Auto dealers that sell new vehicles nationwide rely on their Finance and Insurance (“F&I”) departments as an important source of earnings. While top-line revenue from the F&I department is typically a small portion of a new car dealership’s total revenue mix, these departments have much more favorable margins than their counterparts in the selling division. For used dealers without subsidiary captive finance operations, third-party lenders play a larger role in the financing process, and the economics tend to differ from those of their new vehicle-selling counterparts. In this week’s post, we review current themes in auto finance and lay out new developments and changes since last year.