Roughly two months after revealing new branding for its cloud-based consumer platform to buy, sell, lease and trade vehicles, PowerBand Solutions continued to develop its automotive technology portfolio — this time with an announcement on Tuesday involving MUSA Auto Finance.
PowerBand controls 60% MUSA’s leasing platform in the United States and is expecting to begin lease originations this month on its proprietary cloud-based platform for consumers and dealers.
The company indicated MUSA will be enabling consumers and dealers to access extensive funding facilities from national financial institutions through the platform. These exclusive finance arrangements with national financial institutions, which consumers and dealers will be able to access from smartphones and other digital devices, will be made public upon completion of each specific financing agreement, according to a news release.
“This is a major advancement for MUSA and PowerBand,” MUSA chief executive officer Jeff Morgan said. “We have a proprietary auto-lease platform that we believe is the first of its kind, and now we are finalizing exclusive agreements with national financial institutions, so we can roll out our technology to dealers and consumers nationally.”
MUSA is working to lead the modernization of the new- and pre-owned vehicle leasing experience, providing dealers and consumers with advanced online leasing options. The technology can take an application, calculate a lease, auto-decision the application, provide an approval back to dealer partners and prefills a lease contract accurately.
The company insisted approvals can occur in a few seconds. As a result of its proprietary technology, MUSA was awarded a contract by Tesla Motors to become a national leasing partner in 2018.
“I want to thank MUSA CEO Jeff Morgan and the MUSA team for their hard work and steadfast commitment to developing this innovation,” PowerBand chief executive officer Kelly Jennings said.
“Once all the financial institutions are onboarded, we anticipate the platform will be originating significant lease contracts for consumers and dealers. It will enable people to acquire just about any vehicle — electric and non-electric — from any location using a smart phone or other digital device,” Jennings continued.
The company also agreed to make PowerBand’s virtual transaction platform, which includes MUSA, available up to thousands of dealerships working with RouteOne LLC (“RouteOne”) in the United States and Canada.
RouteOne, which has a footprint of more than 16,000 dealers and 1,500 finance sources. provides a comprehensive suite of finance and insurance tools, ranging from credit applications and eContracting to digital retail and compliance.
The company continues with other negotiations to further the availability of credit facilities in the United States and Canada on the PowerBand platform, which the company intends to make “one of the world’s leading platforms in automotive retail for online transactions.”
One of the honorees among this year’s Emerging 8 appearing at this summer's Automotive Intelligence Summit now is operating under a new brand name.
On-demand auto leasing startup Rodo, previously known as Honcker, recently exited beta with a major update to its core product, bringing what it called “unprecedented transparency and efficiency” to the consumer-dealer relationship.
The venture-backed startup provides a three-step, digital leasing process for more than 150,000 vehicles from every major manufacturer, directly through its mobile app and website. Rodo can calculate personalized pricing for each customer. Rodo shoppers can finalize their lease and arrange for free home delivery, all without ever visiting a dealership.
Rodo also released its new rebates, incentives, coupons engine (RICE), which uses natural language processing and machine learning to find and extract all relevant discounts based on the individual shopper, applying them automatically to the monthly payment.
Given its scope and scalability, company leadership believes Rodo’s new technology platform has the potential to become the industry standard for all digital lease and finance transactions. To reflect this evolution of the brand and technology, and its ongoing commitment to positive change in the auto industry, Rodo partnered with Red Antler, a leading brand agency, to craft its new identity.
“The Honcker brand was about bringing the arduous auto leasing process into the 21st century. Now, with the core components in place, we can look towards improving everything around it,” said Nathan Hecht, chief executive officer and founder of Rodo.
“The re-brand to Rodo reflects our commitment to consumers: to elevate the car leasing experience to one that is worthy of the new car itself,” Hecht continued in a news release. “Rodo is about a fast, convenient, and transparent path to a new vehicle, all while ensuring the best possible price. This is a giant leap forward for the auto industry to finally bring the transaction online.”
As brick-and-mortar dealerships face increasing competition from e-commerce, the Rodo platform can function as an online extension of the dealer’s showroom, generating leases on their behalf and on their terms.
As of July, Rodo has achieved more than 500% growth in dealer partnerships year-over-year, with now more than 1,000 dealerships on the platform in 15 markets, generating thousands of leases for its partners nationwide.
“Local dealers are a vital part of our platform. We’re focused on making it easier for dealers to grow their own sales while lowering their overhead. These partnerships are also the reason that all of the vehicles on Rodo are actually available in real-time at the best price,” Hecht said.
“That’s not always the case in this industry, where many players are simply generating leads on vehicles that may or may not be on the lot and pricing remains ambiguous,” he went on to say.
Rodo is available for both iOS and Android and online at Rodo.com.
This week, Credit Union Leasing of America (CULA), launched a redesign to its proprietary lease management system, Seamless Lease Connection.
In an effort to leverage the U.S. vehicle leasing market that totals $64.6 billion according to Experian, CULA highlighted the upgraded Seamless portal features several enhancements and is now accessible anywhere with an Internet connection.
“With one third of consumers who purchase a vehicle opting to lease, leasing represents a huge opportunity for credit unions. Not only can credit unions increase yield and diversify their portfolios, they can also capture additional business from current members who want to lease and add new members,” CULA chairman Ken Sopp said in a news release.
“Seamless Lease Connection is just one more way that CULA reduces the complexity and resource burden of credit unions, giving them a turn-key vehicle leasing solution that deepens dealer relationships and improves the overall member experience,” Sopp continued.
Incorporating feedback from its credit union clients, CULA developed this version of Seamless in collaboration with Nowcom Corp., a leader in automotive and financial services management technology and a subsidiary of CULA parent company, The Hankey Group.
With the latest Seamless enhancements, CULA has reduced the time required to process a lease, which can improve productivity for both CULA and its clients.
Monika Favreau, lease program manager for Mission Federal Credit Union, is pleased with the new system.
“We love the new Seamless. Funding leases is faster and easier, and we appreciated the smooth roll out of the updated system,” Favreau said.
The new format also can enable CULA to be more agile in responding to clients’ needs due to the online platform that can allow CULA to make future improvements more efficiently.
Seamless Lease Connection is one component of CULA’s successful program and “this launch signifies another step forward in their ongoing evolution,” the company said.
“As the largest credit union leasing partner in the industry, CULA handles the entire lease process from origination to remarketing. CULA helps credit unions be more successful through their time-tested vehicle leasing solution,” the company went on to say.
Soon college students will be returning to campuses nationwide for the start of the fall semester.
Triggered by four primary reasons, Swapalease.com is providing students with a practical alternative to buying a vehicle that fits their needs, without tacking on crippling debt. Swapalease can allow students to take over a lease on their own terms.
Students can lease a vehicle for as little as three months, or up to three or four years, depending on their needs.
With hefty tuition prices rising each and every year, Swapalease.com pointed out that college students and their parents are bracing themselves for college expenses. The site pointed out that outstanding federal loan debt has reached almost $1.4 trillion to become the largest source of consumer debt after housing.
“There’s no doubt that students are cutting back on spending to avoid taking out more student loans,” Swapalease.com said.
In light of that situation, some of the top reasons college students are leasing today include:
— Leases are a short-term solution, providing students with a dependable car to last them through college years without sacrificing amenities and upgrades. The option of leasing gives students a goal to look forward to post-graduation, a new vehicle.
— Leased vehicles are typically newer, offering the latest tech features and ingenuity. They are less likely to run into problems, and most can help students navigate their new college town with built-in GPS systems.
— Vehicles that are leased are typically considered low risk. Students who lease don’t take on repair costs and vehicle maintenance in the way that car owners do. Since the dealership assumes the risk, students can focus on their studies — not vehicle repairs.
— Leasing a college vehicle is more cost effective. Drivers can pay as low as $130 a month, only paying for a portion of the vehicle price through the term, which is much less than purchasing the vehicle new at full price. What’s more, when a user takes over someone else’s lease through the Swapalease platform, there is no down payment since that has already been paid by the previous individual.
With the average price of a new vehicle costing consumers approximately $36,270, Swapalease.com said students can lease a new car for several years at a fraction of the price.
“When it comes to getting around on and off campus, parents want their students in a vehicle that is reliable and cost effective,” site officials said. “College students are not looking for long-term vehicle choices, as a four-year university is a short-term and temporary situation — at least for most students.”
