Car dealerships hit with second day of massive computer system outage

A second cyber incident at data provider CDK Global, whose software is used at 15,000 auto dealers, continued to slow operations to a near-standstill Thursday at US and Canada dealerships, the company said in a message sent to dealers.

On Wednesday, CDK spokesperson Lisa Finney said in a statement shared with CNN: “We are actively investigating a cyber incident. Out of an abundance of caution and concern for our customers, we have shut down most of our systems and are working diligently to get everything up and running as quickly as possible.”

Later that day the company announced that most of the critical computer systems were back online. But Thursday morning, the company sent dealerships another message indicating things had a taken a turn for the worse.

“Dear Valued Customers, We are sorry to inform you that we experienced an additional cyber incident late in the evening on June 19th,” the Illinois-based company wrote in a message sent to car dealers. “Out of continued caution and to protect our customers, we are once again proactively shutting down most of our systems.”

At a minimum, the message said, computer systems would be down all day Thursday.

A screenshot of the message was shared with CNN by an auto dealer who asked not to be named in order to protect their relationship with CDK.

A CDK spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Thursday morning.

CDK operates numerous different products that car dealers use to handle things like keeping records of negotiated deals to scheduling and communicating about service. Not every dealer uses CDK’s products, and even those that do may not use them for everything, but the system shutdown has been a problem for many.

“We have customers coming in today who had deals saved in the system,” said Jeff Ramsey, an executive with Ourisman Auto Group, which is headquartered in Maryland.

To protect customer privacy, customers’ details aren’t written out on a piece of paper that’s just sitting on a desk anymore. Instead, information about deals and customer appointments is kept in a server that’s now impossible for his salespeople to access.

How this affects buying a car now

Ramsey said he understands, though, that CDK is doing what it feels it must to secure this sensitive data. But it’s a major hassle in the meantime and could cost his dealerships some business. Customers who are delayed in closing a sale at one of his dealerships could just find a dealer nearby that’s not having these issues and buy a new vehicle there, instead.

It’s car buying season, so it’s a real concern.

“We’re in the summer months,” he said. “This is where we need systems functioning.”

Ramsey and Brian Benstock, general manager of Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura in Long Island City, New York, both said they were continuing to do business and were selling cars in spite of the problems.

“My selling team can hand-write a buyer’s order,” said Benstock.

But salespeople could lack access to customer agreements that had been previously negotiated, making it harder to close those sales, dealers CNN spoke with said. There’s more than just the negotiated price of the car involved, since these agreements can involve rebates and incentives, some of which customers must show they’re qualified for.

Not just car sales, but parts and service can also be disrupted.

The bigger hassles will be for the dealership’s accountants and businesspeople, Benstock said. Plenty of his employees have been in this business since before it became networked and computer dependent, he said, but it’s still a problem and he’s still worried about customer data.