Dealer glossary
Spot delivery
Letting a customer take the vehicle home before the financing has been finally approved by the lender.
Definition
Also called delivering on the spot, conditional delivery
In a spot delivery the customer drives away on the day, before the lender has committed. Stores do it because momentum sells cars and a customer who has taken the car home rarely unwinds the deal.
The risk is that the financing does not come back as written. The deal then has to be restructured or the vehicle recovered, which is an unhappy conversation and sometimes a legal one.
Rules around it vary by state and it attracts regulatory attention. Whether and how to do it is a question for your compliance advisor.
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