Auto Dealers–This is a warning ⚠️

Jason DeMeo aka Jay 2.0
May 5
2 min read

Auto dealers—this is a warning ⚠️

If you ignore what’s coming, your business *will* feel it.

Special Finance isn’t about putting a customer on a vehicle, getting their hopes up, and “shotgunning” their credit app to multiple banks—only to end in turn-downs, disappointment, and sending them off to Buy-Here-Pay-Here lots to overpay for a 150k-mile vehicle. That approach costs you the sale and traps the customer. Nobody wins.

If you don’t think that’s accurate, you’re in denial. If it weren’t true, why are Buy-Here-Pay-Here lots taking over every corner of the market?

Buyers aren’t prepared. Most dealerships aren’t either. And the next shift is already underway—impacting the middle and lower class harder than anyone wants to admit. I’ve compiled a full report with data that breaks this down, but here’s the reality in plain sight:

Home Purchase / Refinance → Credit Card Debt → COVID Auto Purchases → Debt Consolidation Loans → Inflation → Rising Credit Card Balances → Warranties Expiring (2025) → Q1 2026, 1 in 4 consumers are $10K+ upside down, the 1st and 2nd time buyers are coming to a close - hence the dealer pre-owned inventory problem forcing auction and outside buying → And now… the last option left: Consumer Bankruptcy.

For the past 6+ years, bankruptcy has been almost nonexistent. Why?

Because lenders introduced unsecured debt consolidation loans—$20K, $30K, even $75K—with no collateral. That temporarily masked the problem. It didn’t solve it.

Now that cycle is closing.

What happens next will separate the dealers who adapt from the ones who fall behind.

If you’re not aggressively implementing:

• Special Finance

• Subprime Finance

• Last Chance Auto Sales Programs

—you’re leaving deals on the table *and* exposing your store to a shrinking qualified buyer pool.

This isn’t futuristic. It’s already happening.

The dealers who win in this next chapter will be the ones who know how to structure deals, work lenders, and train their teams to navigate credit-challenged buyers the right way.

If you don’t have that dialed in, you’re going to feel it in your numbers.

I can help you fix that—and increase your car sales in the process.