AUSTIN, Texas. -- Customers who get financing from a captive finance company are more likely to be loyal to a brand and to a particular dealer, Experian Automotive says.
"One of the most profitable things you can do is to get people to come back and buy another [car], instead of spending the dollars to attract somebody new," said Scott Waldron, president of Experian Automotive, during a presentation last week at the Consumer Bankers Association convention here.
For example, he said, customers who financed with BMW Financial Services and with Mercedes-Benz Financial Services were over 60 percent more loyal to the same dealer than were BMW and Mercedes-Benz customers who used noncaptive financing. That figure's based on customers who bought or leased a vehicle from 2005 to 2010, then bought or leased another one in 2011.