Car Dealerships Averted Financial Disaster with CDK’s Successful Software Restoration: What it Means for Dealers and Buyers

CDK Global has successfully restored its core management system to most of the nearly 15,000 car dealerships in North America that were affected by a cyber incident. The outage began on June 19 and impacted CDK’s systems across the continent.

Car dealerships rely on CDK’s software to manage various aspects of their operations, including scheduling and records. The incident could have resulted in significant financial losses for car dealerships if it had continued. If the outage lasted a full three weeks, it could have led to about $944 million in direct losses due to business interruptions for affected car dealers.

The progress made by CDK in restoring its software is an encouraging sign that operations can soon return to normal for car dealerships across North America. Although CDK had been working on restoring its software, car buyers and dealers were still at a standstill for days, making it difficult for dealers to track customer interactions, orders, and sales, which impacted their ability to earn income. For example, Bernard Irvin, a salesperson at a Ford dealership in South Carolina expressed concerns about the outage affecting payroll at his dealership.