Car dealers react to proposed reforms

MOSES LAKE — Local auto dealers shared mixed reactions to proposed federal legislation which some say would make credit harder to obtain.

The legislation creates a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection to regulate lending.

Two dealers in the Columbia Basin were opposed to the legislation because it’s unclear how dealer-assisted financing would be affected.

The American Auto Dealers Association (ADA) states the legislation would hurt middle-class Americans who rely on their cars to drive to work.

The legislation is targeting those working on “Main Street,” not Wall Street.

But one dealer said he supported the proposal because reforms are needed in the areas of dealer kickbacks and spot deliveries.

Jacie Dashel, an owner of Discovery Ford and Honda in Moses Lake, said she was concerned about how the bill impacts dealer-assisted financing, in which a dealer submits customer information to a bank for car loans.

“It’s a real convenience for about 90 percent of our customers who finance, instead of going out and getting their own financing,” Daschel said.

“We’re not sure what it’s going to do in that respect,” she said. “We’re pretty much regulated already, in terms of both federal and state … We’re really concerned about the ability to help our customers get financed.”

There is an amendment to the bill from Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, to refine the legislation and only include organizations lending money, not the dealers themselves.

According to the amendment, lenders like banks, automakers’ finance companies and credit unions would be affected.

Rich Childress, owner of C&V Auto in Moses Lake, said credit is tough to come by.

“It’s already difficult right now,” he said.

He spoke of his concerns about the government getting involved in the banking business.

There’s a truism with the banking industry that one has to take the bad with the good, he said.

“Nothing’s going to happen in this country, if they loan to people with great beacon scores,” Childress said.

It’s important that there be diversified customers with a range of credit scores because businesses won’t be able to sustain themselves, he commented.

Denver Morford, owner of Barry Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Ephrata, says he educates customers about the pitfalls of spot deliveries, in which a customer is immediately approved for a car purchase.

The customer can later be contacted for more money when additional details emerge from a credit check.

The legislation would also limit a kickback for dealerships that adds points to a car loan’s interest rate, he said

“They’re looking to limit that because they’re finding it’s a discriminatory practice,” Morford explained.

It’s been found that people who are not as affluent are susceptible to that scheme, he said.

Morford spoke of the importance of leveling the playing field, limiting markups and eliminating some of the loopholes that can exist.

“If you standardize a lot of these rules for the people’s best interest, I don’t see how it can go wrong,” he commented.