The American Repossessor

CARY, N.C. — Cherokee Automotive Group Analytics recently completed another round of polling and released results. The questions were asked to executives representing dealerships, auto auctions, banks, credit unions, financial companies, logistics and manufacturing.

Two primary topics were the focus of the latest survey — repossessions and remarketing

Repossession Trends

Reviewing these trends, CAG discovered that nearly 40 percent of participants had prime, near-prime and subprime loans in their portfolio. Meanwhile, more than one-fifth only had prime loans.

While 15.4 percent of portfolios had prime and near-prime loans, an equal percentage had portfolios entirely made up of subprime auto loans. Additionally, 7.7 percent had both prime and subprime loans.

Continuing on, nearly 30 percent of participants indicated that 2.25 percent of their portfolios are non-performing. Also, more than 40 percent noted that an average of 9 percent of their accounts were non-performing. Moreover, apparently 14.3 percent had a zero percent non-performing rate, and 14.3 percent had a 100 percent non-performing rate.

When questioned what automated software they use to manage repossessions, almost 45 percent said they use an unspecified software. More than two-fifths, or 42.8 percent, use OPENLANE or SmartAuction (21.4 percent each), and 15 percent use I-BEAM. Furthermore, 7.1 percent each use AutoIMS, Fiserv and RDN.

So how much money did the participants spend on average to train staff on software? According to the results, more than half did not spend any money. Almost 30 percent spent an average of $16,666.66.

Continuing on, a large majority of respondents, 75 percent, do not use GPS devices to help discover assets, while 25 percent do utilize these devices.

Given the current economy, another question CAG asked what whether repo policies are stricter, the same or more lenient. Two-thirds said their repo policies are more lenient, whereas 10 percent indicated they are stricter. Another 22 percent said they have the same policies they did a year ago.