Jennifer Murphy - Although the August 1, 2009 enforcement date for the Red Flags Rule is upon dealers – provided the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) doesn’t delay it at the last minute again – many dealerships have yet to comply. For those who still need to put their Red Flags program in place, here’s a sampling of the products available on the market to help you become compliant ...
David Keller - What a month it has been! For the past three to four weeks, we have been busy assisting our GM dealers who received a “non-renewal agreement” letter to effectively close their new GM franchises down by October 2010 ...
Dealers have a sort of love/hate relationship with compliance, especially in terms of their Web sites. Before manufacturers implemented standards for dealer sites, there was a kind of “Wild West” feel to things ...
Jennifer Murphy - While some dealers have had a Web presence for years, CarSmart in Kansas City, Mo., didn’t have one until April 2009. Co-Owner Ted Heater, Jr. said, “We were in business for 11 years and didn’t have … any kind of Internet presence … Business was always so good by our direct mail, TV and radio campaigns, nobody would have had time to do a Web site. Now, [with] a 40 to 50 percent decrease in business, well, I have a lot of time now.” ...
Thomas B. Hudson - I was conducting an on-site dealership compliance audit of a buy here pay here store, looking over the dealership’s sales and F&I process from A to Z in an effort to decrease the dealership’s potential liability for violations of state and federal law. It’s a good thing that it was only lil’ ole me probing this dealership’s operation. If, instead, an FTC SWAT team had descended on the car lot, the dealer would be out of business ...