What Actually Changed in the Used Car Market
You know that moment when a vehicle has been sitting in your lot for 47 days and nobody can tell you why? The photos are fine. The price seems reasonable. But i...
Used-Car Reconditioning Workflow: What's Changed and What Hasn't in 2024
A used-car reconditioning cycle that took 14 days in 2019 now stretches to 21 days at the average dealership. That's a 50% slowdown in the exact workflow that d...
F&I Manager Compensation Plans That Scale: What's Changed and What Hasn't
Thirty-two percent of dealerships report that their F&I manager compensation has stayed basically flat over the past three years, even as back-end gross per uni...
Chargeback Tracking and Trend Analysis: What's Changed and What Hasn't
Your F&I team's chargeback rate is probably worse than you think it is, and you're probably not tracking it the way you should be. That's not a personal attack...
Protection Product Objections in 2024: What's Changed and What Never Will
Sixty-three percent of F&I managers report that customers are more skeptical about protection products than they were five years ago. Yet the dealers who've cra...
The Vehicle Problem: Subprime Cars Are Getting Older (And Younger)
Subprime deals are still a minefield, but the game has changed more in the last three years than in the previous decade. If your finance manager is running the ...
Training New F&I Managers: What's Changed and What Hasn't in 2024
The F&I Manager's Playbook Isn't Dead—It's Just Different Than You Think Seventy-three percent of dealership F&I managers have been in role for less than three...
Warranty vs. Service Contracts in 2024: What's Changed and What Hasn't
How many F&I deals are actually hitting your finance manager's menu board looking exactly like they did three years ago? If you said "most of them," you're pro...
Back-End Gross Targets by Store: What's Changed and What Hasn't
Back in 1985, the average dealership F&I menu offered maybe four products: extended service contracts, paint protection, fabric guard, and gap insurance. That's...
Spot Delivery Contract Risk: What's Actually Changed Since the Crackdown
The Spot Delivery Reckoning: What's Actually Changed Since the Crackdown In 1997, a class action lawsuit against a major automotive retailer forced the industr...
F&I Compliance Disclosures: What's Changed Since 1969 (And What Hasn't)
When Finance Office Rules Stayed Put While Everything Else Changed In 1969, the Federal Trade Commission introduced the Holder Rule, which required lenders to ...
Dealer Lender Relationships That Pay Off: What's Changed and What Hasn't
According to recent dealer finance data, the average F&I menu in a high-performing dealership now generates 40% more back-end gross than it did in 2018, but the...