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Subprime buyers are always a tough sell in F&I. Banks and OE captives usually have a mountain of requirements or stips needed to get approval and even at that, LTV’s are watched carefully so they don’t buy more car than they can afford. While it can mean higher buy rates for F&I (which is nice for reserve), it can be a headache for approvals.

A fixed price for F&I products is a better and more trustworthy approach for all customers yet it has not been widely adopted. Why? What are the benefits to offering set pricing and how can it reduce the friction between F&I and the buyer? Let’s take a look….

‍While the buyer who comes in with their credit union draft check is the bane of the F&I office, it’s never a lost cause. F&I may not have captive incentives anymore but that doesn’t mean there are no tried and true strategies that can help compete with credit unions. 

Given the staffing challenges in the dealership environment, how do you bring more diverse applicants back into the dealership environment, particularly in F&I? And are there better ways to attract more women and minorities to apply? At a time when businesses are focusing more resources and attention on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) for their employees, dealerships should, too. It’s more than just hiring people from diverse backgrounds…at its core it’s about looking at the entire organization and making it a welcoming place where everyone’s potential is encouraged, and everyone’s voice is heard.

F&I is undergoing a bit of a transformation in ‘22. With a challenging selling environment and two years out from the pandemic, the old way of doing a deal has had to shift to something more creative and more reflective of the way buyers want to buy a car. For F&I, that means stepping outside of the decades-long comfort zone of high pressure sales tactics, payment stuffing, and bloated menus.

Headlines are rather bleak these days with most automotive analysts saying that low inventory could linger into next year. So while it may look like there is no way to uncover anything positive about this situation, that may not be the case…especially in F&I.

The last few years have arguably been the most challenging that both dealers and car shoppers have ever faced. Inventory in short or non-existent supply, rising interest rate in response to 40 year-high inflation, and now both new and used car prices seeing unprecedented increases.

Here are some reasons why offering a high mileage VSC could be one of the easiest menu items to present to your customers and why the market has made this shift…

Most people would agree that the dealership environment works best when all the managers across departments work together for the common good of the store. Each department is in some way interdependent on the other for support for the common goals of profitability. Service can support sales efforts in F&I, Parts and Service fit together like a glove on a daily basis, and F&I managers often lean on Sales Managers to help bring in buyers that are qualified before they come into the office.

With the extra effort necessary to sell GAP, it’s important to look at the current process for qualifying a buyer for GAP prior to presenting it on the menu. Is your staff taking the time to really assess whether or not GAP is the right fit? What information can be examined ahead of time to better prepare for the qualifying questions necessary to close more policies?

‍What if we told you there was an easier way to consolidate your financing partners and your F&I providers all in one free menu? 

COVID-19 forced many markets to change the way they did things and in F&I, it has opened up a new way of approaching sales and communication that has made the experience for buyers light-years ahead of where it was before the pandemic hit in the Spring of 2020. The old way of buying a car, much less handling the paperwork/financing, was set on its ear and in a good way.

Car shoppers today have quite a selection of aftermarket products to choose from when they step into the F&I office. In the last year, record high PVR has been a bright spot for dealers who are recouping lost revenue during the height of COVID. And while there are some products that may not have a direct correlation to challenging situations car buyers are in, there is one that should be an easier sale than ever.

Your Service Lane is a reliable and consistent source of revenue for your dealership and one of the most ‘high touch’ environments for customers. All day long they are engaged and working to elevate the experience of quality service & repair. But they can do much more…

a new and growing set of players in the VSC space are multiplying like rabbits in the industry. More and more are getting their VC infusion and creating their slick websites to compete with dealerships who sell VSC’s. 

It starts with reframing how this process works in the F&I office to help go from an immediate defensiveness to a willingness to listen and understand more about how these products can help increase peace of mind. 

F&I is the most regulated department at the dealership and rightly so. Financial disclosures, fair lending practices, identity fraud concerns, proper income reporting, etc. make it easy to have something slip through the cracks and cause a potential legal nightmare for the business and sometimes an irreparable hit to your reputation. 

Certified Pre-Owned is always an attractive way to purchase a car and offers the customer strong protections and in many cases, a better long term ownership experience. 

F&I is tough enough between selling, compliance, and the constant balancing act with sales to preserve every delivery possible…but knowing what you can and can’t get away with to get the approval can be a bit, shall we say, ‘fuzzy’.

Presenting any aftermarket products and protection in F&I is already tough enough but when you are trying to help keep a preloaded ancillary package in the deal, it can be a real headache. Buyers don’t always see the value of a well-priced package designed to help save their vehicle from cosmetic issues.

Industry surveys are showing that 50% of car shoppers will likely put off buying in 2022 but as much as 40% of those buying will switch their focus to used cars instead of new.

Leasing a new car is a great option for many new car shoppers…lower monthly payments, being able to jump into a new car every few years...

The forecast for 2022 in the automotive industry is a bit of a mixed bag as 2021 did not see the huge turnaround from COVID that many had hoped for..

Preloading ancillary bundles is an easy way to add extra profits to the bottom line of F&I without adding to the menu presentation process.