AI estimates

CarSignal can draft the whole estimate for you: a repair description, suggested labor hours, and suggested parts with fair prices and notes. Everything lands in editable fields; nothing is sent until you say so.

Where the draft comes from

• For a complaint, the draft is grounded in the AI diagnosis: the confirmed repair runs through the same engine as every other estimate — real supplier parts through PartsTech and book labor times — so accepting a diagnosis produces sourced, orderable lines, not guessed prices. Without a PartsTech connection, the diagnosis's own estimated ranges seed the lines instead.
• For maintenance, the draft comes from the service itself and the vehicle's specs (fluid capacities, filter fitment). A combined request ("oil change and front brakes") drafts as separate jobs, each with its own named MOTOR operation and exact book time. Automatic drafts, Quick Estimate, and the issue-page labor picker use the same MOTOR search and ranking, so the same vehicle and repair do not produce different top operations on different screens.
• Pads and rotors stay one overlapping brake job. The engine checks both MOTOR operations, uses the matching rotor R&R operation as the basis, and does not double-charge their shared teardown. Catalog pad and rotor sets also stay at quantity 1 instead of being mistaken for one loose part.
• Front and rear brake jobs keep their axle through the supplier search. A rear job cannot select a part the catalog marks front-only, and a compound estimate cannot reuse one pad or rotor SKU across both axles unless the catalog explicitly says it fits both.

Parts that still need a price

Sometimes CarSignal identifies the exact right part but no supplier lists a live price for it. Those land as part requests on the job — the exact part to source, with a note — instead of $0 lines. A quote won't send while a drafted job has unpriced required parts: price each request (or remove it) and the quote goes through.

Conditional suggestions

Parts the estimate suggests but doesn't include in the price (a cabin filter spotted during an oil change, a fluid flush "if it's dark") never land as billable lines — they're listed on the issue as "Also suggested, not billed," and you add any of them as real lines only if the job needs them.

Part alternates

Suggested parts include options at different price points, so you can flip between an economy and a premium part without re-searching. Prices are sanity-checked against real-world ranges.

If a draft fails

Sometimes a draft can't complete — a supplier hiccup, or no labor guide match for an unusual job. The issue says so right on the page instead of leaving you waiting, and a Retry draft button runs it again. If CarSignal genuinely has no match for the job, it tells you that too, and you build the estimate by hand like any other.

You stay in control

The draft is a starting point. When the quality review finds a correction grounded in vehicle data already on the estimate — such as a required catalog part or a known package quantity — CarSignal applies it and checks the finished estimate again. It leaves a warning only when the answer still needs supplier or advisor confirmation. MOTOR book hours remain in the labor line's source details; AI review does not silently rewrite MOTOR's time. Adjust quoted hours, change the operation, add another labor operation, swap parts, or delete lines like any hand-built estimate. The preview always shows the final customer view before sending.