Dealership Snapshot
Safeway Auto Finance
The Challenge: Evaluating Risk Beyond a Credit Score
For car dealerships serving subprime customers, success depends on one critical question: Which customers can qualify and purchase a car?
Safeway Auto Finance in Griffith, Indiana has a wide range of customers. According to Sales Manager, Omar Latif, “We have a mix of good credit and subprime buyers.” Of the subprime car buyers, many have had prior repossessions, limited credit history, thin files, or credit challenges that make traditional auto lenders hesitant to approve them.
So, the challenge isn’t simply finding customers. The challenge is determining which customers can qualify and purchase a car, and which may not fit current risk criteria.
- Dealer
Omar Latif
- Location
Griffith, IN
- Customer Focus
Subprime and Non‑prime vehicle buyers
- Vehicles Sold Every Month
6 Additional Sales
- Time in Program
1+ years
- Deals Completed
250+
Traditional auto lending models frequently make decisions using a limited set of credit indicators. As a result, dealers often see customers turned away despite having characteristics that suggest they may be capable of successfully maintaining a vehicle loan. According to Omar, many auto lenders simply don’t see what makes those customers viable.
This creates a performance challenge for dealerships. Without clear visibility into risk, auto dealers are forced to rely heavily on instinct, limited data, or lender decisions that may not tell the whole story of an applicant.
Looking Beyond Traditional Underwriting
When Safeway Auto Finance partnered with Agora Data, one of the first things that stood out was the company’s AI-driven approach. Rather than relying entirely on conventional lending practices, Agora evaluates additional data points that help create a broader view of the applicant.
From Omar’s perspective, this approach consistently identifies opportunities that other finance companies miss.
He went on to note that Agora analyzes information that many lenders either don’t have access to or don’t prioritize in their approval process.
The result is a systematic approach that helps uncover strong opportunities within a customer base that traditional auto lenders often struggle to evaluate accurately.
Solving the Visibility Problem
For Safeway Auto Finance, one of the most valuable aspects of the AI-powered Agora platform is its ability to evaluate customers whose financial stories extend beyond a single credit score.
According to Omar, Agora performs particularly well with:
- Thin-file customers.
- First-time buyers.
- Applicants with limited traditional credit history.
- Customers who may be overlooked by conventional underwriting models.
This comprehensive evaluation matters because these borrowers often fall into a gray area. A traditional score may suggest an elevated risk, while additional data may reveal a more complete and favorable picture.
Rather than treating every nontraditional borrower the same, the Agora approach gives auto dealers greater confidence that approvals are based on a fuller understanding of the customer.
"Your AI models seem to come in a clutch for customers who didn't really have any other options."
Omar Latif
Safeway Auto Finance
Greater Confidence in Approval Decisions
For dealers, performance isn’t just measured by approvals. It is measured by the quality of decisions being made.
When asked about his confidence in Agora Data and its AI models, Omar expressed a strong belief that the platform identifies creditworthy opportunities within customer segments that many auto lenders traditionally avoid. He repeatedly referenced situations where Agora provided offers to customers who had no alternatives elsewhere.
This creates a meaningful advantage at the dealership level:
- Access to creditworthy opportunities that might otherwise be missed
- Greater confidence in evaluating customer risk
- More focus on viable opportunities
Rather than guessing whether a customer represents a worthwhile risk, the team has access to a decisioning process specifically designed around the realities of the subprime buyer and market.
The value extends beyond approvals themselves. It also helps the car dealership spend more time working viable opportunities and less time pursuing deals with little chance of success.
Turning Better Decisions Into Better Performance
Improved visibility into risk has been translated into a measurable business impact.
At its strongest point, Omar estimates Agora is helping the dealership sell an additional 6 to 10 vehicles per month.
While increased sales volume is important, Omar consistently attributes much of that success to Agora’s ability to recognize opportunities that other lenders miss. Customers who might otherwise have been declined have received financing offers because the Agora decisioning process identified factors supporting approval.
And these approvals have an even bigger impact.
“That excitement reverberates in that person’s community because they’re like, look who got a car. And then those referrals come to us."
Omar Latif
Risk Visibility
More confidence in lending decisions
Qualified Buyers
Approved through AI-powered decisioning
6-10 Extra Sales
Per month at peak performance
An Easier Auto Financing Process for Dealers
Performance isn’t only about algorithms. It also depends on operational consistency.
Omar describes Agora as one of the easiest to work with because expectations are clear, and approvals are straightforward. When a deal is approved, dealership staff knows what to expect and can move forward efficiently.
"It's straightforward, you know which cars are going to qualify, you know which customers are going to qualify, and the deals are done quickly."
- Omar Latif
This clarity reduces friction, improves workflow, and helps sales teams focus on customers instead of navigating inconsistent approval processes.
Continuing to Improve Through Partnership
Safeway Auto Finance is excited to see where its partnership with Agora will take the dealership. “We do like the Agora program a lot,” Omar said. “We greatly value that lifetime partnership very much. That’s why we always try to go with Agora.”
Even more importantly, he sees the Agora platform’s AI capabilities as a critical component of the dealership’s long-term success.
For a business built around serving customers that traditional auto lenders often overlook, better visibility into risk helps the dealership:
- Make smarter decisions
- Serve more customers
- Build confidence in every deal
This additional insight creates a competitive advantage that extends beyond approvals and sales.
Bottom Line
For Safeway Auto Finance, the greatest performance challenge has never been finding customers. It has been identifying which customers can be given an opportunity when traditional data tells only part of the story.
By leveraging AI-driven decisioning, alternative data insights, and models tailored to the subprime market, Agora helps the dealership see opportunities others miss. The result is greater confidence in approvals, improved visibility into risk, and stronger overall dealership performance.
“Agora AI data is pretty well tuned to a dealership’s target market.” That single statement from Omar captures the essence of the partnership: helping auto dealers make better decisions through better information.