F&I Experience Bolsters the Purchase Process in March

Spring is here along with warmer weather and car buyers found car buying more pleasant in March. After a few winter months of bumpy feedback, the overall CDK Ease of Purchase Score hit 88% in March. That’s up from 81% in February and right in line with last March’s 89%. It’s also far above the 84% average from 2025 where end-of-year disruptions hit the buying experience hard.

These results also come just as tax refunds are starting to reach car shoppers. Refunds are expected to be about 10% higher than last year and filers with children could see even more significant returns. Having more cash in hand may alleviate some of the stress in the Finance department, which is where we see some of the lowest experience scores in the purchase process.

That could explain why 69% said it was easy to discuss and agree on a final price. This result is up significantly from 58% in February and outpaces the average over the past three years of the CDK Ease of Purchase Scorecard. It’s also just one percentage point shy of the highest number we saw in October 2025.

The F&I process overall saw a rebound with similar large gains for selecting additional products in the F&I office as well as the steps to finalize the deal including the signing process. Those responses saw monthly gains of 11 and 12 percentage points respectively and beat the averages of the past three years.

One respondent told us that completing the deal in under an hour was a huge positive. In terms of time spent, more people did say it took less time than expected, moving 13% in February to 18% in March. However, there was a small tick up in those who said it took more time than expected, landing at 28%. Both are below their 2025 average and illustrate there’s more work to be done in terms of front office efficiency.

Car buyers also visited fewer stores despite a drop in those who said they found the car they wanted in stock. Both numbers moved slightly but this may suggest dealers are improving in terms of selling cars in transit or from the factory as some manufacturers have very lean supplies of popular models. More than three-quarters (78%) visited one or two stores compared to 74% last month. The number of people who had to visit 4+ stores grew slightly from 6% in February to 8% in March. One respondent said they found the right car at the right price at the fifth dealership they visited. Yet, they were still positive about the overall experience.

Customer Feedback

Much of the positive feedback from customers revolved around transparency and staff knowledge: 

• “I got an expert to handle the whole process. His explanations made the walkthrough very easy process.”
• “Better communication, less waiting and more transparency about fees and trade-in value.”
• “Confidence grows when the team can answer questions quickly and accurately.”

On the opposite end of the spectrum, negative comments focused on a lack of transparency around pricing as well as budget concerns:

• “The dealerships would not give us any prices over the phone to see what we could look at in our budget and we did not want to sit at the dealership all day and haggle with prices because they do not listen to what you say to them.”
• “There was limited transparency on pricing and sometimes confusing, need to buy add-ons, inconsistent information between salespersons and Finance office and attempt to close a deal quickly by salespersons.”
• “Trying to find the right car for the right price was difficult again.”

If historic trends repeat, this should be the first of more positive spring and summer months in terms of consumer experience at the dealership. It’ll be important to see if the month-to-month data outpaces what we saw in 2025.