Startline will showcase its new ‘flexible prime’ motor finance product Finishline for the first time at Automotive Management Live 2017.

Finishline is targeted at good quality used car buyers who narrowly fail to meet the company’s lending criterea.

Startline said that the product “aims to be priced more fairly than certain sub-prime lenders where these customers may otherwise be placed”.

Automotive Management Live, which takes place at Birmingham NEC on 9th November, provides the Startline team, at stand A12, their first opportunity to explain how its new Finishline product has been developed in response to a changing finance market.

Startline’s chief executive Paul Burgess said: “Finishline is an important extension of our product portfolio and Automotive Management Live gives us the opportunity to talk to dealers about the need for a diverse lending panel in a changing finance market.

“The quality of dealers at AM events is very high and our experience tells us dealers are keen to discuss how finance providers can help them meet new consumer requirements in an increasingly complex borrowing landscape.

"We are no longer operating in a market where black and white criteria can be applied when making lending decisions.

“Quite often good quality applicants find themselves slightly below the lending benchmark for a multitude of reasons such as increasing levels of home rental rather than ownership or changing work patterns.

“Consequently, they either forgo the car and the dealer loses the customer or they have no choice but to fund the vehicle using typically more expensive sub-prime lenders.

“In our view this isn’t treating these customers fairly and the sector was crying out for a product to meet this demand."

Startline has established itself as one of the leading finance companies in the near prime market and sits behind the prime finance panel of many AM100 car retailers.

Croissants and coffee will also be available on the stand and visitors can enter the company’s free competition for a weekend break for two at the famous Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland.

Automotive Management Live includes a range of best practice sessions and insight theatre sessions which focus on new data protection laws GDPR, used cars and F&I.

In addition, more than 100 industry suppliers are on hand in the main exhibition hall enabling delegates to compare a host of products and services on the market today.