Full Up-Front Disclosure of Costs and Conditions
- Requirement to make key disclosures to consumers, including providing a true “out-the-door vehicle price”, excluding only taxes and government fees
- Requirement to make disclosures about optional add-on fees, including their price and the fact that they are not a condition of purchasing or leasing the vehicle
- Required disclosures to consumers with key information on financing terms
Sales Process Disclosures
New and separate disclosure documents from initial sales cycle to final close:- Creating potentially duplicate forms or disclosures that overlap
- Creating more confusion for the consumer
- Increased likelihood that a dealer will fail at proper implementation, even with good intentions
Questions to submit to the FTC:
- The proposal asserts that dealers need to disclose the vehicle cost and product ‘add-ons’ at the time of initial in-person, or any digital, communication with the consumer (i.e., via CRM or text) and at various documented points during the sales process. Is this text history realistic?
- During such disclosure, the dealer gains consumer and sales management’s acknowledgment (date stamped, tracked, and retained for a period of greater than 24 months). Will this result in a mandatory digital sales process? If a consumer opts to NOT take part in a digital sales process (at any time during the sales cycle – as currently allowable in the law), will that double the paperwork necessary to comply?
- The FTC is also asking for F&I products to have an “affirmative act communicating unambiguous assent,” not just an initialed document or checked boxes. This sets precedence to revise all contract laws in place for decades and “unambiguous” can be subjective in definition – IF the FTC is going to move in this direction, will they provide CLEAR templates of acceptable format and language?