NORTH HILLS, N.Y. — Dealertrack announced the expansion of its partnership with Hyundai Motor Finance and Kia Motors Finance, making Dealertrack Contracting available in 39 states, including Texas, California, New York, Florida, and Arizona.

Currently, Dealertrack’s proprietary contracting offering will enable Hyundai and Kia Motors dealerships to more accurately submit automotive contracts electronically to their captive lenders in real time, resulting in funding as fast as same day, according to the announcement.  

Dealertrack Contracting, which is expected to roll out across all 50 states by the end of October, eliminates the cost and hassle of the traditional and mistake-prone approach with the use of electronic validations, mobile signing, and immediate delivery of funding packages. This milestone announcement underscores the scaled growth of electronic contracting usage by captive finance companies, with Hyundai Motor Finance’s and Kia Motors Finance’s enrollment rate nearing 35% across the manufacturer’s more than 1,600 dealers nationwide, according to Cheryl Miller, vice president and general manager for Dealertrack’s F&I Dealer & Lender Solutions division.

“Our relationship with Hyundai Motor Finance and Kia Motors Finance is strengthened by our contracting expansion that helps lenders and dealers efficiently conduct business while meeting car shoppers’ rising expectations for a better car buying experience,” Miller said. “Consumers want a fluid, digitally-driven dealership experience, and Dealertrack Contracting provides Hyundai and Kia dealers the ability to deliver that experience to their customers.”

“Our goal was to launch electronic contracting in all fifty states and to enroll 25% of our dealers by the end of 2018. We have achieved that goal three months early,” said Eckart Klumpp, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Hyundai Capital America. “Dealer and customer satisfaction continue to be top of mind for us. Dealertrack’s electronic contracting allows us to efficiently service our dealers and provide them with same-day funding. This is a rewarding initiative and HCA will continue to invest in capabilities to further drive our dealer adoption of electronic contracting and enhance the overall customer vehicle purchase journey.”

Mike Lahham, general manager of Kia Downtown Los Angeles, served as a pilot dealer and reached a high utilization rate shortly after enrollment with Dealertrack Contracting.

“Electronic contracting comes with plenty of benefits like same-day funding, reduction of paperwork and verifying all data upfront. Funding through electronic contracts is as fast as one hour, which helps us save time,” Lahham said. “Electronic contracting has definitely benefited our store by making it easy for us to minimize mistakes as the system verifies all data before signing the contract. From a profitability point of view, it increases our bottom line by having a faster cash flow in our system as well.”

Dealertrack Contracting replaces the traditional approach of paper contracting that relies upon both fax machines and mail. The solution also mitigates manual data entry and calculations, paper contracts with “wet” signatures, and reduces documents needed to mail to lenders. As a result, the technology can cut expenses, enhance contract accuracy and the customer experience, reduce the amount of time it takes to submit a contract, and get funding the same day in most cases, all according to the announcement.