Well, we launched GoAskSam on Friday, and I have to say, it's been a pretty exciting few days.

First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who's jumped in, tried it out, sent feedback and started putting Sam to work. It's one thing spending months building something and quite another seeing people actually using it.

And one of the things I've enjoyed most is seeing what people are searching for.

We've had everything from a 1968 Porsche 912 Targa and a 1971 Plymouth 'Cuda convertible to Ferrari F12s, Mercedes AMG wagons and someone looking for a Porsche Boxster under $40,000.

But what's been particularly fun is seeing people discover they don't have to search the traditional way.

They can get really specific.

"Find me a blue Porsche 911 with a manual gearbox near me." (a zipcode box will appear)

"Show me Mercedes AMG wagons under $60,000."

"Find me a red Ferrari from the 90s with fewer than 40,000 miles."

"Find me a Porsche Boxster from 2008 to 2017 under $40,000."

You can mix colors, mileage, model years, transmissions, budgets, locations and whatever else matters to you. Just ask the way you'd ask another person.

And you don't even have to type it. People can pick up their phones, hit the microphone and speak their searches out loud. So far 28% of searches have been using the microphone and I can only see that growing.

No endless dropdown menus, no trying to remember which auction site has which filters, and no opening ten different tabs.

And here's what that same search looks like when you open the results on a desktop.

That's what I originally wanted GoAskSam to do, and it's been wonderful seeing people start to use it this way.

People are also taking those longer, more specific searches and saving them as Tasks.

Because finding a particular car is one thing. Finding it at the right time is another.

Let's say you're after a black Mercedes E63 AMG wagon with fewer than 30,000 miles, within 200 miles of your area.

You could spend the next six months checking auction sites every morning, hoping one appears.

Or you could tell Sam once, save it as a Task, and get on with your life. Where else can you do this?

Sam keeps looking even after you've closed the website, and when something matching your request appears, you'll hear about it.

The same goes for that manual Porsche in a particular color, the low-mileage BMW you've always wanted, or whatever slightly unusual combination you've got in your head.

I think this is going to be one of the most useful parts of GoAskSam. It's not just about making searching easier. It's about not having to keep searching at all.

Another thing we've been seeing is people heading straight to Market Check.

Some are checking cars they already own. Others are looking at cars they're considering buying, or simply trying to understand what a particular model has been selling for.

And this has been particularly encouraging because it's one of the main reasons we built GoAskSam in the first place.

Rather than being handed a mysterious valuation, you're looking at actual completed auction sales, with the prices and original listings there for you to examine.

People have been looking at everything from Porsche GT3 RSs and BMW M5s to Audi RS6s, Corvettes and older Mercedes.

Sometimes the numbers will confirm what you thought you knew. Other times they might be a surprise.

But either way, you've got actual sales to work with rather than somebody's opinion dressed up as a number.

And if we don't have enough reliable evidence, we'd much rather tell you that than invent something to fill the gap.

One thing we've added since launch is a Changelog, so you can now see what we're fixing, improving and adding as it happens.

I wanted everyone to be able to follow what we're doing rather than wonder what's happening behind the scenes. We're making changes constantly, and your feedback is already helping us decide what comes next.

A special thank you to Rick Carey, who's spent decades researching collector car auctions and has very kindly shared some of his extensive knowledge and data classifications with us. (more on that to come.)

It's incredibly helpful to have people with that sort of experience contributing ideas as we continue building. You can find Rick's collector car auction research at rickcarey.com.

And Rick certainly isn't the only one. We've had some wonderful suggestions from readers since launch, including a few things we hadn't even thought of ourselves.

Which brings me to a question for all of you.

We've got plenty on our own list, but I'd really like to know what would make GoAskSam even more useful for you.

I'm delighted with the early response, and even more encouraged by the different ways people are using the site.

Of course, we're still in beta. There are things we're fixing, searches that sometimes take longer than we'd like, and occasions when Sam might misunderstand what you're asking.

But that's exactly why we wanted to open this up to The Daily Vroom community first. You know your cars, you're not shy about telling me when something isn't right, and that feedback is genuinely valuable.

If you spot a problem, have a suggestion, or just want to tell me what you think, please email [email protected].

And if you haven't tried it yet, here's my suggestion.

Don't just type in the name of a car.

Get specific.

Think of the car you've always wanted. The color, the mileage, the gearbox, the budget. Then pull out your phone, hit the microphone and tell Sam exactly what you're looking for.

And if nothing suitable is available today, turn it into a Task and let Sam keep looking.

You might be surprised by how quickly you get used to searching this way. I certainly have.

Give GoAskSam a try. It's completely free.

And thank you again to everyone who's helped get us this far.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about FinalLap, the latest arrival in the increasingly crowded world of online car auctions. Well, this Thursday, November 5, at 1 PM Eastern, we finally get to see whether all that planning, technology and marketing translates into people actually buying cars.

And I have to say, I'm genuinely looking forward to it.

The guys behind FinalLap have approached this very much like tech entrepreneurs launching a new product. Plenty of slick Instagram reels, carefully produced videos, text messages building anticipation and a steady drip of information designed to get people excited before the first car has even crossed the virtual auction block.

They've certainly put some effort into getting everyone's attention. Now comes the rather more difficult bit. Getting people to bid.

What makes FinalLap different is that they're trying to bring some of the excitement of a live auction into the online world. Rather than having cars sitting there for seven days while bids trickle in, everything happens on Thursday afternoon, one car at a time, with everyone watching the same auction.

Each car gets a two-minute countdown. If someone bids in the final 20 seconds, the clock extends, up to six times. And if two or more bidders are still fighting when those extensions run out, there's something called Best & Final, where bidders get 30 seconds to submit one sealed bid. Highest number wins.

There's even a little twist if nobody bids during the first 30 seconds. The price starts dropping in increments until someone decides to jump in.

It's certainly a different way of doing things, and you can see what they're hoping to achieve. Instead of somebody sitting at their desk, occasionally refreshing an auction page, they want people gathered around their screens, watching the action unfold and perhaps getting drawn into bidding on a car they hadn't originally intended to buy.

Essentially, they're trying to turn an online auction into entertainment.

And why not? Anyone who's attended a live auction knows that half the fun is watching what happens, even when you've absolutely no intention of buying anything.

The first lineup has some interesting machinery too, including a 2010 Porsche 911 GT3, a rather bright orange 2007 911 Turbo, a 2006 BMW M3 convertible, a 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V, a Mercedes-AMG G63 and a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale.

One thing I did notice is that last week FinalLap was displaying starting prices alongside the cars. Those have since disappeared from the listings I've been looking at.

I'm curious about that decision. Presumably there's been some thinking behind it, but it does raise an interesting question about how much pricing information buyers should have before the live event.

And that's just one of the things I'm keen to watch on Thursday.

Will people actually turn up at the same time? Will the two-minute countdown create the excitement they're hoping for? Will buyers embrace the Best & Final format? And, most importantly, will the cars sell for numbers that make sellers want to come back?

Because as entertaining as an auction might be, sellers ultimately care about one thing: the result.

I also wonder how the whole thing will feel when there's a quiet car, one that perhaps doesn't attract much attention. It's easy to make an auction look exciting in a promotional video. Quite another to keep people watching when the bidding isn't happening.

But that's what makes Thursday so interesting.

Like every new auction platform, FinalLap is a work in progress, and I'm sure the team will learn a huge amount from its first event. They've clearly invested considerable thought and effort into doing something different, and I'd much rather see people experimenting with new formats than simply copying what's already out there.

I genuinely wish them all the best. I'll certainly be watching on Thursday, and I suspect quite a few of you will be too, even if it's just to see how the whole thing works in real life.

The marketing has done its job. They've got my attention.

Now let's see what happens when the clock starts.