Finance and InsuranceWarranty Group changes hands to another private equity firm 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 26, 2014 The Warranty Group, a provider of extended-service contracts, is moving from one private-equity owner to another. TPG of Fort Worth, Texas, has agreed to acquire The Warranty Group from Onex Corp of Toronto. TPG and Onex said the deal was worth about $1.5 billion and is expected to close in the third quarter.... Read More »
Chrysler Capital on track to hit first-year volume target 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 26, 2014  Chrysler Capital, the private-label preferred finance company for Chrysler Group, is on track to hit a first-year volume target May 1 that will enable it to renew its 10-year agreement with Chrysler.... Read More »
How a Texas Honda store honed a hybrid sales/F&I system 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 26, 2014  After four years of using a hybrid process for sales and F&I, First Texas Honda in Austin, Texas, has learned what works and what doesn’t. With the process, highly trained salespeople, dubbed Elite by the dealership, take customers through the entire sales and F&I process while less experienced sales employees hand off customers to an F&I manager.... Read More »
CEO: Chase's top job is 'serve the dealers' 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 26, 2014  Thasunda Duckett can light up a room, even one filled with buttoned-down bankers and auto lenders.... Read More »
The many schools of thought on F&I school 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 26, 2014  Completing the College of Automotive Management's online F&I program in 2011 changed Derek Spady's life.... Read More »
LETTER TO THE EDITOR An F&I pro's worth his weight in gold 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 24, 2014 You can't be overpaying an F&I manager if the percentage that you pay out is in line with industry averages.... Read More »
JIM HENRY House committee presses CFPB for answers 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 19, 2014  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ignored a congressional deadline to specify how it determines discrimination in auto lending.... Read More »
Car payments have been top priority for years, study says 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 19, 2014 New research shows that distressed customers have been putting their auto loans at the front of the line for payment for at least a decade, well before the Great Recession started in December 2007.... Read More »
Lending market remains 'very strong' despite rise in delinquencies, subprime 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 19, 2014  Auto loan delinquencies and subprime penetration are rising, but not uniformly and not fast enough to worry about. That's the takeaway from audience responses to straw polls taken during a Webinar hosted last week by Equifax and Moody's titled “Automotive Credit and Lending Outlook.”... Read More »
Q&A Credit unions’ 36% auto share is ‘significant’ 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 19, 2014  Credit unions’ share of total auto loans outstanding reached 36.2 percent last year. That’s due in part to better relationships with auto dealers and growing membership ranks, said Mike Schenk, vice president economics and statistics for the Credit Union National Association.... Read More »
Herberger resigns as president of Allstate Dealer Services 11:29 am U.S. ET | March 19, 2014  Douglas Herberger has resigned as president of Allstate Dealer Services, the company said today. A successor has not been named. Herberger, a former vice president and general manager of GM Service and Parts Operations in North America, joined Allstate in February 2011.... Read More »
Old repair bill is a powerful tool for F&I team 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 19, 2014  When the air conditioning compressor in LeAnna Cowan's car failed in the Las Vegas heat, the $1,250 repair bill wasn't a hardship.... Read More »
Dealers, captives battle in statehouses 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 19, 2014  A battle is heating up in several state capitals as dealer associations face off against carmakers and their captive finance companies over proposed state laws governing the sale of F&I products.... Read More »
Off F&I menus, LoJack sales perk up 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 17, 2014  A couple of years ago, LoJack Corp. was starting to look like an afterthought. Then company CEO Randy Ortiz had an insight: Get LoJack out of the F&I department -- where it often got lost on menus listing a dozen or so products -- and into the showroom.... Read More »
New panel to oversee tech shift for auctions 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 17, 2014 The auto auction industry is moving closer to a major change as rival auctions are looking into listing used vehicles for sale simultaneously on competitors' online remarketing platforms.... Read More »
Ally names Jeffrey Brown to replace Muir as CEO of dealer financial unit 5:01 pm U.S. ET | March 13, 2014  Ally Financial has appointed Jeffrey Brown as CEO of Ally Dealer Financial Services, succeeding the veteran Bill Muir, who will retire later this year.... Read More »
CFPB fills auto finance liaison job 4:04 pm U.S. ET | March 13, 2014 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has appointed attorney Jeffrey Langer to the role of liaison between the CFPB and the auto finance industry, succeeding Rick Hackett. Langer’s appointment, announced Wednesday, was effective immediately.... Read More »
Public dealer groups keep raising the F&I bar 11:00 am U.S. ET | March 12, 2014 It's getting tougher for the public new-car retailers to post big percentage increases in F&I revenue per vehicle retailed, following a decade of almost continuous growth that, after the downturn, reached new highs.... Read More »
That customer's claimed income may be too…low 11:15 am U.S. ET | March 12, 2014 Strange as it seems, it's not uncommon for people, when they fill out credit applications, to mistakenly understate how much they earn. "There is an opportunity to maybe buy deeper," said Craig Leabig, senior director of product management at Equifax Verification Services, during a Webinar Tuesday hosted by Equifax and Moody's.... Read More »
Q&A Increase in loan delinquencies return to 'norm,' Capital One exec says 10:45 am U.S. ET | March 12, 2014  Recent industry talk about higher auto loan delinquencies has caused concern among some that banks might pull back from auto lending. Sanjiv Yajnik, president of financial services at Capital One Auto Finance, says his company is as enthusiastic as ever.... Read More »
JIM HENRY Consumer site wants buyers to pay less for vehicles 10:30 am U.S. ET | March 12, 2014  The consumer advice Web site Interest.com offers prudent financial guidance to keep car buyers out of debt so they can spend more on other priorities. Lucky for the auto industry, few people seem to be taking that advice.... Read More »
Many dealers warn: Accept a gift and get fired 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 10, 2014  Dealerships' prohibitions against incentives, and the enforcement of those prohibitions, are likely to be ratcheted higher due to concerns that federal regulators are looking more closely at F&I products and how they are priced.... Read More »
What's an F&I pro worth? 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 10, 2014  On average, F&I managers earn fatter paychecks than people in any other key dealership position except the general manager, according to the 2013 NADA Dealership Workforce Study Industry Report. Some dealers are beginning to rethink that.... Read More »
JIM HENRY Extended service contract? Skip it, Consumer Reports tells readers 6:03 pm U.S. ET | March 10, 2014  Consumer Reports slams extended service contracts in its latest annual auto issue, one of the magazine's most widely read editions.... Read More »
CEO: Chase's top job is 'serve the dealers' 12:01 am U.S. ET | March 10, 2014  Thasunda Duckett can light up a room, even one filled with buttoned-down bankers and auto lenders.... Read More »
|
Most Read
