ISELIN, N.J. -

The insurance portion of potential F&I activities at the dealership might have gotten a boost via a move by Darwin Automotive and Fetch.

This week, Darwin announced that its platform is now seamlessly integrated with Fetch, an electronic auto insurance comparison site that specializes in insurance carriers that offer policies for people with all types of income, credit and driving histories.

The online marketplace can enable users to shop, compare rates, and purchase auto insurance all online in just minutes. Vehicle insurance is now inserted into the automated F&I process on the Darwin platform at no additional cost to dealership partners.

“Our partnership with Fetch is a gamechanger for the industry. For the first time, consumer insurance is now a seamless part of the automated F&I process for the dealership,” Darwin Automotive chief executive officer Phillip Battista said in a news release.

“As part of the vehicle delivery process, the customer can go online, fill out the information and in minutes get multiple quotes from insurance companies negotiating against each other,” Battista continued. “Similar to LendingTree for home loans, insurance companies are competing for business.

“With no human involvement, a customer can research, compare to their existing rates, and often save money for premier-level insurance. This is a brand-new profit opportunity for our dealership partners, and we are excited to be the first to integrate this into the F&I process,” he went on to say.

According to Fetch chief executive officer Fred Rector, Fetch is a closed platform that is an integrated customer-driven insurance solution designed for both virtual and brick-and-mortar dealerships.

“We limit the number of options offered to approximately four as we don’t want to compete with the auto sale but aim to complement it and avoid paralysis by analysis with a finite number of choices. At that point, the consumer can decide what they can afford, purchase insurance, and drive the vehicle off the lot,” Rector said in the news release.

Darwin explained that it added this functionality to enable its dealer clients to offer consumers discounted auto insurance from premium carriers in a matter of minutes without the need for human interaction. Consumers can now transact in-store, or online, and at any time with the dealership and solve their auto insurance needs.

“Darwin is considered to be the only truly transactional platform in the industry. The Fetch integration seamlessly adds auto vehicle insurance as part of the process that already includes e-contracting, fully digital F&I, and compliance and disclosure while still returning a profitable deal to the dealership,” Battista said.

Darwin Automotive currently operates in all 50 states with more than 8,500 dealerships subscribed to its programs. The company said it is on track to deliver 8.5 million units on the platform this year.

It’s numbers like those that have Rector enthused about the new integration.

“To say we are excited about this relationship would be an understatement,” Rector said. “An association with a company such as Darwin is flattering at the very minimum, it is a big deal. Darwin has done such a great job designing their platform. The company also has a lot of similar traits to Fetch They found a problem with a finance product and we found a problem with an insurance product, and then fixed it.”

For more information, or to schedule a product demonstration, call (732) 781-9010 or visit darwinautomotive.com.