Along with announcing that it would be leveraging a tool from Dealertrack, Westlake Financial Services named its 2018 Auction of the Year winner as well as gave accolades to auctions in four other regions.

The top accolade as Westlake’s 2018 Auction of the Year went to America’s Auto Auction Harrisburg.

“We are happy to congratulate our 2018 Auction of the Year winner America’s Auto Auction Harrisburg. They are a great partner and together, we look forward to continuing our growth,” Westlake Financial Services vice president of remarketing William Walters.

Westlake also highlighted that its 2018 top regional auction performers included:

— Northeast Region Winner: America’s Auto Auction Harrisburg

— Midwest Region Winner: Manheim Nashville

— Pacific Region Winner: ADESA Sacramento Brashers

— Southeast Region Winner: Manheim North Carolina

— West Region Winner: Manheim Phoenix 

Each year. Westlake grades auctions based on sales and service levels including sales of Westlake remarketed units with the highest MMR percentage. Westlake recognizes top performing auctions in each region with the highest graded auction receiving the Auction of the Year award.

“We are proud to be working with all our auctions and I want to congratulate the top five,” Westlake chief financial officer Paul Kerwin. “We hope to continue our success alongside each of these groups.”

Westlake partners with auctions nationwide to sell thousands of used vehicles each month. Many units are sold with Westlake’s Buy with Confidence Guarantee, which is geared to give dealers peace of mind they are purchasing quality units.

Additionally, Westlake offers a Dealer Loyalty Program in which retailers can receive discounts when Westlake units are purchased at auctions and financed through Westlake.

Operators interested in learning more can contact the remarketing department and check upcoming sales by going to www.westlakefinancial.com/Remarketing.

Westlake picks Dealertrack title tool

In other company news, Westlake Financial Services has chosen Dealertrack Accelerated Title in an attempt to provide dealers with a quicker and more efficient way to handle the payoff and title release process for trade-ins.

With 30 years of experience in the auto finance industry, Westlake Financial Services is a full-spectrum lender that helps dealerships finance customers in all credit categories, including first-time, prime and sub-prime buyers. Using Dealertrack’s Accelerated Title solution will enable Westlake to streamline its transactions and reduce processing costs by delivering a faster title turnaround service.

Dealertrack said the process of obtaining a payoff quote, manually writing checks to pay off a traded-in vehicle and obtaining the title from the finance company can often take anywhere from 12 to 18 days or more. With Dealertrack’s Accelerated Title solution, Westlake Financial Services can now deliver substantial cost savings by facilitating faster electronic payments to finance companies and completing title release for dealerships in just four to six days. That process can speed the standard payoff and release process by 70 percent.

As dealerships continue to face the challenges of margin compression, Dealertrack insisted implementing innovative solutions to optimize efficiency and reduce overhead costs is essential. On average, dealerships pay a holding cost of $32 per day for each vehicle that sits idle on their lot.

In addition, Dealertrack added that recent research demonstrates that vehicles holding a title are nearly twice as likely to sell on the first pass through auction than those without a title.

“At Westlake, we are committed to offering the most seamless financing solutions for dealers and consumers,” said Mark Vazquez, senior vice president for sales and marketing at Westlake Financial Holdings. “Using Dealertrack Accelerated Title enables us to process title releases more swiftly, allowing dealerships to turn their inventory more quickly and reduce their holding costs.

“In today’s margin-compressed environment, finding ways to save time and money for our dealer partners is the key to success, as we all strive to enhance the customer experience by streamlining the financing of their purchase for all parties involved,” Vazquez went on to say.

Dealertrack offers advanced finance company solutions and Accelerated Title is a powerful tool delivering increased speed, accuracy and consistency to vehicle payoffs. Dealertrack holds more than 53 million titles and processes more than 28,000 transactions per day to help finance companies originate installment contracts.

Accelerated Title can provide dealers with title visibility to ensure validity of the trade before the deal is finalized. The service empowers dealers with 24/7 title tracking, reporting and statements so they know exactly what's happening with every transaction. This solution can give dealers more control over their transactions, as the fully electronic process provides them with a reliable and accurate back-office operation.

“We are pleased to see Westlake Financial Services adopt Dealertrack Accelerated Title,” said Kaitlin Gavin, vice president and general manager of Dealertrack Registration and Title Solutions. “Our goal is to continue to increase efficiency and expedite the financing and titling process for dealers by working with lending partners who share our commitment to optimizing efficiency and profitability.”