André-Martin Hobbs, Author at DecisioningIT

Auto credit tightened. Now every deal at the desk costs more to get wrong

Equifax Canada’s latest numbers say out loud something dealers already feel. In the second quarter of 2026, the number of new auto loans opened fell 9.2% from a year earlier. Fewer loans. But the average new loan climbed from $34,713...

October 5, 2026

The sales recovery is back. The pressure on financing never left.

Canada’s new light-vehicle market had another good month in August. DesRosiers Automotive Consultants estimates that roughly 168,000 vehicles were sold, up 5.4% from about 160,000 in August 2025. That makes three consecutive months of year-over-year growth, with August posting the...

September 16, 2026

Subaru Is Launching Its Own Captive Finance Arm in Canada. Here Is What It Means for Dealers.

Automotive Finance Car Dealerships

Subaru Is Launching Its Own Captive Finance Arm in Canada. Here Is What It Means for Dealers.

DecisioningIT Blog, August 2026 On August 5, 2026, Subaru Corporation and Subaru Canada announced the creation of a captive finance subsidiary in Canada. The new entity will offer retail loans, leases and dealer inventory financing directly to Subaru customers and...

August 5, 2026

What Canadian Consumers Are Telling You Without Ever Walking Into Your Dealership

Consumer Credit Latest News

What Canadian Consumers Are Telling You Without Ever Walking Into Your Dealership

TransUnion has just released its Consumer Pulse study for the second quarter of 2026 (survey conducted April 29 to May 13, 2026, among 988 Canadian adults). As it does every quarter, the study measures household financial health, credit intentions and...

July 30, 2026

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗸𝗶𝗱𝘀.

Leave your VP of Marketing unsupervised for five minutes… …and suddenly there’s a 𝟯𝟯% 𝗢𝗙𝗙 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Apparently, I nodded “yes” during a meeting while thinking about something else. So… here we are. (𝑊𝘦’𝘳𝑒 𝑝𝘳𝑜𝘣𝑎𝘣𝑙𝘺 𝘯𝑜𝘵 𝘵ℎ𝘦 𝘰𝑛𝘭𝑦 𝑜𝘯𝑒𝘴 𝘸ℎ𝘰’𝘷𝑒 𝑒𝘷𝑒𝘳...

July 9, 2026

How Many Customers Are You Losing Before They Ever Reach F&I?

Automotive Finance Credit Approvals

How Many Customers Are You Losing Before They Ever Reach F&I?

Automotive dealers: what percentage of your customers are you leaving to used vehicle dealers who specialize in automotive financing? Most dealerships simply don’t know the answer. For nearly three years, I traveled across Canada meeting with executives from some of...

June 25, 2026

Artificial Intelligence Prequalification

𝑰𝑻 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑺𝑨𝑴

Nobody likes filling out a financing form. Not the customer, who finds it long and stressful. Not your web agent, who asks the same questions a hundred times a day. Not your F&I manager, who sometimes finds out too late...

May 8, 2026

The Gap Between Dealership Leads and Customer Needs

Consumer Credit Prequalification

The Gap Between Dealership Leads and Customer Needs

I love the contrast between what dealerships focus on and what customers actually need. Here’s what customers are feeling right now. If you have kids like I do, you already know: groceries, insurance, everything went up. So I’m not surprised...

April 17, 2026

Otogo Adds Financing Prequalification to Its Platform in Partnership with DecisioningIT

Montreal, March 9, 2026 — Otogo and DecisioningIT have announced a new partnership that will enable dealerships to receive prospects already engaged in the financing process. Through this integration, visitors to Otogo.ca can now complete a financing prequalification request directly...

March 9, 2026

Uncategorized

More AI. Less Tolerance.

2026 Is Becoming the Year of Structure in Automotive Financing Over the past two months, automotive finance has entered a new phase. AI is everywhere — in CRM systems, desking tools, lead handling, digital retail flows.Everything feels faster. At the...

February 23, 2026