2018 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

Print > Regular Department > Heartland

Awarded to

Hannah Lutz, Staff Reporter; Karen Faust O'Rourke, News Editor; Editorial Staff

Entry details

F&I Insight

Issue date (if applicable): 3/13/2017
Publication name: Automotive News
Publishing company: Crain Communications Inc.
Website home page: autonews.com

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

Automotive News serves automakers, suppliers and dealers. Our 57,000 paid subscribers are split roughly into thirds: dealers; automakers and suppliers; and others. Our mission is to be the primary source of industry news, data and insight for the industry’s decision makers. We provide our audience the information they need, in a timely manner and in the format that they desire. Automotive News (in weekly tabloid print, digital and e-newsletter formats), autonews.com, related magazines, our daily webcasts -- First Shift in the a.m. and AutoNews Now in the p.m. -- and our specialized e-newsletters are part of Crain Communications. Our paywalled website has 340,000 registered users and averages 2.2 million visits a month, with 1.3 million unique visitors. Our 56 full-time editorial staffers produce almost all of our online and print content. Our coverage includes regular monthly pages/departments: Production Line, Connected Car, Marketing, Finance & Insurance, Fixed Operations, and Remarketing. The first is devoted to supplier/technology news; the last three to key dealership profit centers. Industry executives pay up to $1,500 to attend our annual events, proof that they see value in those events. These include (with 2017 attendance): Automotive News World Congress (1,000+), L.A. and N.Y. marketing seminars (700; 400); Best Dealerships To Work For seminars and dinner (400+), and PACE awards for supplier innovation (400).

Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

The F&I Insight is devoted to the Finance & Insurance operations at dealerships—where staffers help consumers get financed and sell them extended service contracts, for example. F&I vies with used cars as the second most-profitable dealership operation, after service, so this quarterly department is read closely by our dealership audience. Each of these three Insights focuses on a critical trend.
The debate over online car sales and what they might mean for F&I revenue, plus the legal and cybersecurity implications, arose from the question of whether ecommerce will overtake dealerships.
Negative equity – consumers’ owing more on their car loan than the vehicle is worth – had been referenced by analysts and in news articles, but we examined the levers that propelled its growth to record levels and what might come next. Through our data analysis and illustrations, a complicated subject became more digestible for readers. We also tapped an exclusive consumer poll run to see brand-by-brand how consumers who were upside-down on their loan dealt with the problem.
Fraud was a hot but touchy topic. Staffers spent two months gathering string and convincing dealers and lenders to talk, even if off the record. Some lenders were reluctant to discuss their fraud experiences for fear that readers would lose trust in them or that peers would judge them. Others were reluctant to share fraud-fighting tactics with competitors. Eventually, we spoke with more than 20 sources inside and outside the auto industry.

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