IAS News and Press
Lawsuits on the rise, SmartEye in demand
Jun 14, 2002
Car dealerships across the country have received much attention in the media and the auto industry as a whole recently. The attention stems from the increasing number of lawsuits being filed against them.
As a result, dealerships are under more pressure to properly disclose all information to customers in the F&I office. As many dealership's F&I practices come under scrutiny, IAS already has the solution in its suite of SmartDealerProductsSM software.
The April 8th issue of Car Dealer Insider acknowledged that two trends have emerged among dealerships successful in keeping their F&I practices ethical: transaction filming and menu selling. The same article makes reference to SmartEye, mentioning that, "at least one company, Innovative Aftermarket Systems, has begun offering dealers digital video gear that lets you store and maintain the film on computer hard drives and discs for easy retrieval."
Another lawsuit that made headlines recently in the Star Tribune concerns the Walser Automotive Group. In response to complaints made against their dealerships, they made an agreement with the Minnesota attorney general's office to tape record the sales of service contracts and other optional products they offer to their customers. This settlement is a direct result of the numerous complaints received by the attorney general's office about Walser's F&I practices.
This case was also featured in Automotive News. The amount of publicity this issue is receiving helps dealers realize the importance of being aware of what is happening in their F&I office and the importance of maintaining high ethical standards.
Once again, SmartTrac, SmartEye and SmartMenu can help prevent similar problems in the F&I office by helping business managers provide full disclosure and compliance, not to mention the training benefits of critiquing actual transactions.
About SmartDealerProducts from IAS
SmartDealerProducts from IAS is the leading provider of revolutionary F&I software solutions for the automotive industry since 1984. SmartDealerProducts three step process is uniquely designed to maximize profit potential and increase customer satisfaction index (CSI) scores for automotive dealerships. SmartTrac, is an innovative presentation tool provides important F&I product information to retail consumers. SmartMenu allows dealerships to sell more products by providing professional, customized F&I menus for each and every customer, in seconds. The last step in the process, SmartEye, digitally records the transaction to monitor the process for training, legality and quality assurance. For more information, please visit www.smartdealerproducts.com.