Tag: Accelerated Title

Add Confidence to Every Trade-In Deal

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When your dealership uses a traditional payoff and title release process for trade-ins, there can be a lot of built-in uncertainty. Between the amount of time it takes to receive the clean title (18+ days on average) and the payoff surprises that can result from being unable to see the title details in advance, you can find yourself taking several calculated risks from the time you accept the trade-in until you’ve sold it or put it up for auction.

Fortunately, there are technology solutions that can address those risks and increase your confidence whenever a customer brings a car to trade in. Let’s look at some of these risks and how technology solutions for expedited titling can help you eliminate them:

The Man (or Woman) of Mystery

A customer comes in with a trade-in, but without their title in hand. He says he’s the only person on the title and so you went ahead with the deal. Later you discover that there was a co-owner on the title, but you can’t reach the buyer and you have no idea how to get in touch with the other person. Without the co-owner’s permission, you have a vehicle you can’t sell – and maybe a pending lawsuit as well.

Now let’s look at that same scenario for a dealership with the right technology on hand. As soon as the customer presents their trade-in, you can use the system to see a copy of the title. You discover the co-owner right away and ask the customer about it. That gives them the opportunity to get the necessary permission to sell the vehicle or proceed without the trade-in. Either way, you’ve eliminated uncertainty and risk.

Payoff Back-and-Forth

When you don’t have access to an accurate payoff amount up front, your back office must deal with the back-and-forth of cutting checks and overnighting them to make it right – which adds time and expense to the deal.

Improved technology can provide the accurate payoff amount from the start, and ACH payment capability will save you from having to produce paper checks and pay to have them delivered.

Is It Time Yet?

Even using low-tech payoff and title release processes that take weeks, most dealerships will proceed with reconditioning, then retailing or auctioning a vehicle with their fingers crossed that the timing works out and there are no titling or payoff surprises looming.

When you have a solution set that includes expedited payoff and title release that takes days instead of weeks, access to online status updates on demand, and visibility into title details, you’ll no longer have to hold your breath and hope your inventory turn timelines work out.

How Confidence Pays Off

When you know you’ll have payoff and title release completed quickly and predictably, it can pay off directly by keeping a lid on the holding costs that affect your profitability. A 2016 Manheim Online Dealer Community survey found that having a vehicle sit on the lot costs dealerships an average of $32 per day. When you know you’ll be ready with a title in hand, you can take steps to merchandise each vehicle online or get it to auction more quickly to help ensure that it stays on your lot for as little time as possible.

Ready to gain more confidence in your trade-in deals? Learn how Dealertrack Accelerated Title can streamline your payoff and title release processes.

Reduce Holding Costs to Protect Your Bottom Line

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It’s been a great day at your dealership. You’ve been working hard matching buyers with vehicles and taking in a good number of trade-ins. Eventually you’ll sell those trade-ins to other customers or at auction, but first comes the payoff and lien and title release process. And if you’re doing the process manually, it’s going to take a while.

Dealertrack data shows that the average length of time it takes for payoff and lien and title release is between 12 and 18 days – or even more. That’s how long it takes to initiate the payoff, verify and finalize accurate payoff amounts, write and overnight checks, address any payoff surprises that surface, and make phone calls to lenders for title status updates and tracking information.

In the meantime, your holding costs are adding up. According to a 2019 NCM Group study, having a vehicle sit on the lot costs a dealer an average of $37 per day. When you multiply that by the number of trade-ins you bring in per month, the expense of holding costs quickly balloons into the hundreds and even thousands of dollars per year.

With Dealertrack Accelerated Title, your dealership can reduce payoff and lien and title release time from weeks to as fast as 4-6 days. In fact, it’s the only solution in the industry that can speed the process that quickly. It also allows you to track the status online to see when the lien sat release or title will be delivered, so you can show up better at auction and quickly move inventory off your lot.

Faster title payoff and lien and title release gives your dealership the opportunity to improve profitability with the potential to turn inventory faster for the vehicles you take in on trade, ultimately saving on holding costs.

Want to know more? Schedule a demo and we’ll walk you through the Accelerated Title process.

Fall in Love with End-to-End Titling 

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Do you love your dealership’s titling solutions? “Love” sounds like a strong word, but consider how important it is to be able to handle all your registration and titling workflow for vehicles taken in on trade, vehicles delivered to in-state customers, and vehicles delivered to out-of-state customers.   

What you need is a comprehensive suite of registration and titling solutions that increase your back office efficiency, maximize profit, and contribute to customer satisfaction. The total titling experts at Dealertrack can offer you just that.  

Here are some reasons we think you’ll fall in love with the registration and title technology solutions that Dealertrack provides. 

Faster Processing 

How much would you love being able to reduce payoff-title release time from 12-18+ days down to as little as 4-6 days? With Dealertrack Accelerated Title, you can speed title release on trade-ins, which helps with faster inventory turn of these vehicles, reducing inventory holding costs. Having the title in hand also makes it nearly twice as likely that a vehicle will sell at auction on first pass. 

More Efficient Workflow 

For in-state title processing, you’ll be smitten with the powerful, user-inspired transaction and workflow management tools you can have at your fingertips for fast, accurate, up-to-date and compliant processing. We think you’ll also be fond of the industry-leading support we provide. 

Unmatched Expertise 

If your dealership has been shy about fully embracing out-of-state customers, RegUSA® can smooth the path for you. This solution simplifies your out-of-state workflow and provides certified, compliant handling for any state’s registration and titling. So you can welcome online deals with open arms and provide a full-service experience for every customer.  

Want to learn more about Dealertrack Total Titling Solutions? We’d love to walk you through them! Register for a demo today. 

Titles and the Need for Speed

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Customers are continuing to spend less time at a dealership from beginning to end. According to the 2018 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study, car buyers spend 60 percent of their time online. They want to come in with the dealership already aware of what they want, close the deal and wrap up all subsequent paperwork as quickly as possible.

Dealerships have made great advances to make this a reality. However, there is still one piece of a deal that is out of the hands of both the customer and the dealer — the acceptance of payoff and the release of the title for a vehicle that is traded in.

Our data shows that the traditional payoff and title release process for trade-ins can average anywhere from 12 to 18 days or more, because each lender sets its own process. Without that title in hand, the dealer risks selling a vehicle that may not belong to him or her yet.

And this process includes many time-consuming tasks: lengthy hold times with lenders waiting to verify payoff amounts, hand writing checks that are then overnighted for delivery, more phone calls and hold times with lenders to address short pays or to track the status of a title after payment was mailed, and so on. Dealerships often need more than one clerk just to manage these details.

And, as all this is taking place, the car is sitting on the dealership lot, not being sold — just occupying space. Dealers spend on average $32 per day for each car that sits on their lot, according to a 2016 Manheim Online Dealer Community survey. Multiply that $32 by the average number of days your trade-in waits for title, then multiply that by the average number of trades you take in per month. That total loss quickly adds up; it’s not unheard of to be tens of thousands of dollars per year, or higher.

Full lienholder details can be viewed before initiating payoff — eliminating the guessing game of what may appear on the title to unwind the deal — and payment as well as title status can be tracked 24/7, eliminating the need for follow-up calls by staff. This streamlined process virtually ends the short pays, lienholder surprises, check writing, phone calls and spreadsheets/log books that plague the traditional manual process. This fully electronic process also gives complete transparency to dealers as well as lenders while also creating consistency. This is fast becoming the new industry standard — a standard that is easy and efficient for dealers, lenders and customers.

What does this mean for dealers? First, inventory may be moved more quickly. Second, staff can spend less time dealing with payoff calls, title tracking and bookkeeping, which frees up their time to make more sales and better serve the dealership and its customers. This process helps the dealership save a significant amount of time and money and, in turn, improve its bottom line. Ultimately, the dealership is more productive and profitable.

Dealers have known for a long time that the title release process is time consuming and outdated. It’s time to accelerate and modernize this process the same way the rest of the dealership and car-buying processes have been updated.

Discover how Dealertrack Accelerated Title can help your dealership close more deals and get more customers on the road faster and more efficiently.

A version of this post originally appeared in AutoSuccess.

May the 4th (and Force) Be With You: Four Ways Auto Retail is Kind of Like Star Wars

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There may not be light sabers involved (one hopes), but when it comes to Star Wars and the technology that drives auto retail, we can make a few fun comparables.

After all, the last thing any sales manager or dealership controller wants is to get stuck on a virtual outpost, searching for solutions like a desert scavenger. The sunset might be nice, but that outpost is no place to find cutting-edge workflow technology. So in the spirit of the day, and the pursuit of connected retail, here are four ways auto retail technology is (kind of) like Star Wars:

1. Jumping to light speed is like using Accelerated Title.

When it comes to title release, Accelerated Title gets you from start to finish 70 percent faster than the industry standard* — a time that’s sure to be quicker than any old Imperial TIE fighter. It’s technology that streamlines payoff quoting, release, and even tracking and reporting.

2. Using the force is like integrating F&I Compliance into your workflow.

It’s so much a part of process that you barely notice it’s there…until you need it. Then it becomes a powerful way to protect and defend your dealership from ID fraud, potential audits, and more.

3. Droids are a symbol of advanced technology – with a smart human touch.

The concept is like our Menu Selling solution: technology that helps build engagement and improve the aftermarket experience. F&I products like GAP, warranty and maintenance options are presented in a friendly and consultative way — thanks to the use of personal technology.

4. Sometimes, what you need is a simple, fast, and effective Podracer to get the job done.

More than that will slow things down, when the most important thing is a fast and efficient finish. Keep that in mind when it comes to your Reg & Title operation. Simple and powerful functionality such as an accurate calculation of taxes and fees, as well as automated error-checking, help ensure that this final step in the process meets the customer’s expectations.