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Today’s car buyers are starting their financing journey online—before they ever connect with a dealer. That shift is reshaping how lenders, OEMs, and digital retail partners need to think about their role in the shopping experience. 

In the latest Forward-thinking Strategies podcast, Lender Strategist Andy Mayers explores how Cox Automotive’s Finance Services API is helping auto retailing clients meet this moment—and why it’s a must-have for anyone looking to grow and succeed in today’s expanded marketplace. 

The New Starting Line: Financing First 

According to recent Cox Automotive research, 88% of consumers want to complete some or all of their car-buying steps online. About half say they prefer to start by researching financing options first—and many begin that journey on websites other than dealerships. 

That’s a clear signal: financing has moved up the funnel. Lenders, OEMs, and digital retail partners who rely solely on dealer referrals are missing opportunities to engage shoppers earlier and more effectively.  

Many have read the tea leaves and reacted, leveraging Finance Services—an API that enables an online credit application—to pre-approve consumers for an auto loan, allowing them to walk straight into the dealership as contract-ready buyers. No lengthy F&I conversations. No time wasted. Just a faster, more confident path to purchase—and for lenders, a channel that supports customer acquisition, retention, and origination strategies. 

Providing Finance Approval Up-Funnel Delivers Value Across the Board 

For consumers: It delivers the convenience and control they expect from a modern digital shopping experience — especially in a market where affordability remains top of mind and time at the dealership is still their #1 source of frustration. 

For OEMs: It creates a seamless Tier 1 to Tier 3 experience. Consumers can get pre-approved for financing directly on the OEM site and move seamlessly into the dealership experience — financing in hand and ready to complete their vehicle purchase—delivering a more satisfying customer experience. 

For lenders: It opens a direct-to-indirect channel that captures early-stage shoppers and additional originations—driving internal efficiency, building brand value with customers, and strengthening dealer partnerships. 

For dealers: They receive finance-approved, contract-ready buyers—reducing time to close and increasing profitability. And because the API is fully integrated with Dealertrack, the entire process—from application to purchase—is streamlined and optimized. 

Built for Today, Ready for Tomorrow 

As more steps of the car-buying journey move online, Finance Services is built to scale. New-form OEMs like Tesla and Rivian, as well as digital-first retailers like Carvana, have already embraced fully online buying experiences and stand as testaments to this growing trend. 

Clients who allow consumers to apply for financing on their websites are answering the desires and expectations of car buyers today—and tomorrow. Meeting consumers when, where, and how they choose to shop maximizes untapped opportunities and provides a safe, controlled channel for growing originations and moving more metal. 

A Smarter Way Forward 

As Andy shared in the podcast, “You can’t sell many cars without financing. And Finance Services is the engine that makes that happen—online, in real time, and at scale.” 

It’s a simple solution with powerful impact: 
✔️ Consumer convenience 
✔️ Operational efficiency 
✔️ Business growth & profitability 

And it’s already powering thousands of transactions across the Cox Automotive network. 

Want to learn more? 

Consult with a Cox Automotive expert to explore how Finance Services can support your digital retail strategy. 

In just 5 minutes, hear how Finance Services helps you deliver ready-to-buy customers to your dealer partners. Support budget-conscious consumers with financing at the start of their journey—and open a powerful channel to boost originations and grow your business. 

0:04 
And we’re back. 

 
0:06 
I’m Greg Payne, Marketing Manager with Cox Automotive, and I’m joined once again by my colleague Andy Mayers, AVP of Dealer Track Lender Solutions. 

 
0:14 
Andy, thanks again for joining me Today. 

 
0:16 
We’re going to be discussing our next topic in the Small Bite series, Finance Services. 

 
0:22 
Now tell me if I’m wrong about this, but this tool actually allows customers to submit a credit application and get pre approved before they walk into the dealership. 

 
0:30 
Absolutely. 

 
0:31 
This is a great start Greg. 

 
0:32 
Maybe I can use a a new Co worker instead if you get out of the research business. 

 
0:38 
But yeah, all kidding aside, Finance Services definitely is the place where you convert a consumer that’s shopping into a buyer. 

 
0:48 
Because at this point in the process, the customer has already gone through and maybe gone through our payment services to figure how much they can afford. 

 
0:55 
But now they’re actually going to see if they can get financed for that, that capability or that vehicle they want with the amounts they want. 

 
1:01 
So when you think about what’s happening today, Finance Services empowers the consumer to do that. 

 
1:10 
Lot of digital retailing sites, lot of OEMs, lot of lender websites, even dealer websites are trying to to take this process of credit applications, which is a time consuming process and giving it as a self-service tool to the consumers. 

 
1:24 
So what it does is it allows us to connect our lender network and you know, our 1500 lenders to the, you know, to the ether, so to speak. 

 
1:33 
Anybody can connect to it by submitting a finance application. 

 
1:37 
Granted, it’s got to have the right data, it’s got the right disclosures and things like that, but but it allows the consumer to actually take this step and get it done before they walk into the dealership. 

 
1:47 
It also has fully integrated into our dealer track platform. 

 
1:50 
So anything you would do online, Greg, for an application perspective would be fully available to the dealer when they walk in and it actually provides responses back to the consumer. 

 
2:00 
Hey, congratulations, you’re approved. 

 
2:03 
Everybody has different ways of how they want to handle that. 

 
2:05 
It’s all dealer controlled. 

 
2:07 
The dealer set the policies for how much they want to send back and what they want to do with it. 

 
2:12 
But it does, you know, remove a critical stuff in the process. 

 
2:16 
Like if you think about it, you know, you’ll go in, a customer is going to submit an application. 

 
2:22 
If they walk in a store, they’re going to fill it out on paper. 

 
2:25 
Somebody’s going to retype it, then they’re going to submit it to a lender, then they’re going to wait for a decision. 

 
2:29 
All that can happen before the person walks in the dealership and that’s the beauty of the finance services and the other beauty of finance services, it really opens up our markets. 

 
2:39 
You know, in previous conversations we’ve talked about how channels have changed where customers are filling out applications. 

 
2:46 
Used to only be in a dealership. 

 
2:48 
Well, now it could be on a lender’s website and OEM said website, a captive website, a dealer website, even for direct lending, if people want to do it, they can capture that to get lender referral leads. 

 
3:00 
So I think finance services, the engine that powers that, it is truly the connectivity between the digital retailing and our lender network and parts of finance services that are extensions of that is the ability to take documents and send the dealers, you know someone doing stipulations. 

 
3:19 
So those are the things that are really important. 

 
3:22 
Any solution that’s going to digital retailing to be successful to transact and do the financing workflow is going to have to have finance services. 

 
3:29 
The beauty of this for our lenders is as a lender network, they don’t really have to do anything to implement finance services. 

 
3:36 
We do all the heavy lifting and get the applications to to them and get the decisions back to the originating party. 

 
3:42 
So it uses the same capability we have in our lender network today. 

 
3:46 
So like I said, finance services, it’s a critical step in the process. 

 
3:52 
Anybody that wants to automate and sell a car completely online is going to have to have credit application process and finance services fills that need. 

 
4:00 
The finance service is going to be in more table states as I see it, and it’s another great tool for consumer and origination conquest strategies. 

 
4:08 
Now, I know this experience is already very real because we’ve got EVOEMS like Tesla that are implementing the full experience entirely online. 

 
4:15 
And I know that our number of other clients as well are leveraging finance services to great success. 

 
4:20 
Yeah, absolutely. 

 
4:21 
We power a tremendous amount of online transactions. 

 
4:26 
Like I said, a lot of our lenders are starting to look at that as a consumer facing tool. 

 
4:33 
They’re using it to create leads, capture direct loans, convert them to direct to indirect. 

 
4:40 
Yeah, and the beauty of it for our lenders, like I said, if you’re on a lender network, you can receive and send decisions back. 

 
4:47 
But if you want to be on the front end and start collecting your own applications, we have solutions for that. 

 
4:53 
So I think it’s really exciting and it’s, it’s a critical API that, you know, like I said, can’t do financing, cannot sell a car without having an approval and that’s what finance does for us. 

 
5:04 
All right, well, I’m looking forward to our next succession, Andy, because what we’re going to be talking about next is alternative deal structures. 

 
5:11 
Now if I remember from our lender dealer relationship study, 70% of dealers said that alternative deal structures and having multiple approval structures is actually very beneficial to them. 

 
5:21 
So I’m looking forward to that discussion. 

 
5:24 
And thank you again, Andy, for joining us today. 

 
5:26 
And thanks to everyone in the lender audience for listening in. 

 
5:29 
Join us next time, as I said, as we discuss alternative deal structures. 

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