Using a prerecorded session showing an actual customer purchase, executives last week demonstrated a Clicklane transaction.
It starts with the vehicle trade and allows customers to input payoff data for a current vehicle and apply equity in that vehicle to the new deal. Customers enter their desired down payment and select a credit score range ahead of a credit check.
The platform incorporates automaker rebates and tailors finance-and-insurance products to a VIN and to customer driving habits. Carried over from Push Start is a lending marketplace, now with access to more than 30 lenders.
Trade-in values and loan payoff amounts accurate to the penny are central to the platform, executives said. The process is secure and compliant, Maric said, and the offer presented to the customer at the end of the process “isn’t an estimate.”
“This isn’t, ‘Hey, come into the dealership for an appointment,’ ” Maric said. “This is a real approval.”
Asbury’s demonstration generated positive remarks from some analysts.
“We believe Clicklane represents the future of car buying, which will be adopted in some capacity by all well capitalized dealership groups operating at scale,” Rick Nelson of Stephens said in a research note. The shift will enable “substantial market share gains at the expense of smaller independent dealerships in this highly fragmented industry.”
