A significant number of dealers are doing well with point-of-sale finance, according to research by CAP, which found that 20% said they had increased their sales compared with the first quarter of last year.

But 41% said they were still losing finance business, while a further 18% reported they had seen little or no change.

Of those dealers who were prepared to reveal more detail about their changing finance sales, the most extreme positive and negative cases reported increases or decreases of up to 50%.

“This research suggests that overall finance sales are down for dealers by 6.5%,” says CAP.

One in three dealers believed F&I deals could be found elsewhere.

Half of the dealers questioned reported that customers arrived at their dealer-ships after arranging their F&I before buying a car.