As car buyers face economic challenges such as inflation and rising interest rates, lenders and dealers need to get more familiar with sales and lending market data to give borrowers the appropriate financing, Satyan Merchant, senior vice president and auto business lead at TransUnion, tells Automotive News.
Lenders and dealers could keep an eye on where the deals are going and what vendors are providing financing for certain types of deals, he said. Dealer and lender relationships can be strengthened or expanded even, Merchant said.
“There could be certain lending institutions that are more willing to do the extended-term loan services, and a dealer should be aware of that,” he said. “It helps the dealer, helps the lender, but it also helps the consumer. It’s all market making between the lender and dealer, and if they can make an efficient market pair up in the most efficient way, then I think it creates more opportunities for borrowers to be put into the right loan.”