Ally Supports Dealer Portal as it Pushes Further Into Direct Lending
LAS VEGAS — Ally Financial Inc.’s President of Auto Finance Tim Russi believes the company’s new partnership with white label car buying portal Drive Motors won’t interfere with the lender’s proprietary direct lending platform Clearlane, he told Auto Finance News.
Earlier this month, Ally Financial Inc. was added as a preferred lender on the platform, which plugs into a dealer’s existing website to provide a digital buying experience. That’s in contrast to Clearlane, which is a third party website that offers consumers multiple finance offers to choose from.
“They are very synergistic in that the Drive Motors folks aren’t in the financing business, where financing is such a critical part of this equation,” Russi told AFN. “To be able to be a preferred lender [on Drive Motors] will only make both of our products better. They are the website part of the equation but you have to have the financing activity off of that.”
Drive Motors keeps car shoppers on a dealership’s website by overlaying a mobile-friendly portal on top of the page, rather than redirecting consumers to a new website, Matt Weinberg, senior vice president of consumer experience, explained to AFN during a demo at the National Automobile Dealers Association Expo.
“Most dealers are trying to figure out, ‘How do I offer this myself?’” Weinberg said. “From a dealer perspective if the consumer is not offered an online check out on my dealer website, what are they going to do? They are going to go somewhere else. … If I’m a dealer I’d rather keep them on my site as opposed to allowing them to go elsewhere to buy their car.”
Consumers can adjust the terms of their loan manually through the portal and Drive Motors will match them with one finance offer that tries to fulfill those requirements as the shopper’s credit score permits. When those loans fit Ally’s parameters it will be the preferred lender on deals, but other lenders in the dealership’s network will provide offers as well. Southeast Toyota Finance was one lender that emerged during the demo.
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