CU Resources Spotlight
GrooveCar, Inc.
How do you marry the automotive needs of your credit
union members in a rapidly changing environment?
With extra care and aplomb if you follow the example
of financial intermediary GrooveCar, Inc., which Credit Union Times
calls one of the top five producers in the nation.
GrooveCar provides a comprehensive array of
automobile and automotive services and products – shopping, buying,
financing, leasing, ownership – for credit unions and credit union
members, as well as access to motorcycles, recreational vehicles and
boats. Since its beginning in 2000, David Jacobson and his Hauppauge,
LI-based team has attracted a network of over 20 credit unions and 300
dealerships, which stands out against larger and older established peers.
Not content with the status quo, Jacobson, an
auto veteran and partner in one of the Tri-State region’s largest
automotive companies, founded GrooveCar to help facilitate the
relationship between credit unions and dealers. And, the company has
managed to do precisely that.
Leasing was a missing link in the GrooveCar inventory
until it entered this sector recently by allying with Fusion Auto Finance,
a Dallas area specialist. The partnership permits GrooveCar to provide
turn-key retail and balloon lease programs for credit unions in which
Fusion will safeguard against risk by guaranteeing lenders the full
balloon/residual value at the end of a lease. Not only will this linkage
benefit the end user – the credit union member – but it allows GrooveCar
to span out across the country and break out of the metro New York market,
where it has been a mainstay.
But, this is merely icing on the cake.
Jacobson, who authored Non-Confrontational Power
Selling and is a recognized speaker at national automotive gatherings,
has his sights set on launching a GrooveCar consulting practice in 2007.
Reaching out to a Credit Union constituency that has
been outsourcing or self-managing an automotive indirect lending effort,
but not necessarily getting the desired results and perhaps in need of
expert assistance, he envisions a consulting practice to help facilitate
those needs.
With a “working title” of Automotive Indirect
Lending, the soon-to-be GrooveCar practice unit has a tailored approach to
work with credit unions throughout the country. This initiative will
enable them to establish a program, secure the best technology to fit
those needs, offer “remarketing” to dispose of repossessed vehicles and
off-lease vehicles and assist in the leasing process, where none may have
existed before.
This follows on the heels of a just-concluded
remarketing agreement with ADESA Long Island, a subsidiary of ADESA, Inc.,
North America’s largest publicly traded provider of wholesale vehicle
auctions and used vehicle dealer floorplan financing. The agreement is
part of GrooveCar’s initiative to help credit union and auto dealer
constituencies align themselves with more effective inventory solutions.
And, to both expedite and facilitate, GrooveCar’s
revamped Web site will shortly be on-line to enable 24/7 access and
complemented by a fully-functional national call center that will be
operational in the first quarter of 2007.
You could
easily argue that GrooveCar is a real mover and shaker and very few would
disagree.
More information on the
company and their services.
December 1, 2006
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