Issue No. 1 | April 7, 2026

Intelligence for F&I agents, administrators, and dealership finance professionals.

THE NUMBER: 13.9%

Since August 2022, vehicle repair costs have risen 13.9% and maintenance costs 10.9% — compared to 5.6% for general inflation over the same period. Repair costs are running at more than twice the rate of broader price increases, and there’s no structural reason that gap closes anytime soon.

For F&I professionals, this is the data point that belongs in every VSC conversation at the desk. The customer’s implicit assumption — that a repair bill is manageable — is increasingly wrong. The math is working in your favor; the challenge is making sure your team is using it.

THE F&I ANGLE

Warranty and claims processing is the highest-ROI AI category in dealertech — and the least discussed. OEM claims involve 10–12 distinct claim types per manufacturer; an incorrect submission means rejection or delayed reimbursement. The leakage is material.

One documented deployment: 32% reduction in manually processed claims, 16% faster processing, and deficiencies identified jumped from 25% to 42% of claims reviewed. AI is catching fraud at nearly double the rate of manual review — flagging patterns no human reviewer working claim-by-claim would ever see.

For TPAs making this transition, it’s a fundamentally different business. Different margin profile, different retention, different growth trajectory.

FROM THE BLOG

Auto F&I reinsurance programs generate billions in underwriting profit annually — but the mechanics of how premiums, reserves, and claims development actually flow through the structure remain opaque to many participants. We published a primer covering core structure, how to read a ceding statement, and why contract performance timing matters to profitability.

THE DESK STAT

DMS write-back test:

One question separates production-grade AI from demo-ware: does it write confirmed appointments directly into your DMS without human handoff? If the answer is no, it’s not a real tool.

Until next Tuesday — 

Contact us here and tell us your biggest claims frequency or loss ratio challenge right now.