Did you catch that news item about “subprime” being voted the Word of the Year? Apparently, the American Dialect Society thought the adjective dominated the attention of the press and the public throughout 2007.
I’m sure you’re tired of all the media coverage surrounding the subprime mortgage arena, and all the doom-and-gloom talk floating around. But it’s not going to stop. What’s important is that you read between the lines.
When people talk about the Internet these days, they say things like, “It’s leveling the playing field.” And just last month I talked about how a dealer used the Internet to verify a customer’s Social Security Number. What’s amazing to me is that not everyone was so hip to the Internet earlier this decade.
A post made on Oct. 2 on the magazine’s F&I Forum made me think, “What a great story of a dealer doing it right.” But that was before I talked to Mark O’Neil, CEO of DealerTrack, about something he discussed during his keynote address at the magazine’s September F&I Conference and Expo.
Is it me or is just about everyone looking for that one kink in the armor of our business? Yes, blame the subprime-mortgage market all you want, but the reality is that it’s going to be guilt by association from here on out. What’s important now is that we don’t prove those “Chicken Littles” right.
Much has been made of the ongoing data-access debate. My question is how it impacts F&I departments. Several readers have said there are other more critical issues to be concerned about than whether the newest software tool can communicate with their DMS. I beg to differ.
So, the editor in the next office gets in today (June 29) and tells me about the “Transformers” movie premiere and after party he attended the night before. He always gets to do cool things like that, but does he ever invite me?
A customer comes into a dealership $12,000 upside down. Not only did the dealership make the sale, but it sold a GAP product on the finance deal. Not bad, right? Unfortunately, there was no salesperson and no F&I manager … well, almost no F&I manager.
Predictions for new-vehicle sales are already dropping, and some dealers say the tax-return buying spree — which has been coming in earlier and earlier every year — just hasn’t manifested itself. However, industry insiders are warning dealers not to believe the doom-and-gloom picture many are trying to paint.
I’d like to start this month’s editorial by saying I won my NCAA bracket (thanks to all the losers in my group). But my win would be little solace for what was one heck of a month (March). My wife and I fell victim to a purse-snatcher.
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