Car Buying Tips

Guides and advice for purchasing new and used vehicles

Car Buying Tips

The Used-Car Reconditioning Checklist That Actually Reduces Days to Front-Line

Most dealerships are losing money on every used car that sits on the lot for more than 14 days, and they don't even realize it. The culprit isn't usually the pu...

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Car Buying Tips

F&I Manager Compensation Plans That Scale: The Essential Checklist

Picture this: It's mid-month at your dealership and your F&I manager just closed a $4,200 back-end gross deal. Great, right? Except your compensation plan is so...

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Car Buying Tips

E-Contracting Rollout Checklist: The Franchise Dealer's Playbook for a Smooth Launch

You're sitting in the conference room with your F&I manager, your compliance officer, and your GM when someone says the words nobody wants to hear: "Corporate s...

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Car Buying Tips

Chargeback Tracking and Trend Analysis: A Step-by-Step Checklist That Works

How many chargebacks has your dealership actually suffered in the past twelve months, and do you know why each one happened? Most dealers can't answer that que...

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Car Buying Tips

Deal Jacket Audit Checklist That Actually Works: The F&I Director's Guide

How many deal jackets sitting in your finance manager's office right now are missing a signature page, have conflicting numbers between the worksheet and the fi...

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Car Buying Tips

The Protection Product Objection Handling Checklist That Actually Works

How many F&I deals walk out the door every month because your finance manager ran into objection after objection and didn't have a framework to work through the...

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Car Buying Tips

The Subprime Deal Checklist That Actually Protects Your Store

How many subprime deals have you watched blow up because nobody bothered to check the box on compliance before the customer left the lot? Subprime financing is...

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Car Buying Tips

F&I Manager Training Checklist: A System That Actually Works

In 1956, when most dealerships still financed cars through captive lenders, the finance office was essentially a paperwork station. The real money was already m...

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Car Buying Tips

Warranty vs. Service Contract Checklist That Actually Works for Your F&I Team

It's 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, and your F&I manager just finished a deal where the customer bought a five-year extended warranty but declined GAP insurance ...

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Car Buying Tips

Back-End Gross Target Checklist for Dealerships That Actually Works

Back in the 1980s, when dealerships were still running most of their business on paper and phone calls, a finance manager's real power showed in how they contro...

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Car Buying Tips

The Spot Delivery Checklist That Actually Works: Protect Your Back-End Gross

You're sitting in your F&I office on a Tuesday afternoon when your finance manager walks in with a problem: a customer signed paperwork yesterday, drove off the...

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Car Buying Tips

The Compliance Checklist That Actually Works: A Finance Office Playbook

The modern vehicle finance checklist was born in 1985, right around the time the FTC started cracking down on undisclosed add-on sales and dealer practices that...

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