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No-one’s going to shout about it but the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) proposals on how GAP will be sold by car dealers are a lot less onerous than expected.
Furthermore, the proposals are set to benefit franchised dealers more than their car supermarket and independent counterparts.
The FCA’s move to introduce a four day opt-in gives franchised dealers the opportunity to build it into the period between agreeing the sale and handing over the vehicle.
Under the proposal the dealer can introduce the GAP policy on the day the car is sold but cannot conclude the deal with the buyer until four days later. The only exception will be for buyers who qualify, bizarrely, as “confident consumers” who want to sign the deal earlier.
For franchised dealers this should not be a problem as most car transactions are done over a number of days. However, those four days will be a challenge for many independents, especially the car supermarkets, operating on a sell and go basis.
The FCA said it is open to suggestions until March before introducing the regulations in September.
You have to wonder why the regulator opted not to follow through on its promised “shake-up” of the way GAP is sold. It makes you wonder if the FCA took a look and realised car dealers are doing a much better job at addressing the transparency issue than it expected.