused on solving the problem, converting car dealership websites from where you see and submit to where you actually conduct commerce. The other thing that we did there is we leaned in really heavily on change management. So I think at our high point, there were six or seven salespeople at Roadster, and we had gotten nearly to 40 million of ARR. But that was because it was supported by 30 people on our dealer success team and launch operations. And that's a very similar playbook to now where we lean in hyper hard on change management at Curbee. Not only do we provide software, but it's the solutions and the support. 

So because we were a direct-to-consumer company who did this, there's a lot of bumps and bruises. We've made a ton of mistakes. So reverse engineering those things and presenting to the dealer saying, you don't have to make these mistakes has been able to advance the dealers and accelerate them more. And then last but not least, we say this all the time, we have a bunch of AI in our platform, but we use EI when it comes to dealer support. You know you just have to be talking to a dealership within a couple hours of whatever's broken, because we've all break things all the time, and then be able to give them an ETA. And we're in an industry where if you just do what you say you're going to do, you're going to be handsomely rewarded. 

Zach: And what do you see as the biggest shifts in dealership service culture over the last decade? 

Amit: Yeah, I think it's moving from the back to the front. You're seeing a lot of general managers coming up through fixed operations, which is wonderful, right? These fixed ops directors, these fixed ops managers, service managers, they're quantitative. They're very risk averse. They need to manage a massive operation that has incredibly high profit margins. So they're very thoughtful about their business. So we're seeing a lot of them who have those profiles come to manage the dealership, which is a really great thing. 

Zach: We can't always say that sales sells the first car, and service sells two, three, and four, and then not mean it, and not act on it. The other thing I think I'm saying is I'm loving all of the iteration. The rising tide lifts all boats, right? 

Amit: I love all the iteration. I love seeing all the technology, everything from video MPI, to pre-diagnostic, to mobile service platforms, to enhanced customer communications, to artificial intelligence and appointment booking. All these things are creating a better experience in the service and parts department so that it can keep feeding the funnel of vehicle sales also, which we can talk about. But that's a bit of a roller coaster. So coming home and impacting the absorption rate or the things that pays the bills, I love seeing all the iteration. I love seeing it come to the forefront versus being dirty in the back. So Curbee's core mission is empowering dealers to launch profitable mobile service. 

Zach: Can you break down what that looks like in practice? 

Amit: Yeah, for sure. I think mobile service is a tool in the toolbox. Let's talk about a couple things. We had this report that we put out a few months ago called the 16, and it was aptly named the 16 because of the ratio. Here's the ratio. There is now 301,000 independent repair facilities in the US. Compare that to the 18,300 new car franchise dealerships. That independent number has gone up by 30,000 in the last three years, and dealerships have truncated over the last 10, 12 years. And so when the customer leaves their home, there's 16 choices before they get to the dealership. 

So it's convenience. It's opportunity. It's ease of doing business. And that's why these service retention numbers have gone down. So one of the tools in the toolbox to combat that service retention drop, that customer expectation change, is mobile service. To be able to do it profitably, you have to have first conviction. If you have conviction to want to do it, you're going to likely do the homework. You're going to find the right partner to upfit a vehicle. You're going to lean into the right technology that's going to help you with scheduling, route optimization, technician status checks, and also some of the change management of best practices. These aren't the same technicians. You might need to hire different types of technicians. You might need to retrain technicians. You need to be prepared for more unknowns outside the four walls. But if you then start looking at this from an ROI standpoint, an average service bay at a dealership could cost $100,000 to $150,000, and that's six months of construction, planning, and permits if you have the muscle to go do that. A lot of our dealers are upfitting vans and vehicles for anywhere from $14,000 to $50,000. And Zach, within a week, they're out doing five to seven appointments per day. 

Zach: And what's the typical range on appointment gross profit? 

Amit: Yeah, so it depends on the type of service you're doing. We try to make it simple for dealers. We're trying to make them recapture or protect service retention, but make it profitable. So for the average dealership, the average repair order is around $550. So our target is to be able to get around that to the 550, right? But it can be as low as 250 and as high as 1,500, depending on how you price it. We do recommend a mobile service fee. It's not free, because you're sending a vehicle out with a technician and tools and parts. So on average, we see dealers charging between $75 and $150 for that fee. But the repairs themselves can be average. So think oil changes, tire rotations, air filters, cabin filters, wiper blades, battery replacements, things like that. Those are the things that mobile service is really good at. And so our dealers are typically targeting an RO between 350 and 600. And then the gross profit margin, again, depending on the type of work, but it can be as high as 60%. So it's a very profitable endeavor, and because it's incremental, it's not pulling from the service drive, it's actually adding to it. So it protects retention and it drives incremental gross. 

Zach: And I think one thing that you said that resonates, and we talk about it a lot on this podcast, is that service is really the retention engine. And I know it sounds basic, but it's something that dealers, I think, maybe have undervalued over the past decade. And now it's coming back to the forefront. So as we think about mobile service, what are the biggest obstacles to dealers adopting it? 

Amit: Yeah, I think the biggest obstacle is conviction, right? Do you believe you should do it? And if you believe you should do it, then the next obstacle is, okay, how do I do it? And then the third obstacle is, okay, how do I do it profitably and sustainably? And so we help them with all of those things. We don't let a dealership go live without us training everyone. We train the advisors, the dispatchers, the technicians, the managers. We help them set up their menu. We help them set up their pricing. We help them set up their service fee. We help them understand what work types to go after. We help them understand what customers to target. We help them understand how to dispatch and route and optimize. So the biggest obstacles are operational. It's new. And dealerships are already busy. They're already dealing with a lot of tech. They're dealing with a lot of systems fatigue. And so when someone comes in and says, here's another platform, they're like, okay, I don't have time for that. 

So I think change management is a big obstacle. And then also, frankly, the idea that mobile service is just oil changes, and it's not worth it. That's a misconception. Mobile service is a really compelling way to protect retention and loyalty. It can also be a profit center. And then it can also be a feeder. It can feed the service drive, because when you get out to the customer's home, you can find other work, you can upsell, and you can bring them back in for bigger repairs. So it can be a flywheel. 

Zach: And changing gears a little bit, as we look at the EV future and the software-defined vehicle future, how do you see mobile service playing into that? 

Amit: I think EVs are going to require more education and more trust. And the vehicle is going to continue to become more and more software-defined, which means diagnostics and service is going to change. I think mobile service is going to continue to be important, because convenience isn't going away. If anything, the customer expectation for convenience is increasing. So being able to do certain services at the home, at the office, at the fleet lot, whatever it is, is going to be critical. Now, EVs are different. There are certain repairs you can't do in the field. There are certain safety protocols. There are certain tools.  

There are certain training requirements. But a lot of EV maintenance is still maintenance. It's still tires. It's still wipers. It's still cabin filters. It's still alignments and suspension. There's still a lot of things that you can do. And then as we think about the software-defined nature, the ability to do over-the-air diagnostics, over-the-air updates, remote service, those are things that will continue to expand. So we think mobile service is a bridge. It's a bridge to the future, and it also protects the present. 

Zach: So we've heard some breaking news that Curbee just launched Mars. For listeners who haven't followed the evolution, what is it? What marks this release? What's it mean for dealers? 

Amit: Yeah, let's contextualize it. Mars is the name of our platform, which stands for mobile and remote service. Today is Mars two day, a little fun there. And it came with three or four really chunky things. The first is we now have a robust dispatch and route optimization engine. So being able to dispatch technicians, route them, optimize the day, understand where they are, understand their status, understand what they're doing, that is now embedded into the platform. The second is we now have a really robust menu and pricing engine. So being able to build menus for mobile service, price it appropriately, understand what work types you want to offer, and then be able to communicate that to the customer, that's a big deal. The third is we now have a robust technician experience. So the technician has an app. They can see their schedule. They can see their jobs. They can check in. They can check out. They can request parts. They can request approvals. They can communicate. That is now embedded. And then the fourth is we have integrations. We have more integrations now. So we have integrations with DMSs. We have integrations with scheduling tools. We have integrations with customer communication tools. So Mars two day is really the platform coming together. It's not just scheduling. It's not just a feature. It's a platform. And for dealers, what it means is you can launch mobile service faster, you can manage it better, and you can do it profitably. 

Zach: And how do you think about the dealership tech stack and system fatigue? 

Amit: It's real. It's very real. Dealerships have too many systems. They have too many logins. They have too many platforms. And they have too many vendors. And the problem is, every vendor thinks they're the most important. And every vendor thinks they should have the primary login. And so dealers are just overwhelmed. So our philosophy is, we need to integrate into the workflow. We need to be embedded. We need to be seamless. We need to be in the DMS. We need to be in the scheduler. We need to be in the advisor workflow. We need to be in the technician workflow. And we need to reduce clicks. We need to reduce logins. We need to reduce friction. And we also need to show ROI quickly. Because if you don't show ROI quickly, it's going to get churned. So system fatigue is a headwind, and integration is a tailwind. 

Zach: And what do you think are the biggest innovations coming in fixed ops over the next three to five years that will impact dealers? 

Amit: I think appointment booking is going to get better. I think AI-powered appointment booking and triage is going to get better. I think pre-diagnostics is going to get better. I think video MPI is going to continue to expand. I think mobile service is going to continue to expand. I think parts logistics and parts delivery is going to continue to expand. I think the technician experience is going to continue to evolve, especially with recruiting and retention. And then I think data is going to become more important. So being able to understand customer behavior, vehicle behavior, service behavior, and then be able to predict and be proactive, that's going to be a big deal. And then as we think about EVs, battery health and battery diagnostics is going to become a big deal. So those are some of the innovations. 

Zach: And for dealers listening, what's one thing you'd recommend they do today to improve service retention? 

Amit: I think they need to make it easy for the customer. They need to make it easy to book. They need to communicate well. They need to set expectations. They need to be transparent. And they need to offer convenience options. That could be pickup and delivery. That could be mobile service. That could be extended hours. That could be loaners. But the customer is voting with their feet. And the independent repair facilities are growing because they're convenient. They're easy. They're local. And so dealers need to respond to that. And the dealers that respond to that are going to win. 

Zach: And last but not least, we saw that you've updated your brand recently. Could you give us some insight into the innovation, the change, what brought that recent development? 

Amit: Yeah, yeah. Curbee's been around for over four years, nearly five years. And we actually had a really wonderful brand. There was nothing really wrong with it. But I think that's the time you change, is when there's nothing wrong with it and you know you can get better. And some of the story or the sensitivity to the brand, we were a direct-to-consumer company for the first three and a half, four years of our company. It was time for us to close the door, lock the deadbolt and seal that up. And one of the ways to signify that transition is this new brand look and feel. I think you and I had said it off camera earlier. We went to a lowercase letter. We represented a thing in there called the Curbee Curve, which has the ocean, the sand and the sun, because it's a new day. We've hit some milestones financially and dealer count. And we're really proud of those. And now we're thinking through the next milestones over the next two to three years. So taking this rebrand signifies and sort of puts a bow on all of the things that we've done and the things that we're going to do over the next several years. Super exciting. 

Zach: I'm pumped about it. I'm pumped about probably seeing you at NADA as well. And for dealers or anyone listening who wants to get in contact with Curbee, what's the best way to do so? 

Amit: Yeah, go stress test our new website. So go to curbee.com or just send an email to hello@curbee.com. And there's a bunch of us that are always monitoring that and responsive. 

Zach: Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us on the podcast. 

Amit: Thanks for having me, Zach.