For the second straight year, Security Service Credit Union took the top spot in overall performance in an exclusive ranking of dealer preferences about the finance providers they use.
The survey, called the Auto Finance Performance (AFP) data query and conducted by Auto Finance News, quantifies and ranks lenders on service, pricing, representatives, and products — the four broad categories that drive dealers’ decisions about financing. The rankings drill down into each category to generate granular data to isolate areas in which lenders are doing well, and to identify areas where there is room for improvement. The AFP data has been analyzed based on prime versus subprime, by dealership size, floorplan participation, and geography, among other factors.
Once again, overall lender performance was higher. Dealers scored lenders 7.93 of a possible 10, an improvement over last year’s 7.77 average. SunTrust Bank, Ford Motor Credit, Bank of America and Citizens One Auto rounded out the ranking of the Top 5 companies.
“For the second straight year, we’ve noticed a positive trend among lenders, heading toward the 8-point mark on performance,” says Marcie Belles, vice president of auto finance at Auto Finance News parent company Royal Media. “In other words, lenders are doing a better job year over year managing dealers’ expectations. Still, there’s room to improve, and the AFP identifies those specific opportunities for lenders.”
The Top 10 Companies with best overall performance scores for 2016 were:
- Security Service FCU
- SunTrust Bank
- Ford Motor Credit
- Bank of America
- Citizens One Auto Finance
- Toyota Financial Services
- Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp.
- First Niagara Bank
- Huntington Auto Finance
- PNC Dealer Finance
The report clearly shows that bigger doesn’t always mean better, as evidenced in a comparison of overall performance rank in the AFP with lenders’ standing in the Big Wheels Auto Finance (www.bigwheelsdata.com) ranking of the nation’s top 100 car lenders and lessors. Among the top 20 lenders by overall AFP score, portfolios ranged from $86.4 billion at Toyota Financial Services to $2.4 billion at First Niagara Bank. Security Service FCU, which ranked 1st in the Auto Finance Performance data, was 30th in the Big Wheels ranking with a $5.5 billion portfolio.
The 2016 AFP is the fourth annual tabulation of this data with a total of 4,334 dealers responding to the query. The dealers came from across the nation and credit spectrum, with no particular concentration in either.
About Auto Finance Performance
Published annually since 2013, the Auto Finance Performance Report quantifies and ranks lenders on service, pricing, representatives, and products — the four broad categories that drive dealers’ decisions about financing. The rankings drill down into each category to generate granular data to isolate areas in which lenders are doing well, and to identify areas where there is room for improvement. The AFP data has been analyzed based on prime versus subprime, by dealership size, floorplan participation, and geography, among other factors.
Auto Finance Performance is published by Auto Finance News, a unit of Royal Media. Since 1996, Auto Finance News has been the newsletter of record for the auto lending and leasing market.
Additional information on the report and expert commentary on the findings are available through Marcie Belles, a 20-year Auto Finance industry veteran and author of the report. Marcie can be reached at mdbelles@royalmedia.com or (212) 991-6733.
