'In your blood': Few F&I pros quit the business

F&I managers may quit their stores, but few exit the business, experts say.

Tony Dupaquier, an F&I training expert, estimates that 80 percent of F&I managers who leave their dealership positions stay in the automotive industry.

"It's extremely rare that a long-term automotive professional just completely drops out of the industry altogether," said Dupaquier, director of The Academy, the national training center of F&I provider Service Group in Austin, Texas. 

It happens on occasion though. A former Illinois F&I manager, who asked to remain anonymous, joined the window and siding business, and his former colleagues went into banking. 

But for the most part, F&I managers find jobs at other dealerships. 

DJ Supan, finance director for Yark Automotive Group in Toledo, Ohio, said most F&I managers who leave swear they're done with automotive for good. "But you find out in six months they're at another dealership," he said. 

By the time dealership employees get to the level of F&I, most don't want to break away from the industry, said Randy Ross, senior vice president of sales at F&I product provider RoadVantage. "Once you're in this business, it's hard to exit. It gets in your blood," he said. 

Although they stay in the industry, some F&I managers may be leaving the dealership world. In the past two years, especially, Dupaquier said, F&I providers and training firms have sought to recruit top-performing F&I managers to keep their workforce expertise high. In 2008 and 2009, during the recession, many providers cut their staffs. Of those who were let go, he said, many went back to working in dealerships. 

Now providers are looking to hire, he said, and although providers agree to stay away from their own dealership clients, F&I managers from stores outside their client bases are getting poached.