Auto dealership owner reeling after CDK Global software outage wreaks havoc

Auto dealers and car shoppers across the nation have been rocked after software provider CDK Global fell victim to cyber incidents earlier in the week. 

The outages have pushed many, like Celebrity Motor Cars owner Tom Maoli, to revert back to old school ways for day-to-day operations.

Maoli, whose dealerships are based out of New Jersey, told FOX Business in a Friday interview that his team has been forced to turn to manual paperwork as they continue to sell vehicles and provide other services amid the chaos. 

"We’re doing it manually," he said. "That’s all you can do."

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CDK Global has reported two cyber incidents this week. The company temporarily took systems offline after the first one on Wednesday and did so again after the second occurred that evening. 

"We do not have an estimated time frame for resolution and therefore our dealer systems will not be available, likely for several days," CDK Global said Friday afternoon on a support line for customers. 

The manual workarounds for sales and repairs are taking Maoli’s dealerships "double or triple the amount of time," he told FOX Business. 

In addition to reverting to manual operations, Maoli said the CDK Global software outage was causing a problem where "we can’t process the financial side of the transaction." 

"It’s called funding the deals," he explained. "We can’t get the banks to fund the deals and get the information together. So no money is transacting, so obviously, at our dealerships it’s millions of dollars, but nationwide you’re talking billions."

"We can sell them [cars], but it’s very difficult because we can’t transact internally and when we can’t do that, it’s a major cash flow issue," he added.

AUTO DEALERS FACE SOFTWARE OUTAGE AFTER PROVIDER HIT BY CYBER INCIDENTS

When it comes to a customer getting their car serviced, Maoli said his auto group also "has to do everything manually," including putting together the repair order "so they can pay it."

"And then what happens is, when there’s parts that need to be used to repair the vehicle, there’s an inventory system within CDK and those parts are not being deducted from our systems so when we use parts out of our inventory, alerts won’t automatically go to the manufacturers to replenish us with those parts," he told FOX Business. "They’re not getting those alerts so the entire supply chain system is being shut down."

CDK Global spokesperson Lisa Finney told FOX Business on Thursday afternoon that CDK Global was working with third-party experts on determining the second cyber incident’s impact and regularly updating its customers.

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"We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible," she said at the time.

Separate follow-up inquiries to the company by FOX Business were not immediately returned Friday. 

The company’s customers include more than 15,000 retailer dealer locations across North America.