MONTVALE, N.J. -

Say a shopper interested in buying a certified pre-owned vehicle walks onto a dealer’s lot and his or her credit isn’t mature yet, or perhaps it has taken some lumps.

That’s one area where Scott Penza has found the F&I element of CPO has come in handy for his dealers.

“F&I is integral to the selling process. Though not everyone will take advantage of offers, special financing does resonate with customers and enhances the process as they shop models,” said Penza, the manager of pre-owned operations at Mercedes-Benz USA.

“For dealers, it is especially helpful where challenges might exist with young credit or blemished credit,” he continued. “Having a strong relationship with our captive allows us as the manufacturer to stay flexible as our needs change with the changes in mix and seasonality.

“In turn we can deliver a program to our dealers to support them when they need it and back off when they don’t,” Penza noted. “Having a realistic advance policy also helps support our dealers and customers with opportunities on extended limited warranties, service contracts and accessories to name a few.”

Other CPO managers are seeing similar benefits from the F&I element in their respective certified programs.

At General Motors, for example, Larry Pryg has found that the benefits of CPO financing are multi-fold for dealers and the automaker. He explained how the fruits of certified financing can snowball.

“Dealers value the ability to have a competitive finance option for their CPO customers. Not all CPO OEM’s offer this type of support,” said Pryg, the national manager of the Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles program at GM.

“An attractive offer also gives the OEM the ability to implement special ‘sales events’ which leverage our online shopping sites to promote on the dealers’ behalf which then increase interest and shopping of CPO vehicles — ultimately helping to drive increased traffic to our dealers,” he continued.

See what other CPO leaders across the country had to say about the integral role of F&I in the certified sales process in the July 15 print edition of Auto Remarketing, in addition to other key CPO insights included in the issue.