Lenders were busy fine-tuning their programs — lowering down payments, adding new vehicle models, and introducing brand new products. These are the top lender changes that readers were paying attention to.
MotoLease adds retail installments
MotoLease expanded its product offerings to include finance loans under a new subsidiary called MotoLoan. Los Angeles-based MotoLease formed the subsidiary to reach consumers who prefer traditional financing over leasing. The MotoLoan program covers every powersports vehicle type — including motorcycles, ATVs and jet skis — in credit tiers ranging from prime to subprime.
ThunderRoad pilots PWC program in southern states
Back in August, ThunderRoad Financial launched a personal watercraft pilot program in southeastern states, including Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. ThunderRoad chose those states after seeing that — outside of OEM captives and partners — dealers had fewer finance options for PWCs than for other vehicles. Reno, Nev.-based ThunderRoad will finance every brand of PWC, both new and used, and plans to roll out the program to its entire dealer network in the first quarter of 2020.
Lessors expand product offerings
Powersports lessors Speed Leasing and Fuel Capital Group expanded their lease offerings in February to include Indian Motorcycles. Previously, both lessors financed only Harley-Davidsons. Both companies’ Indian lease programs cover model years from 2014 to 2018 for consumers of all credit tiers. Fuel Capital further expanded its program in July by adding 12 metric brands, which included Honda, Kawasaki and KTM.
Roadrunner widens credit scope for Sea-Doo
In May, Roadrunner Financial expanded its Sea-Doo program with BRP to finance customers down to a 580 FICO score. Formerly, a 600 credit score was the minimum that the lender would underwrite, but Roadrunner wanted to give dealers more opportunities to sell units. Additionally, Roadrunner expanded the program’s maximum loan term to 60 months from 48 months.
ACW lowers down payment
American Cycle Finance changed its lending guidelines in February to allow consumers to make lower down payments. The changes were spurred, in part, by fraud-prevention tools the lender implemented in 2018. The fraud tools help catch consumer fraud such as incorrect information on applications, so the lender felt more confident in lowering the down payment for consumers who weren’t flagged by the software. Despite lower down payments being riskier for the lender, the guideline changes drove “significant” origination growth during March, President Ben Donnarumma told PSF.