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HOUSTON — Five of the largest publicly traded dealer groups
all watched their finance and insurance segments strengthen during the second
quarter as new- and used-sales volumes climbed across the board for these
companies.

What's triggering the F&I surge? For Group 1 Automotive,
Peter DeLongchamps quantified the company's record F&I gross profit per
unit sold by telling investment analysts that, "I will tell you that certainly
low interest rates are a tailwind for the F&I business. There's no question
about that.

Group 1 generated $1,191 in gross profit per retailed unit
in connection with its F&I work. DeLongchamps, the company's vice president
of financial services and manufacturer relations, elaborated about the strong
performance when Group 1 revealed its second-quarter financial statement
earlier this week.

"We continue to work on our processes," DeLongchamps said in
light of Group 1 posted $65.4 million in F&I revenue during the quarter, a
40.7 percent climb year-over-year.

"We redoubled our efforts on training. We're really paying
close attention to the non-performing stores," he continued. "I've got seven
regional finance directors that are executing on the plan. It's just a lot of
hard work and basic fundamentals on doing business the right way."

No matter the processes in place, DeLongchamps also pointed
out how the general availability of credit into the automotive industry plays
an important role, too.

"The credit availability is robust. The relationship that we
have with our key lenders is probably at an all-time high. Accessing credit at
our dealerships is not an issue," DeLongchamps highlighted.

Group 1 wasn't the only large public dealer group to enjoy
F&I success during the second quarter.

Asbury Automotive Group generated a 21-percent rise
year-over-year in second quarter F&I revenue as the figure increased to
$42.8 million. Asbury garnered $1,200 in F&I gross profit per retail
vehicle sold, marking a rise of 8 percent year-over-year for a development that
greatly helped the company's bottom line.

Asbury executive vice president and chief operating officer
Michael Kearney noted in a conference call this week, "Consistent with what we
are seeing across our industry, retail margins continue to be under pressure as
Japanese branded inventory levels and sales volumes recover.  However, we again demonstrated the diversity
of our business by delivering growth in both F&I and parts and service
gross profit."

Like at Group 1, Kearney mentioned how training is helping
Asbury's F&I performance.

"In addition to excellent F&I process execution and our
continuous training program, we continue to enhance our regional finance team management,"
Kearney explained. "As part of this process, we are creating a more
customer-facing experience while increasing productivity.

"We continue to be the beneficiaries of the much-improved
lending environment, higher advance rate, consistent application of lender
requirements and aggressive lease terms," he added.

Over at Sonic Automotive, the company's second-quarter
F&I revenue moved up from $55.3 million to $65.3 million year-over-year.

Meanwhile, Lithia Motors determined F&I constituted 3.3
percent of total second-quarter revenue, up from 3.1 percent a year earlier.
Lithia said its F&I gross profit per unit sold shot up 55 percent to $1,059
from $1,004.

Furthermore, AutoNation boasted a $46 year-over-year climb
in F&I gross profit per unit retailed as executives said recently the
figure settled at $1,282.