Online F&I product sales a ‘struggle’, from Automotive News.
Driver’s Village has readily embraced offering credit approvals on its e-commerce site, dvoffers.com, but it has yet to sell extended service contracts and other F&I products online.
Dealership staffers must either present F&I products to customers when they take delivery of their car or contact them later by phone, says Lou Bregou, a director of operations at Driver’s Village. Selling F&I online is “an uphill struggle,” he says. “We’re not there yet.”
Sun Toyota in Holiday, Fla., finds itself in a similar situation. While the dealership’s website, suntoyota.com, has been taking online credit applications for several years, the site has yet to progress beyond simply providing F&I product information, acknowledges Michael Chaparro, the dealership’s sales and marketing manager.
The two companies’ lack of progress underscores how even tech-savvy stores can be flummoxed when it comes to creating a viable online F&I sales process.
