Finance source for smaller dealers

[BPFUNK]

$750? That seems expensive. I am remembering the monthly subscription only being like $350. I could be remembering it wrong.

Yeah $750 seemed expensive to me as well. At some point thats fine, but the CUDL offering was much more helpful for local deals but less so out of state. Hoping to just develop a go-to contact for all our buyers...

 

[BillVaughnKMC]

Best of luck. @Tallcool1 is a PHENOMENAL source of information for a store like yours. Trust him.

 

[Tallcool1]

Best of luck. @Tallcool1 is a PHENOMENAL source of information for a store like yours. Trust him.

Thanks Bill. Yes, it used to be $350 as you remember. CUDL has done a really good job of slowly and steadily raising the fee. I believe mine is now $615. However, it is worth every penny. I have one lender that I use outside of CUDL and ironically it is another Credit Union that prefers RouteOne to CUDL...probably because the lender fees are so much lower. I am not sure.

 

[Tallcool1]

Thanks for the response...I'll have to dig up a contact at Credit Union of Colorado. We snuck our way into CUDL for a short period of time, but couldn't justify the monthly fee for our deal flow (It was like $750 a month). Many of our deals tend to be out of state, so a go-to national lender that has a polished customer experience what I need in a perfect world.

Trina Larson
[email protected]
(303)906-1368

 

[AutoDealerTomUT]

Has anyone had success getting into CUDL recently? We’re an independent dealership that’s been operating for about 1 year and 8 months, and the CUDL reps in our region keep changing the signup requirements.

When we first contacted CUDL, we were told we needed $2M in annual revenue. When we hit that, it became $3M and 2 years in business. Now, as we approach the two-year mark, they’re saying $4M and 4 years. Each time we reach out, the requirements seem to move higher.

For context, our growth has been steady:

• 2024 (first year with 10 months in business): $2M in sales, 154 deals
• 2025 YTD (another 10 months): $2.9M in sales, 220 deals, on track for $3.4 to $3.7M by EOY
• Loan mix: 166 direct loans, 60 indirect, remainder cash deals

We’ve also completed around 70 deals with a major local credit union, but they recently said that independent dealers here must have in-state titles and non-floored inventory unless they’re on CUDL. That’s going to start to impacting us significantly as we floor most of our inventory and buy out of state vehicles. This credit union has been were a large portion of our prime customers go to get $0 down deals or roll over negative equity. None of our indirect lenders we partner with seem to like $0 down or negative equity and we can't seem to find a lender that deals with these situations. I've also reached out to the top 5 credit unions in my area to see if they'll work with us as an indirect partner, but no one has wanted to work with us without CUDL.

Any help/tips on getting into CUDL would be appreciated.

 

[Auntess]

Hello Everyone,
My name is Irina. I opened a used car dealership about 4 years ago in SoCal.
We try to specialize in modified cars. We also have regular cars in stock (no salvage). About 20 - 25 cars on the lot.
Business is doing great but we've always struggled when customers wanted to finance with us.
We have small amount of lenders that we signed up with (Westlake (so bad), Tustin Community Bank, Signal auto etc)

We've been trying to get into CUDL but they require above $3 million is gross sales a year. We are not quite there yet.

A lot of local credit unions are working with dealers like us only through CUDL.
A lot of lenders have unacceptable high APR and terms are bad for us and for prime customers.

I can't turn customers away anymore and tell them go get finance with your credit union first and then come back and buy the car from us.
It's very inconvenient and unprofessional.

Does anyone have any kind of source or platform or maybe smaller credit unions in SoCal (Los Angeles area) that can work with us? through route one for example?
Or anything similar like CUDL?
We really need more finance sources for Prime deals.


By the way, as a temporary workaround while we're hunting for more prime lenders, I’ve started referring some of my clients who need a quicker setup to sacramentoonlineloans.com. It’s not a full-scale dealership integration, but for those who are stuck in the "finance trap" with limited options, it’s been a solid way to keep the deal alive rather than losing the customer entirely.

Thank you in advance.

Congrats on growing the business. Getting customers through the financing process is often one of the biggest hurdles for independent dealers.

If CUDL isn't an option yet, I'd focus on building relationships directly with local and regional banks or credit unions that are open to working with independent dealers. Sometimes smaller institutions are more flexible than the larger networks, especially if you have a solid track record with low default rates and clean documentation.

 

[Lending Mojo]

Congrats on growing the business. Getting customers through the financing process is often one of the biggest hurdles for independent dealers.

If CUDL isn't an option yet, I'd focus on building relationships directly with local and regional banks or credit unions that are open to working with independent dealers. Sometimes smaller institutions are more flexible than the larger networks, especially if you have a solid track record with low default rates and clean documentation.

Happy to assist ANY independent dealer that needs financing for better credit customers (650+ fico). We have have national lenders we work with directly and do not charge a monthly fee to join. For more information: [email protected] or 855-GET-MOJO