I have been in F&I for fourteen years. I am good at it. I have made real money doing it. And I want to be honest about something that nobody in this role says in a professional setting. A significant portion of what we do is structured to extract maximum revenue from people who do not fully understand what they are signing. The four-square is designed to obscure the total cost. The payment focus is designed to move attention away from the total cost. The product menu is presented in a sequence designed to normalize each addition after the last one. I did not design these systems. I was trained on them. They work. They are also, for a meaningful percentage of our customers, genuinely harmful. The customer who stretches to a 72-month loan and adds a GAP product and a service contract and a paint protection package on a car they can barely afford is not walking out better off because I did my job well. The FTC has been trying to address this for years and the industry has fought every attempt tooth and nail including through NADA lobbying. I am not saying I am leaving the business. I am saying that the people who act like F&I reform is an attack on honest professionals are not being fully honest about what the business actually does at the margin.
Some of y'all should have or…
Some of y'all should have or could have been thrown in jail years ago.
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