Recent Stories
Enhanced VIN data a key to profits?

Enhanced VIN data could help lenders and dealers understand vehicle values as quickly as possible and boost profits.
For Earl Stewart, the customer comes first, but everyone else is catching on

Earl Stewart Toyota has made a name for itself by openly eschewing deceptive practices that have given car dealerships a bad name. But as more and more rival dealers change their ways, the family fears its edge may be lost.
Hurricane looms right as store is recovering from renovation

August was supposed to be Earl Stewart Toyota of North Palm Beach's comeback month. Then came Hurricane Dorian.
Asbury Automotive CFO to step down

Sean Goodman will resign effective Nov. 15 to take a position outside the automotive industry, the dealership group said.
Synthetic identity fraud slows in auto lending, TransUnion says

Finance companies that are increasingly adopting anti-fraud products are slowly reducing the rate of new fraudulent loans.
Moving F&I online pushes software, product providers to web

F&I software companies are partnering up, while F&I product companies are exploring ways to provide consumer-facing content for the first time.
Fraud tools keep tabs on mobile devices, laptops

As mobile devices increasingly become launching points for auto lending, software and other means to detect and monitor fraud are keeping pace with changing customer tools.
Digital retailing tool pulls in buyers

Group 1 Automotive's U.S. operations chief says customers who begin the vehicle purchase process through the dealership group's new online car-buying platform are nearly twice as likely to buy than customers off the street.
Integration with RouteOne brings Fair subscriptions into the F&I office

A new division of the company, called Fair Indirect, will facilitate subscriptions using the same platform dealerships use to get customers traditional loans or leases.
To prevent chargebacks, lenders should vet F&I products

Monitoring existing and emerging F&I products from the coverage to the cancellation process should be an integral part of a lender's risk management program.
No regulation by enforcement, CFPB chief tells NIADA

Kathy Kraninger, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told attendees at the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association's National Policy Conference the agency has no plans to regulate by enforcement, and she addressed changes to the bureau's complaint database, both key concerns for auto lenders.
Even small interest-rate cuts help, retailers say

Auto analysts say reductions in the Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate are unlikely to move the needle much for car shoppers this year, but some car dealers disagree.
One-touch system points at possibilities

Some dealerships that experimented with one-touch hybrid sales and F&I managers over the years ended up going back to separating the roles, saying the change ultimately dragged out the process for customers and cost them thousands in profit.
A renewed Darvish returns to auto retail

Pushed out of her family business, retail veteran Tammy Darvish started over, and now aims to turn around AutoCanada's U.S. unit.
Dealerships turn to job fit assessments, personality tests to hire workers and work things out

Job fit assessments, which test an applicant's judgment capacity, are considered more effective — and ethically superior — to personality tests, hiring experts say. But personality tests still serve a valuable purpose.